Board of Finance

First Selectman: Playground at Kiwanis Should Be Relocated to Waveny Pool

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The town should remove funds earmarked to replace fencing around a playground at Kiwanis Park and relocate the equipment there to Waveny Pool, New Canaan’s highest elected official said last week. The playground at Kiwanis is “used very little,” according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. “Maybe a little bit by the neighborhood,” Moynihan said during a press briefing held Thursday in his office at Town Hall. “But it should be moved over to Waveny where the kids at the pool could go to an adjacent playground.”

He added: “You could build it so that there is a gate from the playground from the pool. A lot of the kids are at the pool.

Government

Selectmen Restore Placeholder for Kiwanis Park Funding; Board of Finance Decision Looms

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday proposed a spending plan for next fiscal year that restores funding to operate Kiwanis Park, though the future of the Old Norwalk Road facility remains uncertain. The selectmen voted 3-0 to pass along to the Board of Finance an overall operating budget of about $153.6 million, representing a year-over-year spending increase of 1.1%. The figure includes Board of Education spending. In a budget season that has seen the finance board call for an operating reduction of 2% in municipal departments, an initial draft proposed spending plan before the selectmen had essentially de-commissioned Kiwanis Park by removing funding for it. Yet Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams during the Board’s regular meeting at Town Hall pushed to have $47,000 restored to Kiwanis so that recreation officials have a chance to reinvigorate the park under a reduced-hours schedule next summer.

Government

Parks & Rec: Kiwanis Park ‘Is Not Fully Being Used’

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Attendance at Kiwanis increased by more than 40% last summer and the park potentially could more than cover costs associated with its operation, officials said last week. Kiwanis Park “is not fully being used for what it should be,” according to Parks & Recreation Commission Chair Rona Siegel. “The facility is incredible inside that concession,” Siegel said during the Commission’s regular meeting, held Jan. 8 at Town Hall. “It is restaurant-grade for the summer and spring months.

Board of Selectmen

Selectmen Vote 3-0 To Delete Kiwanis Park from Food Concession Operator’s Lease

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The Board of Selectmen on Monday voted unanimously to remove Kiwanis Park from a lease held by a local business that’s been operating the food concession at the Old Norwalk Road facility in recent summers. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted 3-0 to amend the lease with Emad Aziz’s Apple Cart Food Company LLC. It wasn’t immediately clear why the selectmen made the change. Williams said at the special meeting, “My understanding is that this is because there is no business there.”

Moynihan said that Aziz “didn’t feel it was worthy of his efforts because of the low amount of business.”

“But there is some discussion about possibly some other vendors,” Moynihan said during the meeting, held at Town Hall, referring to discussions within the Parks & Recreation Commission. (Apple Cart will continue to operate at the seasonal Mead Park Lodge.)

A town committee two years ago in reviewing and making recommendations on the future use of publicly owned buildings in New Canaan Recent noted that “improvements to [Kiwanis] Park have provided significant upgrades to the swimming area, beach, and playground.

Government

Selectman Williams: Concerns About Waveny Park Safety Have Been ‘Politicized’

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A town official on Tuesday voiced concerns about the characterization of New Canaan’s most heavily used park as unsafe. Saying he believed that some of the talk around town about the safety of Waveny Park was “misguided a bit,” Selectman Nick Williams raised the issue during the Board of Selectmen’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall. While saying that he was “in favor of safety,” Williams asserted that “Waveny is one of the best parks in America and one of the safest parks in America.” Speaking during a section of the Board’s agenda dedicated to general town matters, Williams said that suggestions to the contrary were “perhaps politicized,” but was not specific about how. “I think it’s unfortunate that people are talking about Waveny as if it’s Central Park in the 1970s,” Williams said.