Seeking to make more widely usable a new trail at Waveny, public works officials said Wednesday night that they’re hoping to partner with a nonprofit organization that’s dedicated to ensuring that the park continues to thrive and serve New Canaanites.
The new trail running from the main road through Waveny down to Lapham Community Center is not traversable for baby strollers, limiting its use, some say. Credit: Michael Dinan
The Waveny Park Conservancy—a group that’s already created a pair of popular new trails—would like to see every trail in the park use its high-quality mix as a top layer for New Canaanites to trod as they pass, according to Tiger Mann, director of the Department of Public Works.
Yet that mix is “very expensive” as such materials go, and in order to purchase enough to cover a long new trail that runs from the main road through Waveny toward Lapham Community Center, some help is needed, Mann told members of the Park & Recreation Commission at their regular monthly meeting.
With the town working on a regularly approved budget of about $50,000 for such projects, “we are going to need a little help from the conservancy,” Mann said at the meeting, held at Lapham Community Center.
Originally requested two years ago by Recreation Director Steve Benko, the trail garnered support from New Canaan’s funding bodies and received approval for a $43,000 contract from the selectmen in October. It runs just north of the access road to Lapham Community Center, though recent weather has made it difficult to traverse.
“What happened was, the weather was very dry and it was a processed stone mix and all the sudden the first rain we got was a 2-inch rainfall” that washed away its top layer of rocks, Benko said.
During a review of the proposed Recreation Department budget for fiscal year 2018, Park & Rec Chair Sally Campbell wondered whether the group should “put money in the budget now to properly finish the trail.”
“This trail was a great idea, except you cannot take a baby stroller on the trail and people are not going to run on that trail,” Campbell said.
She added: “I think we should make sure the trail gets finished properly.”
Mann said there’s a less expensive mix that would do the job of making the trail walkable, including for those pushing baby strollers, though not with the very same mix that the Conservancy favors (that would cost about $30,000 more, he said).
Campbell said making it usable was a priority.
“That was purpose of it,” Mann said. “The purpose was to get people off of the road.”