‘Just a Disaster’: Officials Eye Repaving of Parking Lot at Kiwanis

Saying the main lot at Kiwanis Park hasn’t been repaved in about 30 years, officials are putting in for funds to get that project done and bring the area in line with others at the Old Norwalk Road facility.

Parking lot at Kiwanis Park, Nov. 15, 2015. Credit: Michael Dinan

Though the access road at Kiwanis has been repaved and the parking lot at the rear is done, “the parking lot there is just a disaster,” according to Sally Campbell, chairman of the Park & Recreation Commission.

“The stretch that you really see when you’re in the park is just falling apart, so [DPW Assistant Tiger Mann] is putting that in his capital budget, to get the funds to pave that,” Campbell said at the group’s regular meeting, held Nov. 11in the Douglas Room at Lapham Community Center.

The discussion arose during a rundown on projects that Mann has planned for New Canaan’s public parks, including a new trail at Waveny that’s designed to get pedestrians off of the main road through it.

Due to a personal matter, Mann was unable to attend the meeting in person, Campbell said.

Recreation Director Steve Benko said the plan at Kiwanis is to repave the lot and install 8- or 10-foot milling strips along the edge of a thin, tree-lined grass divider that separates the lot itself from the access road.

“What is happening with the pavement is when cars exit the park, they cut across the grass” and end up breaking up the asphalt, Benko said.

The budget request for that work would be made by the DPW, Campbell said.

Meanwhile, calling Kiwanis a “hidden gem” of New Canaan, commissioners continue to explore ways to make the park more visible.

Commissioner Matt Konspore praised New Canaanites Len Paglialunga and John Buzzeo for their early-stage proposal to install bocce courts at Mead Park, and said he hoped “somebody will come up with something of that type to do at Kiwanis and try to build up Kiwanis, too.”

“We still need to find a niche for Kiwanis,” Konspore said. “We should all put our thinking caps on, because if we could do something as simple as this, it could turn Kiwanis around.”

One idea that’s been floated for Kiwanis that commissioner Laura Costigan shared was installing a miniature golf course there. Benko called it “a possibility.”