Around Town

Cooling Off: New Canaan Residents Gather at Waveny Pool to Escape the Heat

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The NewCanaanite.com Summer Internship Program is sponsored by Baskin-Robbins, Connecticut Sandwich Co., Joe’s Pizza and Mackenzie’s. On a beautiful beginning to the month of July, NewCanaanite.com headed down to the Waveny Pool to see what makes this venue a hotspot for cooling off from the summer heat. After a swim meet between the Lake Club Swim Team and the local Waveny Gators finished up, we sat down and talked with a New Canaan resident keeping cool in the shade. Gary Cavanagh, who has been a member at the Waveny Pool for three years, praised the pool’s safety and enjoyability for people of all ages. “It’s safe, something special for the little guys over there—they won’t get in trouble, they got the big umbrellas for those who need to avoid the sun like me, and kids have a great time,” Cavanagh said.

Government

Parks Officials: Most Nonresidents at Waveny Pool Are from Darien

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Most of the 100 nonresident passes for Waveny Pool this summer will be sold to Darien families, parks officials said. Faced with a potential shortfall in revenue to keep the self-sustaining facility in the black, officials opted to sell family passes at $1,000 each to out-of-towners for this season (New Canaan families pay $475). Park and Recreation Commission member Matt Konspore at Wednesday’s regular monthly meeting for the group raised the question of just where nonresident permit applicants are coming from—some 250 signed up for a waiting list and 100 were selected by lottery. “I’d be curious on the lottery winners how many are from Darien?” Konspore said during the meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. Answer: The majority.

Government

100 Waveny Pool Passes to Be Sold to Nonresidents This Summer

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Faced with the expensive prospect of re-plastering Waveny Pool’s surface, the volunteer municipal group that oversees the self-sustaining town facility plans to sell 100 passes to nonresidents this season in order to cover costs. Though 350 New Canaan families have signed up for passes and another 370 are expected to do so prior to the pool’s Memorial Day weekend opening, that won’t be enough to cover capital and operating costs for this year, according to the Park and Recreation Commission. “By agreement when first constructed, operations and capital costs were to be attained from pool revenues, not from the tax base,” the commission said Monday in an email to pool pass purchasers. “For several recent years, the pool operated at a loss and the capital reserve fell below requirements. Specifically, as a result of the recession after 2008, the pool saw a decline of over 200 family passes sold. Because of this, the Park and Recreation Commission and town officials have taken considerable time and effort to place the swimming pool back on a stable financial trajectory.”

What happened in 2008 with the downturn, recreation officials have said, was many New Canaanites were forced to give up memberships to private clubs in town.

Government

New Canaan Nears Decision on Selling Waveny Pool Passes to Out-of-Towners

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The divisive question of whether New Canaan will sell Waveny Pool family passes to out-of-towners again this summer hinges on two things, parks officials said this week: How much money is collected from passes sold to residents, and whether the plaster lining of the pool itself will hold for another season. If that major capital project at Waveny Pool must be done prior to the Memorial Day weekend opening, the facility—which is designed to be self-sustaining—would fall short of funds based on the roughly 330 passes already sold to New Canaan residents, the Park and Recreation Commission said Wednesday at its regular meeting. The commission will wait until after April break to take a look at how much money has come in to offset the cost, prior to making a decision on nonresident pass sales, commissioner Richard Kilbride said at the meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. “The thinking was that in a couple of weeks’ time, in terms of where we are in pass sales and in terms of where we are in terms of what we might need to do with this budget, that the subcommittee could do some sort of go/no-go on nonresident sales at that point,” Kilbride said. Last year, 100 passes were sold to nonresidents, raising hackles from some New Canaan users—as well as at least one online petition protesting the practice, with a comment thread that turned personal and combative.

Government

2014 Waveny Pool Fees Set; $1,000 for Nonresident Family Passes

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Though their presence at Waveny Pool raised some eyebrows last summer, out-of-towners will be able to purchase family passes for the facility’s 2014 season. Officials on Friday approved a slate of fees for this summer, including a $1,000 nonresident family pass—a practice that’s expected to boost what recently has been a flat membership, and associated revenue, according to Recreation Director Steve Benko. “There was a lot of controversy last summer because we took in 100 nonresidents,” Benko said during a special meeting of the Board of Selectmen, held in the training room at the New Canaan Police Department. Yet the extra bodies at Waveny Pool have been welcome in the wake of a membership decline that recreation officials saw in the wake of the 2008 economic downturn. What likely happened, Benko said, was that many New Canaanites were forced to give up memberships to private clubs at that time, and that opened up coveted spots for Waveny Pool-goers who had been on waiting lists.