Government

‘We Would Have To Know That You Have the Money’: Parks Officials Stop Short of Supporting Plan To Finish WWII Memorial Walk at Mead Park

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Though they conceded that a footbridge in Mead Park is structurally unsound and that a proposal to finish and maintain an area memorializing New Canaan’s World War II vets is nice, parks officials say greater detail is needed in order to support the plan more than conceptually. Private funds would be used to build an estimated $37,000, second bridge over the main in-flow to Mead Pond at one end of the “Gold Star Walk,” as well as to ensure that trees dedicated to New Canaanites who perished during WWII are healthy. Yet the Park & Recreation Commission needs a detailed cost estimate and assurances that private monies are in place to repair an existing footbridge, according to Sally Campbell, the group’s chairman. “We cannot approve anything unless we really see a firm plan,” Campbell told local landscape architect Keith Simpson during the commission’s Feb. 10 meeting, held in the Douglas Room at Lapham Community Center.

Around Town

Former Horseshoe Pits Area at Mead Now Eyed for Bocce Courts

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Advocates for the installation of bocce courts in New Canaan are now saying that a little-used area of Mead Park could be a better place for the popular game than the lawn behind Lapham Community Center. The area just beyond Gamble Field’s right field fence, for many years the site of horseshoe pits, could work better than Lapham in part because the bocce courts would be less conspicuous, according to Lenny Paglialunga, who presented the idea to town officials on behalf of his friend and fellow Dunkin Donuts morning crew regular John Buzzeo. “The thing I like about being down in the park is it is sort of—not ‘out of the way’—but there are concessions and bathrooms down there and lights, and in my opinion I think it would probably be more used down there than up here,” Paglialunga told members of the Park & Recreation Commission during their most recent regular meeting, held Oct. 14 in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. The installation—originally proposed for an area behind Lapham, though it turns out the project could require the removal of the gazebo back there—would be completed by a private contractor and paid for by Buzzeo, Paglialunga said, who also would take responsibility for its upkeep.

News

NC Baseball Eyes Summer 2016 for Re-Grading, Drainage Improvements at Mead Park’s Little League Fields

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The private nonprofit group that oversees youth baseball in New Canaan is talking with engineering and architectural firms in anticipation of a major capital project at Mead Park that recreation officials say hasn’t been done in 42 years. New Canaan Baseball has offered to pay for the estimated $1 million re-grading of the two little league fields at Mead, and has set a target date for the starting the work next summer, according to the organization’s president. “The critical path is ultimately finding one or two people that are going to be chiefs of the project,” Jim Higgins told the Park & Recreation Commission at its regular meeting Wednesday night, held in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. “It is significant project. The board has a desire to do it.

Around Town

Local Landscape Architect Floats Plan for New Ice Skating Area, Footbridge, Model Boat Launch at Mead

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A prominent local landscape architect is proposing several improvements to the northern end of Mead Park that could bring not only a new walking path and footbridge along part of the pond but also a modest-sized ice skating rink and small area for model boat enthusiasts to launch their watercraft. Keith Simpson’s plans (see PDF at bottom of article) are conceptual and newly introduced, and many questions must be answered before the Park & Recreation Commission could offer its formal endorsement, Commission Chair Sally Campbell said at the group’s July 8 meeting. That said, after seeing the plan and spending time at Mead Park with Simpson visualizing it, Campbell added: “I think it looks great and it would just be a wonderful addition to the park.”

She said it must be clear just what it would cost to deliver the improvements Simpson is proposing, who would pay for it and how, whether the town would incur any new costs to maintain Mead and what extra safety precautions, if any, would be required. As it stands, the area directly behind the disused shed at the park’s edge (where Grove Street comes into Richmond Hill Road) is weedy and largely inaccessible as pedestrians approach the pond. Simpson’s idea is to clear out a 100-by-160-foot area—about the size of three tennis courts—for a wildflower meadow in the summer that could be flooded with several inches of water for family ice skating in the winter.

Government

Mead and Kiwanis Playgrounds Set for Update

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Following a plan brought forward earlier this year, the Board of Selectmen has approved the request from the Recreation Department to update the playgrounds at Mead and Kiwanis Parks. Recreation Director Steve Benko said during the selectmen’s meeting May 19 that most of the equipment is very old. “Some of the beams are from 1997,” Benko said during the meeting, held in the Training Room of the Police Department. “They are 18 years old and some of them are worn and scratched, so we need to replace them.”

The contracts with M.E. O’Brien & Sons, Inc. will install a new toddler swing set in Mead with single post swing set with two full buckets seats, including installation for a cost of $1,515. “Basically we are going to add a toddler swing to the park,” Benko said.