Hussey Bros. Excavating

Selectmen Approve Contract to Improve Trail in Waveny ‘Cornfields’

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Town officials this week approved a contract designed to improve pedestrian access to a recently reimagined area within Waveny that will serve as a new destination for park visitors. The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a $95,000 contract with a Norwalk-based company to reconstruct a new trail in the “cornfields” area near the southeastern corner of Waveny. The town will pay $45,000 toward the project, while the nonprofit Waveny Park Conservancy will donate the remaining $50,000, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “The [Waveny Park] Conservancy is excited about this because they’ve done a lot of work on the cornfield and want to drive traffic to it,” Mann said during the Board’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall. Ultimately, the Conservancy’s vision for the cornfields is to create an area with trails, seating and wildflower meadows, officials have said.

Government

Town Approves Funds To Pursue Paving, Possible Expansion of Milled Parking Lot at Waveny

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The town last week approved a $13,000 contract for an Avon-based company to design a newly configured parking lot that sits alongside the water towers at Waveny. 

The rough, milled lot located between softball diamonds and new turf fields at the edge of the high school—above to the Summer Theatre of New Canaan area—is to be upgraded so that there’s a newly paved drive into it from the main road through Waveny and a larger parking area, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “It’s always been a mess,” Mann told the Board of Selectmen at its regular meeting, held Aug. 21 at Town Hall. “People park haphazardly, on the grass, wherever they want.”

First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of a contract with Richter & Cegan, an urban planning firm, to design and provide cost estimates for the project. Funding for the actual work would come after the study.

Government

‘It’s a Great Town We Live In’: Councilmen Praise Public-Private Partnerships in Funding Waveny Trails, Platform Tennis Court [UPDATED]

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Citizens’ generosity helped push New Canaan’s legislative body last week to approve taxpayer funding of projects that will enhance Waveny for two sets of park users. Members of the Town Council in approving bond issuances of $50,000 and $70,000, respectively, to improve trails at the popular park and to create a fifth platform tennis court—an additional requested for several years—cited donations from two private groups as reasons to move forward. Specifically, the Waveny Park Conservancy is matching dollar-for-dollar the town’s $50,000 investment in improving trails starting with those that run behind “the cornfields” (soon to become ‘Waveny Meadows’), and platform tennis users are contributing $35,000 upfront toward a fifth court. “Those two projects are just a great example of how lucky we are to have the public and private combination of funds because without the private part of this, we would not be able to get this done,” Town Councilman Steve Karl said at the group’s regular meeting, held May 16 at Town Hall. “With the trails, we are basically doubling the amount of money we are spending there, and in the case of the platform tennis court, it’s another $35,000 in.

Animal 411

$136 Fine for Woman Who Fails To Pick Up After Her Dog in Waveny

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Police on Monday fined a 33-year-old Pound Ridge, N.Y. woman for failing to pick up after her dog at Waveny. The $136 ticket—$90 for violating a local ordinance and an additional $46 state processing fee—followed information reported to authorities by two regulars at the popular park who saw the woman pull into one of the parking lots in front of Waveny House and let her retriever out, according to Officer Allyson Halm, head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section. According to the report, the pair saw that the dog did its business straightaway and that the woman didn’t pick up after it, Halm said. “They were just really offended,” Halm said of the observers. It happened on Saturday, as temperatures soared into the 70s in New Canaan between unseasonable cold spells, and scores of park-goers headed outdoors to enjoy Waveny.

Government

Birdcage Elevator Could be Best Option to Bring Waveny House Up to ADA Compliance

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There could soon be a birdcage installed at Waveny House … a birdcage elevator, that is. Actually, a birdcage elevator is technically a “lift” and not an elevator, because it is not enclosed and utilizes hydraulics instead of cables. Aside from that trivial fact, the town is studying the possibility of installing the elevator for the purpose of bringing the historic building into compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Currently, there are two ways to get from the first floor of Waveny House to the second floor: Stairs and an original “baggage elevator” that runs from the basement to the attic. However, the baggage elevator has not been used in decades and no longer works.