Saying pipes will need to run to South Avenue from a planned power station behind New Canaan High School, the town’s highest elected official said he is in favor of laying that route by creating a new road through a wooded portion of Waveny Park.
Such a road also would help ease traffic at the school—a hurdle in creating a workable busing system as part the district’s efforts to start high school later, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said during a press briefing last week.
“We have to bring the pipes from the power plant behind the high school that we are going to build over to Saxe and the YMCA,” Moynihan said during the briefing held Thursday in his Town Hall. “It would be logical to bring it through that area and it is not wetlands. It can be done. If you are going to put pipes underground, you might as well put a road through there, if you choose to.”
Moynihan has promoted creating a fuel cell micro-grid as a way to obtain savings for New Canaan on electricity.
Referring to a proposal from several years ago that was scuttled after facing criticism from those opposed to development in the park, he added, “Remember when they proposed the Board of Ed building be built there, in the rear? There is space that is not wetlands. I looked at it as a possibility for an athletic field if we are going to use the Saxe field for other purposes. So there are various things that could be done to help that traffic flow.”
The idea of creating the new road through Waveny’s “panhandle” had not been made public before or discussed with district officials, Moynihan said.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi during a Board of Education meeting last week said officials are discussing whether traffic congestion at NCHS may be eased by creating a new road connecting the rear parking lot (past the tennis courts) with a newly paved Waveny lot (near the longtime Summer Theatre of New Canaan site).
I am appalled at the thought of erecting a building on the Saxe field, which is one of the most high-profile sites in New Canaan and puts on display the values of our town. By what logic does that strikingly beautiful open space become a place to build a police station? Apparently, the same logic that is used to justify building a “road” across one of the unspoiled sections of our magnificent Waveny Park. I cannot believe the town would support either initiative.
The wooded buffer between NCHS and South Avenue has all kinds of sensible restrictions on it, both physical and legal, and I don’t see how paving a road through the middle of it can (or even should) be pursued. Waveny should never be divided, swapped, diminished, leased, or in any part given away for development.
I agree 100% with Cam. I (and dozens, if not hundreds of taxpapyers) worked with him leading the way to keep a BOE admin building out of Waveny Park. In a referendum that followed, Dick Bond (then first selectman) and his followers were soundly trounced and the idea disappeared.
Kevin should note that that this loss for Bond was one of the beginning downfalls for Bond’s eventual departure as first selectmen … when, from reliable sources, the Republican “mafia” at the time went to his office and let him know that he wasn’t running any more! Let the lesson be learned.
Betsy, in an earlier edition of New Canaanite:
“New Canaan may consider building a new police station on the Saxe Middle School baseball diamond adjacent to the YMCA, according to the town’s highest elected official (Kevin Moynihan).
The possibility for a new police headquarters there for an estimated $16 million represents a third option, according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan.”
His idea is to sell the current Police Station to a developer for senior housing.
Who is paying for the proposed new power station behind the High School???
This would be a town project, though officials are eyeing state grant money to help fund it. It is to be discussed at tonight’s Board of Finance meeting, which will be televised.
Paving Waveny – how many lanes and at what cost? What a boom time for government building schemes.