Government

New Canaan Eyes State Funds for Mead, Kiwanis Playground Upgrades

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New Canaan will put in for capital project funds from the state to replace what parks officials call aging playground equipment and Mead and Kiwanis Parks. With funds that come through the State Bond Commission, the Small Town Economic Assistance Program (or “STEAP”) serves Connecticut towns ineligible for Urban Action bonds, for purposes that include “quality of life projects,” the state website says. The Board of Selectmen at its regular meeting Tuesday voted unanimously to support an application on behalf of the Recreation Department for $103,750 to replace the playground equipment. “We need to replace equipment at Kiwanis and … at Mead we have a see-saw and spring animals [that are aging],” Recreation Director Steve Benko said during the meeting, held at the New Canaan Police Department. The equipment is inspected every year—some of its dates to 1987, Benko said—and it’s reaching the end of its usable life.

News

Town Re-Closes Playing Fields, Hopes to Re-Open Wednesday-Thursday

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Town officials say they’re hoping to open several of New Canaan’s playing fields Wednesday and by Thursday, to open the rest. According to John Howe, superintendent of parks for the New Canaan Department of Public Works, the town opened everything Monday but then had to shut it back down again Tuesday morning with the overnight rain. “I’m hoping that tomorrow [Wednesday] we’ll have quite a lot open and then Thursday, weather permitting, we’ll be back and have everything opened up,” he said. “What we haven’t been able to finish is getting everything lined out, painted and goals put up. We’re still working on it whenever we can, but of course it’s raining.”

Consecutive snowstorms and freezing temperatures contributed to lingering frost from February into March, delaying the opening of the fields.

Around Town

Mallozzi: ‘Iconic’ New Canaan Pond Skating Missing This Winter

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via YouTube

Though we’ve seen one of the harshest winters in memory—with plenty of freezing temperatures—New Canaan is missing one of its “iconic” pastimes, the town’s highest elected official said. First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said he remembers skating on Mead and Mill Ponds as a child, teen and with his own kids. Yet this year “it just isn’t happening,” Mallozzi told New Canaanite. The first selectman offers up one possible reason: The tons of salt that road crews use to make sure motorists can get around town as quickly as possible.

Around Town

Town Weighs Sidewalk Installation at Mead Park

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A concern about speeding at Mead Park has prompted town officials to weigh the efficacy of installing a sidewalk that would run down from Park Street toward the pond. The width of the road at that part of Mead Park complicates the prospect of sidewalk installation, officials say. According to Tiger Mann, assistant director in the New Canaan Department of Public Works and the town’s senior engineer, the 60-foot-wide roadway was designed to accommodate parking spaces on both sides, by the baseball field and pond. A sidewalk would need to run outside the archway on the pond side (on the right if you’re coming into the park) and then follow a stone wall toward the pond, Mann said. “Then it gets a little dicey near the end,” Mann told NewCanaanite.com.

Government

New Canaan Approves 5-Year Lease for Popular Food Concessions

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Town officials on Tuesday approved a 5-year lease with a local merchant who runs popular snack shacks at town parks. Emad Aziz owns and operates the Apple Cart Food Company, whose food concessions at Mead Park, Kiwanis and the Waveny Pool are fixtures among residents using the town facilities. “I can honestly say that I have never heard a complaint about his service or his food, he’s always positive,” New Canaan Administrative Officer Tom Stadler said during the Board of Selectmen’s regular monthly meeting, held at the Police Department. The board unanimously approved the lease, keeping it at $10,000 per year—half of which goes to the Waveny Pool fund, the other half to the town’s general fund. Raising the rate would simply pass that cost onto residents by forcing Aziz to raise prices, officials said.