By Marianne Campolongo
The hamlet of Millwood, which just celebrated its 200th Anniversary in 2018, boasts extensive shopping, many choices for both casual and fine dining, and New Castle’s largest and most popular year-round recreation area, the 126-acre Gedney Park, which offers fun and memory making opportunities for the entire family.
Every April, Gedney Pond is stocked with over 500 rainbow, brook and golden trout for fishing throughout the spring, summer and fall. There’s even an annual fishing derby, where anglers age six to 60+ can catch their own dinner and compete for prizes. Come winter, you will find the best sledding hill in town there, and if you don’t have a sled, you can buy one at the large sporting goods store just down the road. There is also a large playground and ballfields. A gazebo and picnic tables interspersed throughout the park are great for snack time or a picnic lunch.
Four miles of well-marked hiking trails meander through wetlands and woods, providing shade for spring and summer hikes, breathtaking colors when the leaves change in autumn, and a fun trek in snowy winter weather. A handicapped accessible paved path runs from the parking lot to a fishing pier on the pond. The path to the monument remembering those lost on 9/11 is also handicapped accessible. A ceremony to remember the three town residents as well as all the others lost that day is held there each year.
The park is also dog-friendly, allowing your furry friends to be off-leash along the trails and to even swim in the pond and streams during designated morning hours; they are permitted on-leash at all times.
The 22-mile North County Trailway runs through Millwood providing a safe and scenic paved path where you will often find friends biking, roller blading or strolling, and see New Castle’s bicycle cops making sure no stragglers need help. A portion of the path runs parallel to Millwood Plaza, a shopping center anchored by the new family-owned DeCicco & Sons grocery store. You can also do your banking, pick up prescriptions or sunscreen, toys and gifts, wine, stop for lunch, or get your nails done there. Millwood also has its own post office in that convenient location. A short walk around the corner brings you to Millwood Town Plaza with an eco-friendly cleaners, jeweler, specialty foods store, a spa and hair salon, and fine dining options.
Across the street, Millwood Park has tennis courts and more ballfields, conveniently located near a family-owned deli, which has been serving customers throughout the area since 1961; other stores and businesses in the hamlet have been run by the same families for 40 years or more.
A lumberyard, hardware store and garden center are a boon for all you DIYers. Whether or not you are an experienced gardener, you can join a team at the InterGenerate Community Garden to grow vegetables for yourself and for those who cannot afford fresh produce.
Want someone to do the work for you? It’s easy to find a plumber, veterinarian, tech center, movers, a limo service, and other business in Millwood as well as the nearby West End neighborhood. For those lucky enough to live in the Hidden Hollow neighborhood, there is a sandy beach and swimming pond for its residents. In the West End of town, beautiful Stillwater Lake offers swimming and boating for neighborhood residents. Additional recreation choices in the West End include ballfields at Amsterdam Park, hiking and cross-country skiing at Sunny Ridge Preserve, and the Hudson Hills Golf Course, a public course high in the hills with lovely scenic views.
Across the street, Millwood Park has tennis courts and more ballfields, conveniently located near a family-owned deli, which has been serving customers throughout the area since 1961; other stores and businesses in the hamlet have been run by the same families for 40 years or more.
A lumberyard, hardware store and garden center are a boon for all you DIYers. Whether or not you are an experienced gardener, you can join a team at the InterGenerate Community Garden to grow vegetables for yourself and for those who cannot afford fresh produce.
Want someone to do the work for you? It’s easy to find a plumber, veterinarian, tech center, movers, a limo service, and other business in Millwood as well as the nearby West End neighborhood. For those lucky enough to live in the Hidden Hollow neighborhood, there is a sandy beach and swimming pond for its residents. In the West End of town, beautiful Stillwater Lake offers swimming and boating for neighborhood residents. Additional recreation choices in the West End include ballfields at Amsterdam Park, hiking and cross-country skiing at Sunny Ridge Preserve, and the Hudson Hills Golf Course, a public course high in the hills with lovely scenic views.
Call me a curmudgeon but I was deeply disappointed when the groundhog said we wouldn’t have an early spring this year. I know I’m supposed to relish these last few weeks of winter but frankly I don’t. We aren’t a skiing or snowboarding family so the thought of more snow, icy roads and school closures is enough to drive me batty and have me counting the days until the official start of spring.
