Around Town

Propane Tanks for Waveny Pool Water Heaters Approved; New Amenity On Track for Memorial Day Weekend Opening

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Town officials on Tuesday approved a plan to bury three propane tanks around Waveny Pool as a first step toward installing water heaters for the upcoming season—a widely anticipated amenity at the popular facility. The Board of Selectmen by a 3-0 vote approved a $15,000 contract between the New Canaan Department of Public Works and Danbury-based Mitchell Gas to install two 1,000-gallon tanks to serve the main pool at Waveny, and a 250-gallon tank for the kiddie pool, according to Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer with the DPW. The funds had been part of an allowance that came with the Waveny Pool’s original approval, he said. The heaters are to be delivered this week and the water should be heated in time for the Waveny Pool’s Memorial Day weekend opening, Recreation Director Steve Benko said during the selectmen’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall. Selectman Nick Williams called Waveny Pool a “real success story” and noted that Benko and the Park & Recreation Commission had run with a suggestion from the selectmen to re-examine its original economic model.

Government

‘An Amazing Sense of Community’: High Praise for Waveny Pool from Councilman

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Though some passersby in Waveny may view the pool there as plain concrete and water, it’s a singular place—especially for newer residents—where New Canaanites (and others) gather with their families and connect with each other during the warmer months, a member of the Town Council said Wednesday. The Waveny Pool is “the spoke of the summer community” for many, according to Christa Kenin, a councilman as well as a pool regular who serves on the facility’s newly formed Lifestyle Committee. “I mean it is the kind of place where you will go and strike up a conversation with the person sitting next to you and quickly learn that they are your neighbor down the street,” Kenin said during the legislative group’s regular meeting, held in the Town Meeting Room. “Children learn how to swim there. People literally borrow each other’s Johnson & Johnson ‘no tear’ shampoo to wash their kids down at the end of the day because they forgot their bottle.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved proposed new rates at Waveny Pool for the upcoming season and moved forward an appropriation of $131,500 out of the self-sustaining pool’s own fund to get a water heater in it ahead of the Memorial Day weekend opening. If May is a cold weather month, the water temperature can get as low as 68 degrees on opening, before the summer sun moves up the barometer, according to the town’s recreation director. ***

Dozens of residents flocked to the Laurel Reservoir through the weekend to get photos of the bald eagles that had been spotted there Thursday morning, scavenging the carcass of a deer that appeared to have died on an icy surface. Animal Control Officer Allyson Halm said she has seen as many as five bald eagles there, two adults and three younger birds. ***

The new push-button signs planned for pedestrians at God’s Acre where St.

Government

Parks Officials Propose New Rates for 2016 Season at Waveny Pool

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With plans for even more improvements at the popular and self-sustaining Waveny Pool—such as installing a water heater, hopefully before the 2016 season starts, relining the pool’s plaster, bringing in 50 new beach chairs, landscaping the area and upping the frequency of cleaning the facility’s bathrooms—the Park & Recreation Commission on Wednesday night voted unanimously to propose a new slate of rates for the upcoming summer. Commissioner Jason Milligan said a newly organized Waveny Pool ‘Lifestyle Committee’ composed of regular pool users has proactively and collaboratively recommended a number of sound improvements “and almost all of the things on their wish list are being addressed in one way or another this year.”

Those improvements, and other longer-term plans for maintenance and upgrades, require modest increases to pool pass fees, the commissioners said. The proposed new rates are as follows (they must be approved by the Board of Selectmen)—passes go on sale April 1:

 

Sally Campbell, chairman of the commission, said that based on the proposed new rate sheet, the group should be able to fund pool operations as well as make a “strong contribution to the capital reserve” and pay for five years’ of projected capital projects (such as redoing the deck at Waveny Pool and installing lights). “We feel really comfortable that we are in great financial shape, and that not only will we be able to run a great pool this season but we will be able to take care of all our capital improvements,” Campbell said.

Government

Parks Officials Pursue Water Heater, Re-Lining at Waveny Pool

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Parks officials say the self-sustaining Waveny Pool has generated nearly $300,000 in a capital reserve fund and that if strong bids come back to the town, the popular summer facility could see the money used to install a heater in the pool for the upcoming season as well as to re-line it this fall. The heater especially is something that users of Waveny Pool say they’d like to see, in addition to more regular cleaning of the bathrooms there and other tweaks, according to members of the Park & Recreation Commission. A heated pool “would be just a terrific thing,” Chairman Sally Campbell said at the group’s regular meeting, held Wednesday night in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. Commissioner Jason Milligan, who sits on a Waveny Pool Subcommittee, said more than a dozen regular users of the facility met and brainstormed several ideas that could make the experience there even better. Recreation Director Steve Benko said plans already are underway to increase the workload for a company that cleans Waveny Pool’s bathrooms so that they’re cleaned twice per day during an 8-week period at the height of summer, raising the contractor’s fee from about $7,000 to $9,800 per season.