Government

Officials: Mead Park Tennis Courts To Open Later This Month

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All of New Canaan’s athletic fields are open and the increasingly heavily used tennis courts at Mead Park are on track to open this month, officials said last week. The company that helps ready the clay courts at Mead for the season has done its prep work, according to Parks & Recreation Director John Howe. “We don’t want to do what we did last year, though,” Howe told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission during their April 12 meeting, held at Lapham Community Center and via videoconference. “We opened too early,” he continued. “I’m not saying we are not opening up until June or anything like that, but we want a few weeks where we can water and roll the courts and have the surface firm up more.

Board of Selectmen

Town Approves $35,000 Contract for Fireworks at Waveny; ‘Family Fourth’ Set for July 1

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Town officials on Tuesday approved a $35,000 contract with a Douglassville, Pa.-based company to put on this year’s fireworks at Waveny. The Board of Selectmen voted 3-0 in favor of the contract with the town’s longtime vendor, International Fireworks Mfg. Co., during its regular meeting. “I think they do a fabulous show,” Tom Stadler, chair of the New Canaan Family Fourth Committee, told the selectmen during their meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

This year’s Family Fourth, the hugely popular picnic and fireworks show at Waveny, will be held on Saturday, July 1 with a rain date of July 2 (and, if necessary, a further backup of July 8), Stadler said. Though in years past the Family Fourth has been held on July 4, the Committee decided unanimously to have it on the weekend, he said.

Animal 411

‘I Don’t Think He Likes Pugs’: Local Woman Calls for Separate Large- and Small-Dog Areas at Spencer’s Run

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Saying her pug was attacked twice in the dog run at Waveny, a local woman last week asked parks officials to consider creating separate “large” and “small” dog areas within Spencer’s Run. Kathryn Quirk told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission last week that her 1-year-old pug is “very friendly and she’s great with the other dogs and this one dog just jumped all over her and was very vicious” on two separate occasions. “Fortunately my husband was there and he was able to grab her,” Quirk told the Commission during its regular meeting, held Nov. 9 at Lapham Community Center. “He’s done this twice and I’ve watched him do it to another dog on a different day and I’m sort of reluctant to take her there now,” she said.

Board of Selectmen

Town Approves $114,000 Contract for Repairs at Steve Benko Pool

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The Board of Selectmen at its most recent meeting approved a $114,235 contract with a Newtown-based company to make repairs to the Steve Benko Pool and kiddie pool in Waveny. The pump motor on the kiddie pool umbrella feature died over the summer and the town was “very fortunate to find one of three motors in the country to rebuild that pump,” Parks & Recreation Director John Howe told the selectmen at their Oct. 31 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “But the main pool has one pump that runs,” he said. “And if that pump ever goes down, we’d have to shut the pool down until a new pump is available.

Government

Rec Department To Relaunch After-School Programs at the Schools

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The town’s Recreation Department plans to relaunch its after-school programs at New Canaan Public Schools following an unexpected lapse this fall, officials say. The municipal department “for years has been doing after-school programs at mainly the elementary schools but also Saxe,” according to Parks & Recreation Director John Howe. But due to a mistake or misunderstanding, “Whatever you want to call it,” Howe said, “we didn’t do them this fall.”

“There has been some outcry from parents, talking to the superintendent of schools, they’d like us back, and so we’re shooting to go back to do parent conferences which are at the beginning of December,” Howe told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission during their regular meeting, held Wednesday at Town Hall and via videoconference. “We’ll have outside contractors go in there to run some programs just to keep the kids busy, and then back in January, we’re planning on being right back in the schools, running programs.”

Howe spoke during his regular monthly update to the Commission. In addressing Parks & Rec, he also reported that the restoration work on the gazebo at Waveny has been completed and came out very well, that part of the dog run at Waveny has been closed off for re-seeding and will reopen in the spring, reviewed some of the Rec Department’s popular Halloween-themed events and said next year’s Color Drop fundraiser for the New Canaan High School Scholarship Foundation will be held March 25.