News

Town Committee to NC Lax Association: Mandatory ‘Fields Usage Fee’ Is Separate from Your Generous Contribution To Dunning

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Though generous, New Canaan Lacrosse Association’s contribution to the re-turfing of Dunning Field cannot stand in or otherwise alter a mandatory fee that all youth sports organizations pay the town for the maintenance of athletic fields, officials said Monday. The volunteer committee that oversees youth sports in New Canaan at its regular meeting decided to defer to the Board of Selectmen on a request from the NCLA to waive a mandatory $20 per-player, per-season fee for fields maintenance. Lacking a quorum, the Youth Sports Committee stopped short of a formal vote on the matter at its regular meeting. Yet committee members said they’re unconvinced by the NCLA’s reasoning that a $100,000 contribution to the Dunning that drained its resources means the organization may forego paying the “fields usage fee” until its funds are replenished. “They are separate issues,” committee member Sally Campbell said at the meeting, held in Lapham Community Center.

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.

News

Town Officials Want More Consistency in Fees, Fields Use among Youth Sports Programs

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Saying youth sports in New Canaan must be treated equally—in terms of field access and use, for example—town officials on Monday night talked about setting uniform standards for all programs and making mandatory a newly calculated, across-the-board per-player fee for fields upkeep and upgrades. New Canaan in divvying up coveted—and, with youth sports themselves expanding, increasingly scarce—access to playing fields at public parks, is “at the mercy” of groups that may stake a claim by funding capital improvements, Selectman Nick Williams said at the Youth Sports Committee meeting. “That’s got to stop,” Williams said at the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “As a town we need to start telling the sports, ‘First of all, you’ll all be treated equally at the outset, and you’ll all be charged the same fee and by the way, girls and boys, same fee. And then we’ll move on from that.