Caroline Garrity

Tree Warden, Garden Club at Odds Over Waveny Landscaping Plan

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The town official charged by state statute with caring for New Canaan’s public trees is at odds with a local volunteer group that’s eager to remove several Japanese maples from a walkway near Waveny House. The town’s tree warden thinks the maples planted along one side of the path that runs between the gazebo and fountain at the top of the sledding hill “are absolutely beautiful,” Public Works Director Tiger Mann said during the June 9 Parks & Recreation Commission meeting. Referring to a New Canaan Garden Club proposal to replace those trees with a long bed of peonies and flowering plants, Mann added, “He understands your desire to have that, but he also feels that he answers to the other 20,000 residents in the town and he doesn’t see any good reason why they should be removed at present.”

The comments followed a presentation by representatives of the Garden Club and Waveny Park Conservancy, as well as their landscape designer. Removing the Japanese maples would open up a nice view of the hill and pond below, would create more symmetry with the peonies already on the west side of the footpath and would be a better photo opportunity for people getting married at Waveny, according to Conservancy Chair Caroline Garrity and Kathryn Herman of New Canaan-based Kathryn Herman Design, LLC. “It would be very stunning to have this incredibly long walk that was unified on both sides of the walk with this really beautiful display,” Herman said during the meeting, held via videoconference.

Caffeine and Carburetors

Parks & Rec Unanimously Approves Oct. 17 ‘Caffeine & Carburetors’ at Waveny

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After all four installments of a popular antique and specialty car show were canceled one year ago due to the pandemic, parks officials on Wednesday night approved ‘Caffeine & Carburetors’ for Oct. 17 at Waveny. It’s founder and organizer, New Canaan resident Doug Zumbach, owner of the eponymous coffee shop at Pine and Grove Streets, “always does such an amazing job, and all the events that he has had in the past have been pretty problem-free,” Parks & Recreation Commissioner Laura Costigan said during the appointed body’s regular meeting, held via videoconference. “And I can’t think better way keep jumpstarting things after the pandemic than approving” the event, she said. The Commission voted 11-0 to approve it. 

Zumbach in proposing the event—and also noting that he hoped in the future for a possible Sept.

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Parks & Rec Recommends Locating Proposed Open-Air Ice Rink at Waveny

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Parks officials this week voted to recommend that a proposed seasonal outdoor ice rink be located in Waveny. Based on the findings of a subcommittee, the Parks & Recreation Commission voted 10-0 in favor of trying out a winter “mini rink” in the parking lot that serves the Orchard Field softball diamonds. 

One commissioner abstained from voting during the April 14 meeting, held via videoconference. Commissioner Jake Granito, who helped lead the Ice Rink Committee, said the group looked in depth at three possible locations—tapping Public Works Director Tiger Mann, Parks Superintendent John Howe and Recreation Director Steve Benko for their expertise—and concluded that the Waveny site “is best suited for the town.”

It’s a large area that’s “also good because you have the grass fields behind it,” Granito said. “The bathrooms are right there. There’s still plenty of parking.

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Waveny To Get Four Dog Poop Bag Receptacles in 6-Month Trial

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Parks officials last week voted 7-1 to allow a nonprofit organization that funds landscaping projects in Waveny to pay for six months of having a private company install and empty four trash cans designed to collect used dog poop bags. The Waveny Park Conservancy will pay Stamford-based Doggie Doo Not! $1,930 to install pole-mounted green metal mesh receptacles in three different areas of the park. 

There’s a “burgeoning problem of the pet waste that is being left all over Waveny,” according to Jane Gamber, a Conservancy board member. 

The receptacles would go on either end of what locals know as the “cornfields” area in the southeast corner of Waveny, as well as in the parking lot near the Powerhouse Theater and Lapham Road trail entrance but the Merritt Parkway, she said. “Each of the stations would include one of the round cans,” Gamber said. “They have a lid on them that is spring-loaded so that they remain closed.

Board of Selectmen

Selectmen Approve Request To Spend $7,500 on Non-Refundable Deposit for Ice Rink Materials

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Though they haven’t yet recommended a specific trial site, those pursuing an open-air ice rink in New Canaan are readying to purchase used equipment for the facility that will save hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved a request to put $7,500 in privately raised funds held in a town account toward a 60-by-120-foot ice rink and accessory equipment. The non-refundable deposit is for a rink that the Fairfield County Hunt Club is selling for $75,000, according to Gene Goodman, who has spent more than one year as a member of the Parks & Recreation Commission spearheading efforts to study what would be needed to create an outdoor rink facility and where it may go. “Having looked at every site in this town, every site has its plusses and minuses,” Goodman told the selectmen at their regular meeting, held in Town Hall. “No one is an absolute clear hands-down winner.