Government

Parks Officials Propose 2017 Waveny Pool Rates

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Parks officials on Wednesday voted unanimously to recommend a new slate of fees for the popular Waveny Pool for the 2017 season. The proposed rates include modest increases for all types of passes at the self-sustaining facility, except for senior residents, who would pay $20 less. The pool was “very solid financially last summer,” Parks & Recreation Commission Chair Sally Campbell said during the group’s regular meeting at Lapham Community Center. “Our family passes went way up last year, which is why we decided not to raise the fees [by as much], because we thought it was just right,” Campbell said. Here’s a year-over-year breakdown of the new proposed rates.

Government

Town Officials Look To Help Motorists Navigate Confusing Traffic Island in Mead Park

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Town officials want to install some type of traffic control measure in Mead Park—signage or possibly painting the road—to help motorists navigate the hugely confusing island near the pond. A ‘Keep Right’ sign should be installed on the traffic island, and ‘Slow’ or ‘15 mph’ should be painted on the road through Mead, according to members of the Park & Recreation Commission subcommittee that helps oversee the popular spot. “I’m not sure what the traffic flow is supposed to be, and I’m pretty sure nobody else does, either,” commissioner Katie Owsley said during the group’s May 11 meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. Owsley said she observed numerous cars negotiating the traffic island differently during a recent visit. According to Recreation Director Steve Benko, Mead allowed for two-way traffic up until about 25 years ago, when the town made it one way.

Government

‘We Would Have To Know That You Have the Money’: Parks Officials Stop Short of Supporting Plan To Finish WWII Memorial Walk at Mead Park

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Though they conceded that a footbridge in Mead Park is structurally unsound and that a proposal to finish and maintain an area memorializing New Canaan’s World War II vets is nice, parks officials say greater detail is needed in order to support the plan more than conceptually. Private funds would be used to build an estimated $37,000, second bridge over the main in-flow to Mead Pond at one end of the “Gold Star Walk,” as well as to ensure that trees dedicated to New Canaanites who perished during WWII are healthy. Yet the Park & Recreation Commission needs a detailed cost estimate and assurances that private monies are in place to repair an existing footbridge, according to Sally Campbell, the group’s chairman. “We cannot approve anything unless we really see a firm plan,” Campbell told local landscape architect Keith Simpson during the commission’s Feb. 10 meeting, held in the Douglas Room at Lapham Community Center.

Government

‘This Is Really Dangerous’: New Trail Proposed To Get Pedestrians Off Main Road through Waveny

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Officials say they’re planning to extend a trail in Waveny that starts near the South Avenue entrance and follows the park’s main road up toward Waveny House, so that pedestrians aren’t forced into the roadway. As it is now, those who walk or run on the trail are forced when it ends at the Carriage Barn access road to vie with passing cars, members of the Park & Recreation Commission said at their meeting Wednesday night. “This is really dangerous,” Sally Campbell, the commission’s chairman, said during the group’s regular meeting, held in the Douglas Room at Lapham Community Center. What’s been proposed is a zigzagging “switchback” trail that would allow people to climb a wooded hill there, bringing them out at the far side of a parking area that’s far less dangerous for pedestrians, commissioners said. The trail extension has been recommended by the Waveny Park Conservancy and Tiger Mann, assistant director of the Department of Public Works, has mapped out a way to get it done and would put the project in his own capital budget, according to Campbell.

Animal 411

Parks Officials Seek To Ban Dogs from Bristow, Formerly a Bird Sanctuary

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Parks officials want to ban dogs altogether from Bristow Bird Sanctuary, a public park off of 106 that adjoins Mead Park. If the Town Council updates an ordinance that deals with dogs in public parks, then the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control Unit could ticket anyone with a dog in Bristow, even if it’s leashed, members of the Park & Recreation Commission said Wednesday night at their regular monthly meeting. “There are plenty of places for dogs to go in town on leash, so it is not like they would be denied recreational access,” the commission’s chair, Sally Campbell, said during the meeting, held in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. The commission had taken up the matter one year ago and, despite reservations from the parks superintendent about how widespread was the desire to ban dogs from Bristow, made a recommendation to the Ordinance Subcommittee of the Town Council. That effort went nowhere.