Steve Benko Pool

Waveny Pool Adds Safety Measures Following Vehicle Crash

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The Summer Internship Program is sponsored by the New Canaan Racquet Club

New safety measures have been put in place at Waveny Pool following the vehicle crash that sent a car through the facility’s fence earlier this summer, officials say. The most significant change is the installation of large rocks around areas where vehicles could potentially access the pool grounds, according to New Canaan Parks & Recreation Director John Howe. The Highway Department placed the rocks before the pool reopened after officials realized a car had been able to pass through a narrow gap between two trees during the crash, he said. “We ‘hardened’ the pool, so to speak,” Howe said. “We filled in any gaps because the car went between two trees.

Fausto Mieres

Green & Tonic Faces Extensive Repairs After Flash Flood Ravages Forest Street Café

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The Summer Internship Program is sponsored by the New Canaan Racquet Club

Green & Tonic’s Forest Street location is expected to remain closed through at least August after a flash flood tore through downtown New Canaan, destroying equipment, inventory, and much of the interior of the popular café. CEO Fausto Mieres said the damage from the July 21 storm was far worse than anything the business has experienced since opening the New Canaan location more than five years ago. “It was severe,” Mieres said. “Everything pretty much is done.” The floodwater damaged nearly every part of the business.

News

Warrant: Man, 42, Charged with Assault, Strangulation, Impersonating Police Officer

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The Summer Internship Program is sponsored by the New Canaan Racquet Club. A 42-year-old Syosset, N.Y., man is facing multiple felony charges after New Canaan Police allege he assaulted a woman during a domestic violence incident, strangled her until she lost consciousness and later impersonated both the woman’s brother and a retired New York Police Department lieutenant in phone calls to the NCPD. According to the affidavit of NCPD Officer Matthew Blank, which forms the major part of an arrest warrant application obtained by NewCanaanite.com, the man is charged with second-degree assault, second-degree strangulation or suffocation, disorderly conduct, criminal impersonation and impersonating a police officer. The investigation began June 22, when a woman arrived at New Canaan Police headquarters to report that the man had assaulted her the previous day at her parents’ home, where the couple had been living. Police learned there was an active protective order involving the two individuals.

News

Property Owner Sues Town After P&Z Denies Affordable Housing Proposal

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The Summer Internship Program is sponsored by the New Canaan Racquet Club. The applicant behind a proposed 14-unit affordable housing development on Parade Hill Road is suing the town following the Planning & Zoning Commission’s unanimous decision to deny the application. The Commission voted June 23 to reject the proposal for 30 Parade Hill Road after determining it did not qualify as “assisted housing” under Connecticut’s affordable housing statute, known as 8-30g. Because of that finding, commissioners concluded the project was not exempt from the town’s active affordable housing moratorium. The proposed development drew concerns from neighbors and commissioners during public hearings over its size and compatibility with the surrounding neighborhood, as well as traffic, public safety, flooding, noise, aesthetics and screening.

News

Waveny LifeCare Network Unveils Proposal for 150-Unit Senior Living Community at ‘Mulch Pile’ Site

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The Summer Internship Program is sponsored by the New Canaan Racquet Club. Waveny LifeCare Network  or “WLN,” the nonprofit organization that operates a short- and long-term rehabilitation and skilled nursing facility and memory assisted living residence on Farm Road, an independent living facility on Oenoke Ridge and an adult day program, among other services, last week unveiled plans for a new 150-unit senior living community on town-owned within at Waveny through a long-term land lease agreement. (WLN’s Farm Road campus is also currently leased from the town.)
Presented July 15 to the Town Council as the beginning of what WLN leaders described as a public conversation—not a request for approval regarding the development—plans call for use of approximately 20 acres of the 50-acre “Parcel E,” known by many residents as the “mulch pile” area west of Lapham Road. Those presenting the proposal included WLN President and CEO Russ Barksdale Jr. and Board of Directors members Rich Townsend and Mark DeWaele. (Town Council member Penny Young recused herself from the discussion because she also serves on the WLN board.)

The location offers the best opportunity to address what they described as a longstanding shortage of senior housing while minimizing impacts to the park, they said.