Bristow Bird Sanctuary

Officials Push for Improved Walkway from Mead Park to Bristow Bird Sanctuary

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Town officials are pushing for improvements to a walking trail for one pedestrian entrance to an increasingly popular bird sanctuary in New Canaan. 

As it is the heavy pebble walkway leading from the parking lot at Mead Park’s little league baseball fields to the Bristow Bird Sanctuary is “not easy to push a stroller across” and “difficult for older people to walk across,” according to Conservation Commission Chair Chris Schipper. “If this is going to be part of our greenlink that will connect Waveny to Mead and Irwin and the Nature Center and that whole link, that pieces needs to be improved as will other pieces, but I would love to see that improved,” Schipper told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission during their July 13 meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. “It’s always been a back way into the park, but it’s never been very attractive from a park design standpoint. And I think working on that trail at some point would be a big plus.”

The comments came during a general update on Bristow from Schipper, who has spearheaded efforts in recent years to restore what had been a largely forgotten bird sanctuary and wildwood preservation ahead of its centennial in 2024. Parks & Recreation Director John Howe said he agreed with Schipper’s assessment.

Gabriel Almaguer

Jehovah’s Witnesses Seek To Set Up Cart for Personal Ministry in Mead Park

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Town officials said last week they need to tap legal counsel prior to allowing Jehovah’s Witnesses to use a section of Mead Park for their ministry. A representative from the South Salem, N.Y.-based congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission during their regular meeting last week that they’d like to set up a cart for “witnessing” for personal ministry at Mead. “The objective is Bible principles practical with family life,” Gabriel Almaguer told the Commission during its July 13 meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. 

He brought a cart with him to the meeting to show the commissioners. It included a poster saying “Find Family Happiness” with pamphlets including “Awake! Six Lessons Children Need To Learn” “Your Family Can Be Happy” and “My Bible Lessons.”

“What we would do is set it up somewhere, stand next to it,” Almaguer said.

Government

‘Greenwich Wine and Food Festival’ Founders Propose Three-Day Event in Waveny

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The founders of the Greenwich Wine and Food Festival say they’d like to move their popular annual event to Waveny and hold in the park over three days this coming fall. Held in a harbor-front park in Greenwich since its inception, the festival has had its last two installments canceled due to the pandemic, according to Suni Unger, CEO of the publication company that owns Serendipity magazine, which puts on the event. 

The renamed “Serendipity Wine and Food Festival” would be held on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday with about 600 people in attendance each of those days, preferably in the final weekend of October, Unger told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission at their Jan. 12 meeting. Waveny itself is “central for our attendees,” who come from Bedford, N.Y., New Canaan, Darien, Westport and Greenwich, Unger said during the meeting, held via videoconference. “But that’s really our core area and then there are a lot of people—I don’t know whether it’s scaling back in size—but we do draw a lot of national attention, mostly because of the chefs,” Unger said.

Government

Town Forgives $150 Ticket Issued for Parking in Disabled Space

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Town officials last week voided a $150 ticket that had been issued to a New Canaan woman who parked in a disabled space on Elm Street. Shohah Drakos told members of the Parking Commission during her Nov. 4 appeal hearing that the sign indicating a “handicapped” space on Elm just above the intersection with Main Street was obscured by a hanging basket, and that she didn’t see the blue-painted symbol in the road because she backed into the space while parallel parking. 

In addition, a blue line painted in the street marking out the spot did not “look like an official” line, Drakos said during the hearing, held via videoconference. “I parallel-parked into the space and saw that I had a two-hour parking OK, what I assumed was OK, and went on way and did a few errands and came back to find that I inadvertently had a ticket because I’d parked in a handicapped parking space which I would generally obviously never do,” she said. “I work with the elderly and I know what it’s like when you are counting on having a handicapped space that’s available and it’s not and it’s being taken up by somebody else.

Drew Magratten

Town Upholds $30 Parking Ticket Issued for Obstructing Two Spaces

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Officials last week upheld a $30 ticket that had been issued to a New Canaan woman on a Friday afternoon in October for parking in two spaces at a lot downtown. The driver, Eryuan Huang, told members of the Parking Commission at her appeal hearing that when she first tried to pull into space number 152 in the Playhouse Lot around 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 15, a big SUV to the right was already so close to the line that her passenger—a friend from Greenwich—couldn’t get out. “I felt like the other driver, if he opened the door, he could potentially just touch my car,” Huang said during the hearing, held Thursday night via videoconference. 

“I actually backed out several times just to think about it, and then I went in,” she said. Huang added, “I would not take another space if I could, this truly went through my mind.”

Yet she did not take a photo of the offending SUV, commissioners noted before voting 3-1 to uphold the ticket.