Around Town

PHOTOS: Caffeine & Carburetors Wraps Up 2015 Season with Strong Turnout at Waveny

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Antique, classic, muscle, racing and speciality car enthusiasts descended on Waveny Park on a crisp, cool autumn morning Sunday for 2015’s final Caffeine & Carburetors gathering. Town officials had approved four installments this year of the popular event, launched by New Canaan’s Doug Zumbach and sponsored primarily by Bankwell (whose Lucy French provided us the photo at right), between April and October: two downtown and two at Waveny. After foul weather forced a cancellation of the September gathering downtown, thousands of spectators ventured to the park. Town resident and collector Peter Bush of The Fox 95.9 FM took to the microphone to emcee the event, tapping an encyclopedic knowledge of autos to describe many of the cars parked in the forecourt of Waveny House and elsewhere, while spectators sipped coffee—much of it purchased from Zumbach’s eponymous gourmet shop, which operated a stand near the center of the action—leash-walked their dogs, shot photos and video, talked shop and connected with fellow enthusiasts. Zumbach estimated the crowd at 3,000 to 3,5000 and the car count was at 800-plus.

Government

Naming Rights, Donor Plaques on Waveny Structures Part of Conservancy’s Draft Agreement with Town

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While members of the group appear now to be focused on landscaping, the Waveny Park Conservancy under a draft agreement with the town would be poised, with approvals, to name buildings and affix plaques to structures at the popular park in recognition of those who fund projects there. The “Park Preservation and Improvement Agreement” notes that the Town Council must approve “the naming of any building, structure or improvement after any donor, individual, foundation or group.”

“The Conservancy may affix donor recognition plaques in connection with completed Improvement Projects subject to Town approval in each instance as to size, design and location,” one section of the 2-page document reads. “The Conservancy shall not cause or permit any sign or advertisement to be placed in the Park or affixed to any building, structure or improvement except in compliance with the Town Code, ordinances and regulations.”

The document, which the Park & Recreation Commission supported 8-0 during its regular meeting Wednesday by way of recommending the agreement to the Board of Selectmen for further review, may offer a glimpse into one way that the Conservancy intends to raise money as it seeks to fund, propose and help oversee capital projects across a wide swath of Waveny’s grounds. Much of the Conservancy’s “bullet point” presentation to the Park & Recreation Commission dealt with the more immediate work that would be done at and near Waveny Pond as well as in the area in the southwest part of the park known as “the cornfields” (no longer a dumping area for dredged material). In particular, Conservancy member Bill Holmes said, the group is seeking to pay for a consultant to conduct a “forest management plan” which would include identifying invasive species at Waveny and would focus on the area south of the main road through the park.

Government

‘What Do We Want That Building To Be?’: Future Use of Waveny House an Open Question

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Waveny House needs so much work to get up to code and operate as a public building that—after baseline repairs are made, such as to its leaky roof—residents must decide just what role the cherished building should play in town, officials say. The Board of Selectmen should establish a committee that looks at Waveny House and answers this basic question, the town’s highest official said Tuesday: “What do we want that building to be?”

“Do we want it to be the offices of [the Recreation Department] and to store stuff?” First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said at the board’s regular monthly meeting, held at Town Hall. “Do we want it to have 150 weddings a year and be a revenue generator?”

The comments came as the selectmen voted 3-0 to approve a $37,500 contract with a White Plains, N.Y.-based architectural firm to prepare for the first phase of capital work at Waveny. The architectural services from KSQ Architects will be based on a 2010 capital facilities plan that encompassed 16 structures in New Canaan (see page 35 of the Executive Summary and page 503 for detailed line items). That plan calls for roof replacement as well as ADA ramps and toilets at Waveny House, a kitchen rebuild and new boiler and piping, among other projects.

Around Town

New Canaan Summer Bucket List Every Teen Should Complete

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Each high schooler only has four summers in New Canaan. This year the class of 2015 graduated on June 18, giving teenagers 70 full days of summer, until the Aug. 27 back-to-school start date. New Canaan teens have about 280 days of summer in total through their high school years to try and experience new things, boost their college resume, and most importantly have fun. Factor in the snow days that add extra dates to the school calendar, the fall sports preseason that take up a week of the sunshine, and doctors appointments that parents have decided to squeeze in before the school year, there really isn’t that much time for high schoolers to experience everything that New Canaan has to offer throughout the summer. Here’s a list I came up with of adventures, opportunities, and experiences that all high schoolers should take advantage of in New Canaan, whether these tasks can be completed in the remaining weeks of this summer or will have to wait until next summer.

Around Town

Waveny Park Conservancy Seeks To Raise $2 Million, Start Work on Grounds Next Spring

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Members of a group seeking to raise money for, recommend and help oversee yet-undetermined capital projects across a big chunk of Waveny Park said Wednesday night that they’re seeking to hit $2 million in order to “break ground” after prioritizing plans through the winter. Calling itself the ‘Waveny Park Conservancy,’ the group has “some money in the bank to get us going, and I think we have pretty reasonable ideas and prospects whereby we can raise this $2 million,” its chairman, Bob Seelert, told the Park & Recreation Commission. “I know a lot of people are trying to raise money for a lot of different things in town—this, that and the other thing—so I suppose there is competition for scarce resources,” he said at the commission’s meeting, held in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. “But the reality is if you live in New Canaan, and you’ve been here a long period of time, if you ever have out-of-town guests into your home, you can do two things with them: You can take them down to Elm Street and bring them over to Waveny. And they all sit there and say, ‘Oh my god, what an iconic place this is, it’s a real gem, I wish I lived here.’ So we think there is enthusiasm for what it is we want to do because, in truth, it is for a really noble purpose.”

Inspired by the model of the Central Park Conservancy, the group incorporated on June 11 with the intention of helping Waveny “thrive in perpetuity” for all New Canaanites, according to Seelert, through a public-private partnership.