Government

‘Waveny House Committee’ Appointed To Help Determine Future Use of Cherished Public Building

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Faced with numerous and expensive baseline repairs that are needed to get Waveny House running as an ADA-compliant public building, town officials on Tuesday appointed a committee that will help determine just how the cherished New Canaan structure should be used. The “Waveny House Committee” is expected to recommend whether the 1912-built home continues to house the Recreation Department, operate more extensively as a paid special events venue, serve as a storage space or perform other functions—a wide range of possibilities that could shape the scope of New Canaan’s capital investment in the facility (more on that below). The committee will consist of Bill Holmes, Suzanne Jonker, Steve Parrett and Penny Young, members of the Board of Selectmen said during their regular meeting, with Recreation Director Steve Benko, Parks & Recreation Commission Chairman Sally Campbell and DPW Buildings Superintendent Bill Oestmann to join at some point. First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said: “There is an attempt to identify some dollars that we can go to the public with over the next two or three years to do an improvement on Waveny House, and we all thought it was important that we just don’t take what is there and redo it, but we should have input as to what the usage should be of that house, how it functions, what the parameters are for the usage of that house.”

The committee is not a “building committee” (which is formed to study, recommend and oversee a specific capital project) and is different from the nonprofit Waveny Park Conservancy, a private group that’s focused on Waveny’s grounds, specifically in the southwest quadrant of the park. Selectman Beth Jones said it was “great to have” Holmes on the committee—he’s a member of the Conservancy, too, as a representative from the New Canaan Preservation Alliance.

Government

Naming Rights, Donor Plaques on Waveny Structures Part of Conservancy’s Draft Agreement with Town

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While members of the group appear now to be focused on landscaping, the Waveny Park Conservancy under a draft agreement with the town would be poised, with approvals, to name buildings and affix plaques to structures at the popular park in recognition of those who fund projects there. The “Park Preservation and Improvement Agreement” notes that the Town Council must approve “the naming of any building, structure or improvement after any donor, individual, foundation or group.”

“The Conservancy may affix donor recognition plaques in connection with completed Improvement Projects subject to Town approval in each instance as to size, design and location,” one section of the 2-page document reads. “The Conservancy shall not cause or permit any sign or advertisement to be placed in the Park or affixed to any building, structure or improvement except in compliance with the Town Code, ordinances and regulations.”

The document, which the Park & Recreation Commission supported 8-0 during its regular meeting Wednesday by way of recommending the agreement to the Board of Selectmen for further review, may offer a glimpse into one way that the Conservancy intends to raise money as it seeks to fund, propose and help oversee capital projects across a wide swath of Waveny’s grounds. Much of the Conservancy’s “bullet point” presentation to the Park & Recreation Commission dealt with the more immediate work that would be done at and near Waveny Pond as well as in the area in the southwest part of the park known as “the cornfields” (no longer a dumping area for dredged material). In particular, Conservancy member Bill Holmes said, the group is seeking to pay for a consultant to conduct a “forest management plan” which would include identifying invasive species at Waveny and would focus on the area south of the main road through the park.