Government

Police Chief: Cameras at Waveny’s Entrances Would Help Deter Crime, ID Perpetrators

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Though criminal activity at Waveny is rare and the 300-acre park doesn’t need surveillance throughout, it would help investigators to have cameras at entrances and exits that capture images of license plates and people in vehicles, Police Chief Leon Krolikowski said last week. Such video camera systems have already helped deter crime at the New Canaan YMCA, located across South Avenue from Waveny, Krolikowski told members of the Police Commission at their regular meeting Wednesday. “The YMCA had a big problem with people coming into their parking lot and breaking into their cars, and at our recommendation they installed camera systems that captured license plates, and that dropped off dramatically,” the chief said at the meeting, held in the training room at the New Canaan Police Department. “So it helps in that regard.”

Nearly 2,000 people have signed an online petition calling for video surveillance cameras at the park. Launched in the wake of revelations that a missing New Canaan woman’s car was found parked along Waveny on Lapham Road the day she went missing, the petition calls for cameras on specific trails as well as at the Lapham entrance. 

After Waveny user, trial lawyer and New Canaan mom Hilary Ormond presented the petition this month to the Parks & Recreation Commission, that appointed body called for a detailed proposal from police.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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The Waveny Park Conservancy wants to rename the pond at the foot of the sledding hill ‘Anderson Pond’ after receiving a $350,000 gift toward a restoration project there from the Harlan and Lois Anderson Foundation, according to the organization’s president, Caroline Garrity. The Parks & Recreation Commission on Wednesday voted 9-0 in favor of the naming rights proposal. Sally Campbell, a regular member of the Commission who also sits as vice chairman of the Conservancy, was among those who voted. New Canaan’s highest elected official has said her dual role amounts to an apparent conflict. ***

 

Months after a New Canaan Country School neighbor sued the Planning & Zoning Commission over its approval of a new athletic facility, the school purchased that neighbor’s property for $3 million, tax records show.