Government

Selectmen Approve $70,000 for Baseball, Softball Field Maintenance 

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The newly elected Board of Selectmen during its first meeting Tuesday approved two contracts totaling approximately $70,000 for maintenance work on New Canaan’s baseball and softball fields. 

The town owns 11 ball fields and eight of them have clay infields, according to Assistant Superintendent of Parks Ryan Restivo. The “recreational premium infield mix from Grove City, Pa.-based Dura Edge Products “has benefited our maintenance program and is the most important aspect of New Canaan’s renowned clay fields,” Restivo told the Board during its regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of a $24,086 contract with Dura Edge and $45,579 contract with Bridgeport-based Athletic Field Services. 

The funds are available in the Parks Department capital infrastructure budget, Restivo said. The selectmen asked why the project needs a contingency (unexpected costs for AFS and because the delivery tonnage from Dura Edge may not be exact), whether the department could “true up” contingency totals each quarter to see whether they’re used (yes) and whether coaches are allowed to perform field maintenance (no). Carlson how many companies were approached for a bid on the project.

Around Town

Soggy Conditions at Waveny Prompt Cancellation of Final ‘Caffeine & Carburetors’ of 2023

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Heavy rainfall in recent weeks has forced organizers to cancel the final Caffeine & Carburetors car show of 2023. Scheduled for Sunday at Waveny Park, the antique and specialty auto show will not be held and the series will return next year, C&C founder Doug Zumbach said. “I thought about it over this past weekend, and there was really no reason to delay the decision,” Zumbach told NewCanaanite.com on Wednesday from inside his eponymous coffee shop at Pine and Grove Streets, where Caffeine & Carburetors began. Zumbach said he’s been visiting Waveny every other day to track conditions, and he grew especially concerned about the forecourt at the main house. “We’re just one of many events that have been canceled due to this rain that we have every weekend,” he said.

Government

Town: Early-Morning Pickleball Noise Complaints Down After Locking Up Mead Courts Overnight

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Town officials say they’ve effectively addressed noise complaints about pre-dawn pickleball players at Mead Park by locking the courts until 8 a.m.

In the early weeks of summer, pickleball players ignored the signs saying that the courts were open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.—and, in fact, vandalized and removed some of those signs—starting matches as early as 5:30 a.m., according to Parks & Recreation Director John Howe. “We’ve been dealing with noise complaints and we’ve put up some signs with the hours, which were vandalized and taken down and removed,” Howe told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission at their most recent meeting, held July 12 at Lapham Community Center. 

“So we’re going to be putting up new signs. But what we’re having problems with is people were actually going out as early as 5:30 to play. The pickleball courts are open continually 8 to 8, and so we had to start locking them up. Before that we had them unlocked.

Around Town

‘It’s a Beautiful Pool’: Residents Flock to Steve Benko Pool at Waveny Amid Heat, Humidity

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The NewCanaanite.com Summer Internship Program is sponsored by Carriage Barn Arts Center. With temperatures topping 90 degrees, and a feel temperature of more than 100 degrees, the Steve Benko Pool at Waveny is drawing hundreds of visitors on many days this summer. At midday recently, New Canaan resident Ally Pastushan joined dozens of other parents at the pool watching their kids compete in a meet between Newfield Swim Club and Waveny Gator Swim Team. “We love the pool, we moved to New Canaan about 12 years ago and the improvements they’ve made have been wonderful,” Pastushan said. “Between the big umbrellas they have, the fact that they provide chairs, the snack bar and everything, big improvements over where it was.” 

While the chairs, umbrellas, and snack bar all remain popular fixtures of the pool, John Howe, the director of the Parks and Recreation Department, said that the public will probably not realize the effort his department puts into keeping the pool open. 

“Unfortunately, not a lot of improvements that the public would see,” Howe said when asked about what changes have been made.

Government

Committee To Lead Proposal for New Children’s Playground in Waveny

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First made public more than two years ago, plans to install a new children’s playground in Waveny have been delayed, though a new committee now is taking up the proposal, officials say. A committee that includes Parks & Recreation Director John Howe, Public Works Director Tiger Mann, a Town Councilman and Monica Capela of the Friends of Mead Park Playground is to meet soon to develop a “concept plan” for the new playground area, officials said during Tuesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting. The playground will be located next to the parking lot that serves the “Orchard Field” softball diamond and all-abilities fitness station/athletic area in Waveny. 

The committee will “propose the layout for the new athletic area and the children’s playground area and the equipment” for both, Mann told the selectmen at their meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “We’ve been a little delayed in getting it launched,” Mann said. He spoke in response to a request for an update on the proposal from First Selectman Kevin Moynihan.