Town officials say they’re hoping to open several of New Canaan’s playing fields Wednesday and by Thursday, to open the rest.
According to John Howe, superintendent of parks for the New Canaan Department of Public Works, the town opened everything Monday but then had to shut it back down again Tuesday morning with the overnight rain.
Soggy conditions at Mellick Field on April 8, 2014. Practices scheduled at other New Canaan fields—at Waveny, Irwin and Country School—need a dry day for the town to re-open them for youth sports programs this week.
“I’m hoping that tomorrow [Wednesday] we’ll have quite a lot open and then Thursday, weather permitting, we’ll be back and have everything opened up,” he said. “What we haven’t been able to finish is getting everything lined out, painted and goals put up. We’re still working on it whenever we can, but of course it’s raining.”
Consecutive snowstorms and freezing temperatures contributed to lingering frost from February into March, delaying the opening of the fields. Though some youth sports programs, and nearly all varsity programs, can practice and even play on turf fields, now’s also the time when our popular youth softball and baseball programs normally get underway.
New Canaan Baseball’s master schedule indicates that practices in the Cal Ripken league should start this week at New Canaan Country School and Irwin Park, with games starting Saturday. Similarly, New Canaan Softball—which has its own dedicated website now (nice!)—has scrimmages and practices scheduled for the Orchard Field at Waveny this week and into the weekend.
New Canaan’s forecast calls for sunny, dry conditions this afternoon through Thursday, then the possibility of more rain into the weekend.
NewCanaanite.com, catching up with Howe after this morning’s Board of Selectmen meeting at the New Canaan Police Department, received this update: “I am pretty well convinced we will have some fields open tomorrow and the rest open by Thursday and hopefully by the weekend, we will have everything painted.”