Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that there’s a 15-year-old football phenom in New Canaan who’s been offered a college football scholarship at Florida State University. Quarterback Drew Pyne is 15 years old and six-foot-one and 170 pounds, according to the Sentinel’s Chris Hays. He plans to start playing at New Canaan High School in Lou Marinelli’s program starting next year, Shays reported in a blog post. The teen (see video above) is from an established football family and his father, a prominent figure in the sports business world, confirmed the flattering offer from FSU in the article though he did not wish to speak on-record about it, according to Hays. ***

Frank Maltese, popular conductor of the 7:56 a.m. “gentlemen’s train” out of New Canaan, had this to say following publication on NewCanaanite.com of an article about his retirement at the end of next month: “To the people that took an interest in me and who gave me the gratification of putting me into the New Canaanite paper, I would like to thank you.”

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Police have been called twice in the pre-dawn hours during the past two weeks on reports of barking dogs on Bridle Path Lane, at 3:28 a.m. on March 27 and then 4:32 a.m. on March 30.

News

‘We Should Be Able To Do Better’: Officials Flag Sharply Rising, High Costs of Youth Basketball Program

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Concerned about planned cost increases to New Canaan’s only youth basketball program—already the most expensive in the area, prohibitively so for many families—officials said Monday night they hope to address rising gym rental fees at Saxe Middle School, which have doubled in three years. In reviewing a financial breakdown from the New Canaan Basketball Association, officials with the town’s Youth Sports Committee said they were surprised by and concerned about rental fees at Saxe that have jumped from $16,000 in 2012 to $32,000 last year—and, as a result, pushed the 5-month program’s per-player cost from $780 (with uniforms) to what likely will be about $980 next year. “I am having difficulty with this,” committee member Sally Campbell said during the group’s meeting, held in Lapham Community Center. While field sports pay a $20 per-player fields usage fee to the town, basketball’s gym rental cost is more than 12 times that amount on a per-player basis. “I feel that our outdoor sports—lacrosse, soccer and so on—they have access to our fields, and a town resource, and they do not have to pay anything and this is a similar program and I think somehow we should be able to do better.

News

Youth Sports Committee Votes 5-0 for Mandatory $20 Per-Player, Per-Season Fields Usage Fee

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Following a unanimous vote three years in the making, members of a committee charged with overseeing youth sports in New Canaan are poised to recommend formally that organizations using town-owned fields be assessed a $20 fields usage fee per player per season. The Youth Sports Committee following its 5-0 vote likely will recommend the mandatory fee to the Park & Recreation Commission, which is scheduled to meet Wednesday. If the fee finds support there, the advisory commission would go to the Board of Selectmen for approval. “The town wants to make it [the fee] mandatory which I think is very acceptable and it would be very helpful,” committee member Sally Campbell said during the Youth Sports Committee’s Oct. 5 meeting, held at Lapham Community Center.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Congratulations to the Pauley family on the birth of baby girl Peyton Ann Elaine Joyner. The daughter of Michael Joyner and Lauren Pauley—and granddaughter of recently retired New Canaan Tree Warden Bruce Pauley and his wife, Elaine—Peyton was born at 10:04 p.m. on July 14 at Norwalk Hospital. Lauren Pauley is a 2000 Trinity Catholic High School graduate. The Joyner family resides in Stamford. ***

New Canaan High School 2015 graduate and football standout Zach Allen will wear No.

Government

Selectman To Youth Sports Committee: Meet Your Charge, and with Total Transparency

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A selectman on Tuesday urged a committee that oversees youth sports in New Canaan to operate with total transparency and make good on its original charge to ensure that the private groups overseeing youth football, soccer, field hockey, lacrosse and other sports are contributing equally to the town on a per-player basis to fields maintenance. Specifically, the Youth Sports Committee in three years has not been able to impose a seasonal $20 per-player fee for the various youth sports groups that would come back to the town for redistribution in fields upkeep, Selectman Beth Jones told the committee at a special meeting. A key responsibility of the committee is to “try to make it fair between all youth sports groups, that they are all chipping in their fair share, and you were going to make that open to the daylight,” yet after years of sporadic meetings that at times appear not to have been properly posted with the Town Clerk, no hard information to that effect has materialized. While thanking the committee members for their volunteerism, what’s needed is “more sunshine on all of this,” Jones told Youth Sports Chairman Chris Robustelli and committee member Sally Campbell at the selectmen meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “The more information that is available to anybody that wants to look at it, the better off we all are, because then people don’t think we are hiding anything,” Jones said.