Government

Seeking More Info, Town Council Hits Pause on $1 Million Request for Waveny House

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As a member of two committees that have studied the physical plant and uses of Waveny House, Christa Kenin said she’s sat through many brainstorming sessions regarding the 1912 public building. It’s been imagined as a future home for the Board of Education and a conference center, among other uses, Kenin told fellow Town Council members at their regular meeting Wednesday night. There’s been “no shortage of good ideas,” she said, yet right now Waveny House is in a “holding pattern.”

“And unfortunately, it is low-revenue-generating, and so for that reason I am not motivated to throw any money at it right now,” Kenin said as the legislative body discussed a capital funding request from the Department of Public Works for $1 million to install an elevator at Waveny House and accessible routes and bathrooms on the second floor in order to make it ADA-compliant at long last. “I don’t think it’s ‘Do this or shut it down,’ ” Kenin continued at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “I am more in favor of let’s take people off of the second floor, save $1 million, because that will kind of push us to actually make some decisions and this is long overdue for the ADA.

Government

‘The Project Is Going Very Well’: Waveny House Roof Replacement Underway

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The widely discussed $2.3 million replacement of Waveny House’s porous and crumbling roof is underway and progressing nicely, town officials say. Contractors are stripping the existing roof and making repairs to damaged areas of the structure beneath it as they go, with an eye on starting the new roof next month, according to Bill Oestman, superintendent of buildings with the New Canaan Department of Public Works. “The risk is diminishing daily as the work progresses and we have not uncovered anything that we didn’t already know about,” Oestmann told NewCanaanite.com. “The project is going very well.”

At this point, workers from Danbury-based Alden Bailey are on track to finish the project ahead of an end-of-year deadline, he said. They’re starting on the east side of the 1912-built Waveny House and are expected to encounter significant structural damage as they go—due mostly to the town’s decades-old neglect of capital maintenance on it.

Government

‘You Literally Just Salivate’: Officials Evaluating Town Buildings See Potential in Waveny House

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Known to generations of New Canaanites as the elegant host site of weddings, banquets and fundraisers, Waveny House also has largely untapped areas that could serve new uses, officials say. Recreation and public works officials have done a “phenomenal job” of clearing the 17,000-square-foot attic of post-prom props and other items that have collected there for years, according to Bill Holmes, a member of the Town Building Evaluation and Use Committee. “When we go up there, you literally just salivate,” Holmes said during the committee’s April 10 meeting, held at Town Hall. “The space is beautiful. There are skylights.”

Part of a two-person team studying the 1912-built town-owned building, together with committee co-chair Penny Young, Holmes added: “The notes we are making as we went through the basement, there are so many rooms with beautiful natural light from all the wells and depressions outside.

Government

Town Councilmen To Walk Waveny House Ahead of Vote on $2.3 Million Bonding for Roof Replacement Project

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After putting off a vote last week on $2.3 million in bonding to replace the porous and crumbling roof of Waveny House, members of the town’s legislative body on Friday afternoon will walk the site with building officials to understand better the high-cost project. The Town Council, concerned about escalating costs—it had been estimated at $1 million to $1.2 million in recent years—took up an offer from Bill Oestmann, superintendent of buildings with the New Canaan Department of Public Works, at its Jan. 18 meeting to see the damaged roof for themselves. Though the funds had been approved by the Board of Finance with assurances that costs would be kept down as much as possible for the roof replacement, the Town Council also is concerned about “the cost listed in the 5-year capital plan to renovate the house and how the pieces fit together and what the expected results may be,” councilman Sven Englund, of the group’s Subcomiittee on Infrastructure and Utilities, told NewCanaanite.com in advance of the site visit. A total of $5 million in placeholders now are in the fluid out-years capital plan for “Waveny Roof and Renovations,” though estimates for what’s needed at the cherished 1912-built structure range up to $10 million, Englund said.

Government

Parks Officials Propose New Rental Rates for Waveny House

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Saying rental rates at Waveny House have fallen out-of-line with similar area facilities and require seasonal flexibility, parks officials last week voted unanimously to recommend a new slate of fees. Whereas rates for several years have been fixed at $2,650 for non-residents and $1,500 for residents, the Parks & Recreation Commission at its Jan. 11 meeting voted I favor of the following schedule:

 

In addition to those fees, a rental of the “walled garden” area would be available for $350 under the proposed rates, up from $250. The town should be drawing as much money as possible in renting out the facility, according to Gene Goodman, who drew up the proposed rates with help from fellow Parks & Rec commissioner Katie Owsley. “We should be maximizing the revenue,” Goodman said at the meeting, held at Lapham Community Center.