Government

Officials Weigh New Parking, Traffic Proposal for Mead Park

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Town officials are weighing a proposed parking and traffic plan for Mead Park that would preserve its one-way entrance and exit while making other major changes to how and where motorists can go and pull in. Under a proposal from local landscape architecture firm Keith E. Simpson Associates, traffic in the first long area that motorists enter from Park Street would become two-way, while the often-disregarded traffic island in the center of the park would be re-shaped so that it’s more intuitive to motorists, and new curbing would come to a second traffic island near the Apple Cart at Mead Park Lodge so that nobody parks directly on top of it. During a Nov. 8 presentation to the Parks & Recreation Commission, the firm’s Bill Pollack said it was possible to have 90-degree parking for the long stretch along the pond, though some officials said they’d prefer to have more comfortable angled parking there, even if it means losing some spaces. Commissioner Francesca Segalas said she would prefer angled parking because it’s far easier to open a front door “because the front of the next car is not even next to you.”

The proposal also calls for new parallel parking spaces beyond the right-field wall of the large baseball field, new directional arrows on the pavement and crosshatched areas between newly designated handicapped spaces and fire lanes.

Government

Garden Club, Landscape Architect at Odds Over Future of ‘Parterre Garden’ at Waveny

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New Canaan should pause before approving a plan that would see a formal garden at Waveny house changed from its original design, according to local landscape architects. Located directly east of the balcony out back of the 1912-built Waveny house, the parterre garden is “the most important formal garden in town,” an “historically significant” area that “deserves a great deal of thought before it gets radically changed,” Keith Simpson told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission at their most recent meeting. “That configuration of the boxwood hedge has been there for over 100 years and I think it has stood the test of time,” Simpson said at the Nov. 8 meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. “And also, the Olmsted office is probably the best known firm in the history of landscape architecture in the country.

Government

New Handrails Coming to Two Culvert Crossings on Waveny Trail

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Town officials on Tuesday approved a $20,000 contract—nearly all of that to be funded privately—to install wooden handrails over two culverts on newly upgraded trails at Waveny. The work by Wilton-based Riverside Fence is a final touch from the nonprofit Waveny Park Conservancy on the organization’s improved trails running from South Avenue to the four-way along the main road through the park, according to Tiger Mann, New Canaan’s public works director. “The Conservancy would like to see a couple of handrails put over the top for fall protection,” Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting, held in Town Hall. The Conservancy is paying for all but $1,000 of the work, Mann said. Keith Simpson, a prominent landscape architect in town who is a member of the Conservancy’s board of directors, solicited the quote from Riverside Fence—the same company that installed the new footbridge he designed at Mead Park to complete the Gold Star Walk.

News

Letter: Ideal Spot for Year-Round, Heated Restroom Facilities at Waveny

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The area near Waveny House badly needs year-round, outside accessible, heated restroom facilities. The restrooms near the water tower are seasonal only. There is a building right next to the Power House which is ideally located and, being slightly larger than the water tower restrooms building, suitably sized for such a use. It can be converted and readily made handicap accessible. It has the rounded stone foundation walls, indicating that it dates back to the Hall (1900) era, and it is the last of those buildings not in public use.

Around Town

‘It’s Finally Happening’: Long-Planned Restoration, Completion of World War II ‘Gold Star Walk’ Underway at Mead Park

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A nearly 10-year effort to revitalize a World War II memorial path in Mead Park, spearheaded by a longtime New Canaan resident, finally has an end in sight, as repair of an existing footbridge and construction of a second one recently commenced. Originally installed in 1945 at the end of World War II by a local gardening club, the “Gold Star Walk” at Mead had included 38 flowering trees honoring each of the New Canaan men who lost their lives in service (see list at end of article). Each tree had been fitted with a plaque bearing the name of the deceased. Yet the trees and the walk have fallen into disrepair, with the plaques missing and many of the trees no longer flowering—a situation that New Canaanite and Korean War vet Jim Bach found unacceptable. He has raised funds to complete the Gold Star Walk and has tapped local landscape architect Keith Simpson for the critical bridge work.