Board of Selectmen

Family Fourth: Officials Approve $31,000 Contract for Fireworks at Waveny

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Town officials on Tuesday approved a $31,000 contract with a Douglassville, Pa.-based company for this year’s Independence Day fireworks at Waveny, the 40th Family Fourth celebration at the public park. Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted 2-0 in favor of the contract with International Fireworks Manufacturing Company. Tom Stadler, chair of the Family Fourth Committee that oversees the popular show, said revenues from sales of passes have risen following efforts to educate the attending public that the fireworks are not town-funded but rely on monies collected privately through the passes. “This past year we were able to fund not only the whole entire show but also give some money to the Emergency Medical Services so they could buy that golf cart and there’s a stretcher on it—it’s equipment for the emergency medical people which we were renting each year from Norwalk so deiced to help them buy it,” Stadler told the selectmen at their regular meeting at Town Hall. “Also we helped the Police Department with some work on their trailer.

Around Town

VIDEO: New Canaan Family Fourth, Fireworks at Waveny

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Thousands of New Canaanites gathered at Waveny on Thursday for the annual Family Fourth picnic and fireworks show. Held on a clear, hot afternoon that gave way to a comfortable evening, the hugely popular Independence Day celebration—organized by a volunteer committee and supported by sales of entrance passes—featured the New Canaan Town Band and Mind the Gap (playing The Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” in the video above) as well as a selection of gourmet food trucks, and kid-friendly activities.

Government

Officials Approve $30,000 Contract for Fireworks at Waveny

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Town officials on Tuesday approved a $30,000 contract with a Douglassville, Pa.-based pyrotechnic company to put on the fireworks show at the Waveny July 4th event this summer. The Board of Selectmen voted 3-0 in favor of the contract with International Fireworks Mfg. Co., which has supplied fireworks for the massively popular Family Fourth event for four decades, Recreation Director and Family Fourth Committee member Steve Benko said during the Board’s regular meeting. Selectman Nick Williams asked whether the town would ever consider “doing music with the fireworks.”

Tom Stadler, chairman of the Family Fourth, said the question has come up over the years. 

“It’s been suggested, just like Macys and some of the others that while the fireworks are exploding in the air, boom boom boom, we have choreographed music,” Stadler said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “We brought that to the committee and the committee has not been receptive to that.

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Did You Hear … ?

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First Selectman Kevin Moyinhan said during a media briefing Thursday that he’s asked one of New Canaan’s foremost nonprofit figures—Leo Karl III—to lead the New Canaan Athletic Foundation. Karl, known for his extensive volunteer work with organizations that include the New Canaan Community Foundation, where he had served as president, agreed to take on the role, according to Moynihan. Praised by Moynihan for its fundraising ability, the NCAF among other organizational priorities is seeking to establish its own nonprofit arm along the lines of what a similar  group has in Darien, the first selectman said. ***

A Darien homeowner is taking a New Canaan man and his company to small claims court for $4,660.32, saying he committed breach of contract by failing to complete painting work, sealing broken plumbing behind “impenetrable tile and drywall work” and incorrectly installing tile, according to a complaint filed in May. In an answer and counterclaim, the New Canaan man said he’s owed $2,089.63 and that the plaintiff is suing for work not included in the contract.

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‘Everyone Helped To Make It Happen’: Family Fourth at Waveny Draws Thousands [PHOTOS]

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About 2,000 New Canaan residents purchased family passes to attend the 37th Annual Family Fourth of July Celebration on Tuesday—a figure that organizers are pointing to in noting the great success of yet another picnic and fireworks show. Funded not by taxpayer dollars but by ticket sales, the hugely popular, iconic New Canaan event has rebounded nicely in just a few years after monies from the private fund were depleted, prompting the all-volunteer Family Fourth Committee to urge those who drive or walk in to get a pass. According to committee Chairman Tom Stadler, the work of volunteers is essential. Stadler told NewCanaanite.com that his very simple message to those people is “Thank you.”

“So many people make that thing happen,” Stadler said. “There are guys there at six in the morning setting up.