Government

Town Approves Funds for Design of Route 106 Sidewalk Extension, Parking Area for Bristow Bird Sanctuary

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Town officials this week approved a contract designed to make it easier for pedestrians and motorists to access an increasingly popular bird sanctuary that’s undergoing a major restoration ahead of its centennial. The Board of Selectmen approved a $16,000 contract with Bridgeport-based Cabezas DeAngelis Engineers & Surveyors for an extension of a sidewalk along Route 106 to the entrance of the Bristow Bird Sanctuary and Wildwood Preserve and new parking area. The firm “has done excellent work for us in the past,” Public Works Director Tiger Mann told the selectmen at their regular meeting, held Tuesday via videoconference. He referred to the design of new sidewalk on Main Street, Park Street and Richmond Hill Road. “They are aware of that entire area,” he said.

Board of Selectmen

Selectmen Approve $34,000 Contract with Local Company for Fence Work at Bristow

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday voted unanimously in favor of a $34,000 contract with a New Canaan-based company to repair and replace damaged sections of fence at an increasingly popular bird sanctuary that’s undergoing a major restoration ahead of its centennial. The first phase of work at Bristow Bird Sanctuary and Wildwood Preserve—a 17-acre town-owned property that’s accessible through Mead Park and Route 106—as well as pond dredging and restoration has largely been completed, according to Town Engineer Maria Coplit. 

“In order to prepare for spring plantings, it is timely for sections of the existing fence around the perimeter of the park to be repaired or replaced, either due to tree or storm damage or age,” Coplit told the selectmen at their regular meeting, held via videoconference. “In addition, the existing pedestrian gates need to be relocated, per the Bristow Centennial Master Plan.”

First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted in favor of a $33,943.40 contract with Gannon Rustic Fence. Gannon “has done fantastic work for us in the past,” Public Works Director Tiger Mann said. “They’re local, which is nice, they’re New Canaan-based.

Bristow Bird Sanctuary

‘Pollinator Garden’ Proposed for Familiar Traffic Island in Mead Park

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A volunteer group that’s restoring a bird sanctuary along Old Stamford Road will request permission from town officials this week to create a gateway pollinator garden to the property. To be located in a familiar traffic island near Mead Park’s little league fields, the pollinator garden is designed to provide habitat for pollinating insects as well as to educate the public about the importance of such native plantings, according to Chris Schipper, a member of the Friends of Bristow Park and Bird Sanctuary and chair of the New Canaan Conservation Commission. A lone oak tree now stands in the traffic island, which some motorists have used for parking when Mead is busy. Plans drawn up by New Canaan-based landscape architecture firm Keith Simpson Associates call for native plantings such as viburnum, rudbeckia, milkweed and ferns. 

The Friends group is pursuing a $10,000 matching fund grant from Sustainability CT to create a “pollinator pathway” at Bristow, and is more than halfway toward its goal (details and donation information here), Schipper said. The Friends group is expected to go before the Parks & Recreation Commission at its regular meeting Wednesday night to get permission for the plantings.

Bristow Bird Sanctuary

‘Hidden Jewel’ of New Canaan: Conservation Advocates Seek Funds To Help Restore Bristow Bird Sanctuary

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The proposed capital budget for next fiscal year, now before the Board of Finance, includes a $200,000 earmark for the restoration of a long-neglected and little-known bird sanctuary in New Canaan—one of the nation’s oldest—that advocates describe as an essential piece of the town’s walkable “greenlink” connecting public parks. Those seeking to restore the Bristow Bird Sanctuary and Wildwood Preserve already have received funds from organizations such as the New Canaan Community Foundation for a master plan for the 17-acre parcel tucked between Old Stamford Road and Mead Park. 

Drawn up by New Canaan-based landscape architecture firm Keith Simpson Associates, the plan calls for five major phases starting in the fall and wrapping up in 2024, the year that will mark Bristow’s centennial anniversary. It covers what Conservation Commission Chair Chris Schipper described to the Board of Selectmen last month as “the five Ps”: perimeter (fencing), paths, (bird-viewing) pads (with benches), pond (minor dredge) and parking (off Route 106). “I believe [the plan] will take this really kind of hidden jewel—it’s a beautiful little park—that will take it to a state that will add a little luster to New Canaan,” Schipper told the selectmen during a Jan. 21 budget hearing held at Town Hall.

News

Letter: Bristow Bird Sanctuary a ‘Most Treasured’ Hidden Gem

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We in New Canaan are truly blessed with Waveny, Irwin, and Mead Public Parks as well as our many Land Trust Preserves, but one of our most treasured hidden gems must be The Helen and Alice Bristow Bird Sanctuary and Wildwood Preserve. Yet, in spite of this, I suspect many of you might rightly ask – where is it, I’ve never even heard of it? Answer: Bristow Park is located right next to Mead Park. A little history lesson: Way back in 1918 the Migratory Bird Treaty Act made hunting migratory birds illegal – a practice mostly done to harvest brilliantly colored feathers to adorn women’s hats. Thanks to a group of far sighted New Canaan conservationists seeking to encourage interest in bird-life and protect native birds, the Bristow land was acquired in 1924 creating the third oldest private bird sanctuary in the nation.