Around Town

‘It Helps Make the Park More Accessible’: Remade Trails at Waveny Near Completion

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Waveny visitors benefitting from a nonprofit organization’s efforts to improve trails at the popular park soon will have another new footpath to enjoy. The Waveny Park Conservancy’s long-standing plans to upgrade pedestrian paths alongside the main road through the park, from South Avenue to the main house, soon will be completed. “The old trails there are very worn down and basically dirt trails,” Conservancy board member and Parks & Recreation Commission Chair Sally Campbell said when asked about the project. “These new ones give it a good surface that can take a beating and helps runners stay out of the mud and tree roots, things like that,” Campbell said. “They’ve been very well utilized and well received by the public.”

The Board of Selectmen on July 10 unanimously approved a $45,800 contract with a New Canaan-based landscaping company to finish the final stretch of the trail, meaning park-goers starting at South Avenue can use it all the way into Waveny.

Government

Officials: No Public Signs on Town Hall, Vine Cottage Front Lawns

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The Board of Selectmen will disallow the display of all public signs at the new Town Hall and Vine Cottage—a practice that planning officials have spoken out against—following a new policy adopted July 21. In making the change, the selectmen said they wished to preserver the aesthetics of the newly renovated Town Hall facility. “I love free speech, I love communications, I love transparency, but I don’t want to see our brand new Town Hall cluttered with signs,” Selectmen Nick Williams said at the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. The policy change extends to the busy Vine Cottage corner, which had absorbed public signs during the Town Hall construction project, and which the board acknowledged was another prime location for displaying public communications. Citing clutter in front of the newly constructed Town Hall, Williams, Selectman Beth Jones, and First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said they felt the Internet and other locations around town provided ample opportunity to inform the public of news and events.