Government

‘I Don’t Like It’: Parks Commissioner Voices Concerns Over Proposed Fee To Use Tennis Courts at NCHS

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Calling it “clubby” and restrictive, a member of the Parks & Recreation Commission last week pushed back on a proposal to start charging residents for use of the tennis courts at New Canaan High School. Commissioner Francesca said the proposed $30 or $35 seasonal pass fee for the hard-surface courts means residents would have no public courts left to play tennis for free, such as Darien residents have in Cherry Lawn Park. “I don’t like it,” she said during the Commission’s regular meeting, held Jan. 13 via videoconference. “We have to pay for everything.

Francesca Segalas

Parks & Rec Supports Use of Pesticides on Athletic Fields

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Saying it’s healthier for athletes, parks officials last week voted in favor of a recommendation to keep using pesticides on New Canaan athletic fields where it’s legal to do so. Referring to a consultant’s report that compared the surface hardness of a grass field treated with pesticides (Conner Field off of Farm Road) versus one that’s pesticide-free (Saxe Middle School’s), members of the Parks & Recreation Commission voted 7-1 during their regular meeting Dec. 9 to recommend to the Board of Selectmen that New Canaan continue a midsummer application of chemicals on fields at Conner, Mead Park and Waveny. In making the recommendation, the Commission referred to a memo from Parks Superintendent John Howe, New Canaan High School Athletic Director Jay Egan and Recreation Director Steve Benko saying fields that don’t use pesticides are harder and therefore more likely to cause concussions. The trio, identified as the “New Canaan Fields Committee,” cited a $3,000 “Core Performance Quality Standards Assessment” of Conner and Saxe fields from Tom Irwin Advisors of Burlington, Mass. 

“Based on the information provided in the [Tom Irwin Advisors] report, the data shows that the use of pesticides on Conner Field has had a positive effect on the quality and safety of that field for athletic contests,” the memo said.

Government

Parks & Rec: Tennis Court Usage Up Amid COVID-19 Emergency

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Officials say they’ve seen a sharp rise among residents seeking passes to play tennis at Mead Park this summer. 

The town has sold 216 total passes compared to 144 last year, Parks & Recreation Commissioner Steve Haberstroh said during the appointed body’s regular meeting Wednesday. 

Within those figures, the number of adult passes has increased year-over-year from 59 to 115, while youth passes have increased from 17 to 42, Haberstroh said during the meeting, held via videoconference. 

“Likely due to COVID, people are interested in tennis again,” he said during an update on tennis activity. 

The courts at Mead Park and New Canaan High School both are seeing robust regular use, Haberstroh said. On good weather days, 35 to 45 courts are used daily at each location, he said. Starting May 10, the high school courts began requiring users to register ahead of time to use the courts and had an attendant there to ensure CDC and U.S. Tennis Association guidelines are followed, and 450 people signed up, Haberstroh said. The only user group buying fewer passes is seniors, down slightly from 65 in 2019 to 56 this summer, he said. The reason for the overall increase likely is that residents are looking to do outdoor sports and to social-distance amid the COVID-19 public health emergency, Parks & Rec commissioners said.

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Parks Officials Vote 7-1 To Support New Access Road Connecting NCHS, Waveny

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Saying they still need to reach an agreement with district officials about how a proposed new access road linking New Canaan High School to Waveny would be used, members of the Parks & Recreation Commission at their most recent meeting voted 7-1 in favor the concept. The proposed road would run south of the parking lot that sits between Dunning Field and the tennis courts at NCHS, through a grass area toward where the Summer Theatre of New Canaan had its site, and connect to a milled lot alongside the Waveny water towers. By installing parking spaces on either side of the new road, and at the same time expanding “water tower field” parking, New Canaan would gain about 75 new spaces in an area that now requires more of them, with the launch of additional turf fields, officials have said. Briefed on the plan in March, some Parks & Rec commissioners said they worried the new access road would bring unwanted additional traffic to Waveny. Since then, members of the Commission have walked the site and studied the plan in greater detail, and at their April 10 meeting voted to approve the idea, though questions about whether gates on either side of the road would be “locked during the day full-time, open only on weekends, only allowed for teacher parking or student parking” still must be worked out, Chairman Rona Siegel said.

Carl Mason

Parks & Rec Seeks To Improve Platform Tennis Reservation System

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Saying improvements could be made to reservation and waitlist systems, parks officials say they’re trying to figure out how to ensure the platform tennis courts at Waveny are getting full use. As it is, those reserving the “paddle tennis” courts may cancel up to four hours before their scheduled slot—a deadline the town changed from 12 hours at the request of the players themselves, according to Recreation Director Steve Benko. Yet even if an auto-notification system alerted others on a waitlist about a newly available court, it’s difficult to pull together four players on a few hours’ notice, Benko told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission at their most recent meeting. 

“The hardest thing is that paddle is a doubles game, not a singles game,” Benko said during the April 10 meeting, held at Town Hall. “Very few people play singles paddle.”

Commissioner Francesca Segalas said that with the online reservation system now in place, “cancellations and waitlist were two issues that really are not working well,” and that those players who have demonstrated “a cancellation habit” cannot be tracked. 

Commissioner Carl Mason asked what Parks & Rec would seek to do in terms of its policy if it was able to identify “repeat offenders” who tend to cancel at the last minute. Benko said the town’s policy has been that a warning is issued the first time, a three-day penalty (where players cannot make a reservation) is imposed after a second, a week-long penalty after a third offense and “then you are done” if it happens a fourth time.