Lakeport Promenade creates path for WOW Trail future

LAKEPORT — Developer Scott Everett is making improvements to the WOW Trail, and moving forward with construction of the Lakeport Promenade, a greenspace near Lake Opechee, and construction is underway. 

“It’s all part of the WOW Trail expansion,” Everett said in a phone interview last week.

Ostensibly meant to improve safety along the WOW Trail in Lakeport, where its existing terminus is located, the project will work to connect the trail to the planned Opechee Loop, an extension which will eventually ring the lake. At present, the WOW Trail connects Lakeport to downtown, and extends toward Belmont.

The Opechee Loop project, once complete, will add about 6 miles of trail for recreational and transportation options to walkers, runners, cyclists and other residents and visitors to the city. It will include on-street enhancements, bike lanes, and improved or widened sidewalks.

It’s a collaborative project — Everett is working with the city, primarily Public Works Director Nate Guerette, and Michelle DuPont, owner of Lake Opechee Inn and Spa, who made the space available to allow for this phase of the WOW Trail expansion.

“The WOW Trail has been a fabulous addition to the city, and our customers have really appreciated having this amenity so close to our inn,” said Dupont, in a media release. “We’re excited with the plans for the Opechee Loop and happy to help make this promenade section happen.” 

“The city really got behind this one,” Everett said on April 2. “I was very pleased with that.”

Residents and motorists may have noticed significant construction work occurring in Lakeport Square in recent weeks. Work there began in early March, to backfill the slope on the parking lot side of the sidewalk across from 51 Elm St., to make it level with Union Avenue and Elm Street.

While the original plan called for widening the existing sidewalk for the Opechee Loop, between Doris Ray Court and the WOW Trail terminus, which is located roughly at the intersection of Elm and Union, trail users traveling to or from Lakeport neighborhoods will now be able to enter or exit the trail at Doris Ray. A 10-foot-wide, paved pathway will connect directly to the existing WOW Trail.

“The trail will be a lot safer this way,” Everett said. Cyclists won’t have to ride by the post at the end of the trail, and negotiate the curb and narrow sidewalk alongside street traffic. A new pedestrian crossing will be constructed near the entrance to Doris Ray, where the sidewalk was widened in 2025, for safe crossing to businesses located on Elm.

“The focus is the continued beautification of Lakeport,” Everett said in the release. “Clearly, this is another huge step towards that goal. I’m on a mission to make Lakeport great."

The Lakeport Promenade will include sitting benches with views of Opechee, and might include a gazebo, too.

“We want to make it a beautiful and functional space,” Everett said in the release.

The WOW Trail organization itself committed $100,000 toward the promenade project. That organization is working with the city, the state and Pillsbury Realty Development — the group which plans to redevelop the Laconia State School property along Parade Road — to find the best route to connect through the proposed development, and into neighboring Ahern Park.

“We believe the promenade section will be a beautiful upgrade to our original plans of widening the sidewalk at this section,” said Allan Beetle, president of the WOW Trail, in the release.  “We are also planning to sell personalized, engraved bricks and benches once the hardscape and landscape improvements are finalized to help fund this exciting project. It will be a great opportunity for the community to join in.”

At present, the Winnipesaukee Opechee Winnisquam, or WOW, and Winnisquam Scenic trails in Laconia and Belmont are 4.25 miles long, and the Opechee Loop would increase the length of the combined trails to almost 10 miles. The cost of the Opechee Loop project is expected to exceed $1 million. City leaders and representatives of the WOW Trail organization intend to identify opportunities to reduce costs by combining sidewalk improvement construction with other roadway repairs, as they did along the Elm Street bridge with a widened sidewalk section. 

The city is also approved for a federal Transportation Alternatives Program grant, which will help to offset the costs for street repairs and sidewalk improvements from Franklin Street to Elm Street School. Work is planned for 2028 or 2029.  

Councilors authorized former City Manager Scott Meyers to submit a grant application to the New Hampshire Department of Transportation for pedestrian accessibility improvements along Elm Street on March 8, 2021. The city was later approved for the grant.

In January 2025, councilors signed their approval to apply for and accept another federal TAP grant for segments of the proposed Opechee Loop extension.

Future segments of the Opechee Loop will be planned by the city, with the WOW Trail organization assisting with engineering planning and funding, including identifying grants and community fundraising opportunities. Everett intends to host a fundraising event at the Lakeport Opera House to help defray the costs of construction.

Councilors unanimously approved bonding in the amount of $610,000 for the construction of Opechee Loop Section A, on June 9. The total cost of the project, including deck repairs to the Elm Street Bridge, was $935,000. The project received $225,000 in grant funding through the Northern Borders Regional Commission, and $100,000 from Belknap County. The remainder was approved through bonding.

Beetle told councilors, in December 2024, a large bike path connecting to the existing trail at the northern terminus would circle Lake Opechee and its neighborhoods, eventually providing a vehicle-free pathway to the Lakeport trailhead, and to the point downtown where the trail joins with the Belmont path.