Around Town

Did You Hear?

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During a meeting with Millport Apartments residents last week, members of the New Canaan Housing Authority noted that the locals could watch them present to the Town Council meeting on Wednesday on a big building project planned for the public housing complex on Channel 79. A man who lives in a Housing Authority property advised those in attendance: “I’ve seen those Town Council meetings on TV. If you can’t get to sleep, watch five or 10 minutes of those and it will knock you out.”

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Speaking of the Town Council, the group’s gregarious chairman, Bill Walbert, was among those honored Thursday in Stamford as an “influential local community leader” by the Boy Scouts of America at the annual Greater Stamford Good Scout Dinner. We’re hearing that New Canaan had a strong showing at the dinner, anchored in part by longtime Boy Scouts supporter Karl Chevrolet. ***

The Park & Recreation Commission on Wednesday voted 6-1 with one abstention in favor of expanding its support for listing Waveny on the National Register of Historic Places from just Waveny House to the entire park, including grounds and outbuildings.

Government

Waveny Poised for Listing in National Register of Historic Places

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Waveny Park—crown jewel of New Canaan, gift of the Laphams and site of so many community touchstones, from youth sports, Mosley Hill and weddings to fireworks, nature hikes and sledding—is poised to take an important step toward listing in the National Register of Historic Places, following an informative public hearing Thursday night. Inclusion in the register puts no restrictions on the property and would allow New Canaan to apply for funds in the form of matching dollar-for-dollar reimbursement grants that could go toward restoring parts of the original Olmsted-designed landscape or work on Waveny House and its many outbuildings—planning, conditions assessments, architects’ fees and feasibility studies, state officials said during a meeting of the Town Council Land Use & Recreation Committee. Waveny is “in wonderful shape right now as far as its integrity is concerned, so you’re starting with a really good product,” said Mary Dunne, administrator of the State Historic Preservation Office. “And so I’m assuming you want to keep it that way,” added Dunne at the hearing, held in the Training Room of the New Canaan Police Department. Attended by more than 20 guests, the hearing followed two public meetings on the matter of listing Waveny on the National Register of Historic Places —first before the Park & Recreation Commission in May, then the full Town Council in July.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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The all-volunteer Youth Sports Committee—a Board of Selectmen-appointed group formed to help with the important work of overseeing the private organizations that run youth sports in New Canaan—is getting better at filing meeting minutes. A look at records at the Town Clerk’s office shows that minutes from the Sept. 15 meeting were received on Oct. 3—though that’s not within the legally required seven days, it’s a significant improvement for the committee, which filed its Feb. 6 meeting minutes on Aug.

News

‘Tight Timelines’ Set to Kick-Start $2 Million Saxe Auditorium Renovation

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With an eye on securing construction funds for fiscal year 2016, the group that’s overseeing the renovation of the Saxe Middle School auditorium is working against “tight timelines” that will see draft plans completed by the end of January, officials say. Members of the Saxe Auditorium Building Committee are meeting weekly now as well as conducting site visits in New Canaan, Darien and Westport so that by the next budget cycle they can come before the town with more details and tap the $2 million earmarked for the work starting next summer, New Canaan Public Schools Interim Director of Finance and Operations Nancy Harris said at the Sept. 8 Board of Education meeting. “We have to have a comprehensive preliminary budget, which means there has to be a draft of a design, so that kicks us into high gear,” Harris said at the meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. “At our opening meeting, we really set some very tight timelines,” she said.

News

Group Forms to Oversee Saxe Auditorium Renovation

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New Canaan this week took a big step toward the widely anticipated renovation of Saxe Middle School’s aging auditorium, with the creation of a volunteer panel to oversee the project. The Saxe Auditorium Building Committee includes elected and district officials as well as private citizens. The town approved $175,000 for project designs in the current fiscal year, with $2 million earmarked for the actual work in fiscal year 2016, budget documents show. Part of the original 1957 building, the Saxe auditorium received a “poor” rating in an August 2013 facilities survey. Interim Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi described the auditorium as both an instructional and performance space “and it hasn’t been updated, maintained or renovated in an awfully long time.”

“We’ve got a situation where the seats are broken and the space itself is no longer serving the needs of the school or the community,” Luizzi told NewCanaanite.com.