Board of Selectmen

Selectmen Approve Plan for Security Cameras at Waveny

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Acceding to a grassroots push to install cameras at Waveny as per a police recommendation, the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday voted 3-0 to solicit proposals for updating security systems in New Canaan. Responses to a RFP likely would come back in December or January, officials said, giving the town an idea of costs as New Canaan sets its spending plan for next fiscal year. The local mom and attorney behind an online petition this summer that kickstarted the town’s efforts, Hilary Ormond, said during an interview after the Board meeting that she was “cautiously optimistic” about the progress. “I want to see this through,” said Ormond, who attended the meeting at Town Hall as a guest. “I want to see it actually happen.

Government

Selectman Williams: Concerns About Waveny Park Safety Have Been ‘Politicized’

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A town official on Tuesday voiced concerns about the characterization of New Canaan’s most heavily used park as unsafe. Saying he believed that some of the talk around town about the safety of Waveny Park was “misguided a bit,” Selectman Nick Williams raised the issue during the Board of Selectmen’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall. While saying that he was “in favor of safety,” Williams asserted that “Waveny is one of the best parks in America and one of the safest parks in America.” Speaking during a section of the Board’s agenda dedicated to general town matters, Williams said that suggestions to the contrary were “perhaps politicized,” but was not specific about how. “I think it’s unfortunate that people are talking about Waveny as if it’s Central Park in the 1970s,” Williams said.

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Video Surveillance Cameras at Waveny: Parks Officials Call for Detailed Police Recommendation 

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Parks officials said Wednesday night that the first step in determining whether video surveillance cameras should be installed at Waveny is to get a formal, detailed opinion from local police. An online petition with more than 1,400 digital signatures that advocates for the cameras and data on how such security systems benefit the public are “very important pieces” of the discussion, Parks & Recreation Commission Chair Rona Siegel said during the appointed body’s regular meeting. And a “recommendation from law enforcement to the town, presented to Parks and Rec is the correct step,” Siegel said at the meeting. “A clear and concise opinion from law enforcement” that includes recommendations on just where the cameras would go “is what the town needs,” she said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. Other questions such as what local agency or agencies would have access and jurisdiction over video content and how long it would remain before officials taped over it also must be part of the town’s decision, officials said.

Hilary Ormond

New Petition to Install Surveillance Cameras in Waveny Follows Disappearance of Jennifer Dulos

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Following the disappearance of a New Canaan woman nearly two weeks ago and subsequent searches of Waveny, where police found her car abandoned, a new petition to install cameras in the park is picking up hundreds of signatures online. New Canaan resident Hilary Ormond created the petition Tuesday through Change.org following the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos, who hasn’t been seen since dropping her kids off at school May 24. Police launched an investigation and quickly found her black Suburban parked near Waveny’s Lapham Road entrance. New Canaan Police on Saturday arrested Dulos’s estranged husband, and his girlfriend, in connection with her disappearance, and local, state and federal law enforcement agencies have been seen searching through the heavily used park daily. “I was inspired to create the petition because I wanted to turn my feelings of helplessness arising from the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos into something constructive,” Ormond said in an email, responding to questions from NewCanaanite.com.