Start at Kraine Meadow Park on Playground Drive and head down the Neck. You'll have a pathway beside you for a little over two miles. Then, near Kona Farm Road, it ends. For almost two miles after that you're on the road shoulder with the traffic. The pathway starts again just past Jo-Jo's Country Store and the Moultonborough Neck Fire Station and keeps going toward the lake.
That gap has been there since July 2007, when the second section opened. The Town of Moultonborough scheduled crews to start filling it the week of October 19, weather permitting, according to a public notice posted October 9 and updated October 14. Phase III doesn't make the pathway much longer. It connects the two sections that already exist. For the first time, the town's playground complex and its Long Island beach would be joined by one continuous path.
Two Pathways That Were Always Meant to Be One
From the start, the Neck pathway was planned as one route built in three pieces. The town's 2021 grant application to the New Hampshire Department of Transportation gives the history of the first two phases.
| Segment | Where it runs | Funded | Completed | Opened | Approximate cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phase I | 2.5 miles, starting just past Jo-Jo's Country Store and the Neck Fire Station | Federal Transportation Enhancement funds, 1999 | Fall 2003 | May 29, 2004 | $350,000, including $280,000 in federal funds |
| Phase II | About 12,300 feet along both sides of Neck Road, Playground Drive to Kona Road | Federal Transportation Enhancement funds, 2003 | Fall 2006 | July 14, 2007 | $492,000, including $392,000 in federal funds |
| Phase III | About 9,800 feet, Kona Farm Road to just past Jo-Jo's | Final funding not yet published | Construction scheduled to begin week of October 19, 2026 | Not yet announced | Not yet announced |
Taken together, those figures come to roughly 6.7 miles of pathway along one road. The application calls Phase III "the third and final phase." It says the finished pathway will form "one pathway from the Moultonborough Recreation Area to the Long Island Beach," which is one of the town's two beaches.
Local money paid for part of all this. The same document says taxpayers and private contributors funded the first two phases. It says more than $150,000 in private money has been raised since 2000. That effort started with citizen demand and grew into the Moultonborough Pathway Association.
Why the Middle Took the Longest
The section built last is the section the town describes as needing it most. The application calls this stretch a "heavily traveled and narrow section of Moultonborough Neck Road." It says the town's Master Plan lists the Neck pathway as a key priority in its transportation chapter.
The traffic numbers show why. The town's application says weekday traffic on this corridor tops 7,000 vehicles a day between May 1 and October 30, and doubles on weekends. The application also explains much of the traffic. The Town Playground Complex sits at one end of Neck Road and the Town Beach at the other, and people driving between those two busy places add to the volume. The town's goal is to give those trips a safe option on foot or by bike, and the missing middle is the part that has kept that from working.
Funding the last piece has taken several tries. As of March 2021, the town had $221,791 in a fund set aside for Phase III. That year it asked NHDOT's Transportation Alternatives Program for $560,000 toward a $700,000 project, with the town covering the remaining $140,000. On the state's prioritized list dated September 1, 2021, the request ranked 27th. In October 2025, the town's Capital Improvements Program Committee recommended a different approach. It suggested using $250,000 from the Dr. Richard Ames Fund to build Phase III and moving about $245,000 from the Phase III reserve to the municipal building fund. The committee noted that this would still leave around $35,000 for long-term pathway maintenance. Those were a grant request and a committee recommendation. The town hasn't yet published the final funding package or the contract.
Where the New Stretch Runs
According to the 2021 application, Phase III starts where Phase II ends, at Kona Farm Road. The Phase II record calls the same spot Kona Road. From there it runs along the eastbound lane on the south side of Moultonborough Neck Road and ends where Phase I begins, just past Jo-Jo's Country Store at 934 Moultonboro Neck Road and the Moultonborough Neck Fire Station.
There's one exception to the roadside route. At the start of Phase III, the path is planned to leave Neck Road for a short run on School House Hill Road. Most of the rest is planned right beside Neck Road. If you've walked from the Kona end toward the store, you've walked the stretch about to change.
Jo-Jo's is the meeting point, not just a landmark. Once the gap closes, people starting from Kraine Meadow Park and people coming up from the Long Island end will have one continuous path to the same store.
Driving the Neck This Fall
The town's notice is short. Here's what it says, for anyone driving the Neck in the coming weeks:
- Work happens along the road shoulder, which is where the pathway will go.
- Neck Road stays open, but it may drop to one lane through the work zone.
- Expect some delays. Leave a few extra minutes, especially if you're catching a boat or getting to work on time.
- Start dates depend on the weather. In a Lakes Region fall, that can move a schedule in either direction.
- The notice gives no completion date. For questions, contact Chris Theriault, Director of Public Works, at 253-7445 or [email protected]. The department is at 68 Highway Garage Road.
Timing helps a little. The construction start falls just before the end of the May-through-October window when the town's application counts the heaviest weekday traffic.
What Sits at Each End
The two ends of the pathway are the reason it's worth connecting.
At the north end, the town's facilities guide lists Kraine Meadow Park at 20 Playground Drive. It has playgrounds, tennis, basketball, pickleball and bocce courts, softball and soccer fields, sand volleyball, two pavilions, restrooms with wash stations, and a winter ice rink. Parking there doesn't require a permit. That makes it an easy place to leave the car and start walking or riding.
At the south end, Long Island Beach is at the end of Moultonborough Neck Road, on the right just after the bridge. The town guide describes the Point there as a low-impact passive recreation area with picnic tables, benches, nature walks and viewpoints. The town requires beach parking permits only from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Residents and property owners get them at Town Hall. The guide also says pets and alcohol aren't allowed at either town beach. The guide is undated, so check current rules with the town before a visit.
Don't confuse Long Island Beach with the town's other beach. State's Landing Beach is off Route 109 at the end of States Landing Road, not on the Neck, and the town lists it as an ongoing multi-phase project of its own.
Once Phase III is finished, the playground complex and the beach at the far end of the Neck will be connected by a single path along the road between them. The town has planned for that since Phase I.
At Mulligan Property Group, we follow projects like the Neck Road pathway because they shape how daily life works on the Neck, from the drive to the beach to the walk to Jo-Jo's. If you own on Moultonborough Neck or are thinking about what this corridor will be like once the path is complete, we'd be glad to talk it through. Schedule a private consultation.
