Government

New Crosswalk Coming to Park Street Near Mead Park Entrance

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Town officials on Tuesday approved a contract with a New Canaan-based company to improve pedestrian access to Mead Park. The Board of Selectmen vote 3-0 in favor of a $12,075 contract with Peter Lanni, Inc. to put in a new crosswalk on Park Street and make the sidewalks approaching the entrance to the park handicapped-accessible. The new crosswalk will be located south of the entrance to Mead Park, near the access road for Lantern Way Condominiums.

Total project costs are $8,325 plus $2,500 for police protection and a $1,250 contingency. “We had several requests from the residents who live across the street in the condo complexes to try to get across Park Street safely and one of the thoughts was to put in a mid-block crosswalk from the Lantern Way Condominiums across the street to the sidewalk that’s on the western side of Park Street,” Director of Public Works Tiger Mann said during the meeting at Town Hall. In addition to the new crosswalk, the project covers the creation of handicapped-accessible ramps that will run from the sidewalk on each end of the entrance to Mead Park.

Government

‘It Is Bedlam’: Town Officials Target Parking Congestion, Problems at Mead Park

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Citing safety concerns and some motorists’ bad habits, officials say they’re weighing changes to how people park in two areas at Mead Park that see intense motor vehicle use at specific times. Motorists often park directly alongside the Apple Cart Food Co.-run Mead Park Lodge by the little league fields or physically on the traffic island there, according to Sally Campbell, chair of the Parks & Recreation Commission. Those entering Mead from Park Street drop into a parking situation that is confusing and haphazard, especially on “baseball nights,” Campbell said. “It is bedlam over there with the parking” on such nights, she said during the commission’s May 10 meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. “We talked to the baseball people when they were redoing the field and we said, ‘You really should look at the parking because it’s very congested over by the Apple Cart and with moms getting their kids out of the car and everything, it is really unsafe,’ ” Campbell said.

Around Town

Parks Officials: Wet Weather Lifts, Clearing Way At Last To Open Playing Fields

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Town officials say they expect nearly all playing fields to be open by Wednesday, despite recent heavy rains that have held up operations at the water tower and Farm Road fields at New Canaan High School. Athletes on major spring sports that practice or play on grass had options as of Monday on the NCHS track and Conner fields (soccer), playing fields at Saxe (lacrosse), little league and varsity fields at Mead Park (baseball) and Orchard Field at Waveny (softball), according to the Department of Public Works. DPW workers on Tuesday will paint out the kids’ soccer fields at Waveny, said John Howe, parks superintendent. “Overall the condition of the fields, they are in good shape,” Howe told NewCanaanite.com. “With that said, they are still wet, even though we’ve had a few days drying and we’re almost a month later than when we regularly open up.

Around Town

Traditional Japanese ‘Cherry Blossom Festival’ Coming April 30 to Mead Park

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Officials last week voted unanimously in favor of allowing an area organization dedicated to building knowledge and mutual understanding between Japanese and Americans to hold a “cherry blossom festival” next month at Mead Park. The Japan Society of Fairfield County’s traditional festival is to be held 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 30 following an 8-0 vote from the Parks & Recreation Commission. New Canaan resident and society board member Jackie Alexander said the cherry blossom festival—or “Sakura Matsuri”—is “a century-old Japanese tradition to celebrate spring when the cherry blossoms bloom.”

“It happens to be [the society’s] 30th anniversary, so we would like to do a Sakura Matsuri at Mead Park to share Japanese culture and open it to the public,” Alexander said at the meeting, held in Lapham Community Center. “It’s a family friendly event, with some music and some crafts.”

To include bonsai flower arranging and perhaps also a karate demonstration, the festival will be held in the colonnade, overlooking Mead Pond. The Japan Society of Fairfield County—founded in 1987 in Greenwich—also will donate a cherry tree to Mead Park, Alexander said, and is seeking a representative from the Consulate General of Japan in New York to attend a dedication ceremony.

Government

Parks Officials Envision New Uses for ‘Colonnade’ at Mead

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With its vantage point overlooking the pond and tennis courts, and enclosed by the columns that recall ancient Greece or Rome, the colonnade at Mead Park could be developed in some way to better serve New Canaanites, parks officials said Wednesday night. It’s a “nice area, and if you start to fix it up, it could be utilized,” Recreation Director Steve Benko said during a regular meeting of the Park & Recreation Commission, held at Lapham Community Center. The town could consider putting “either a paver patio or a flagstone patio, and you could put a couple of Adirondack chairs and round picnic tables with umbrellas, and a lot of people go down to the snack bar and it gets very busy with noise with kids. And it might offer the tennis players a place to go up, grab an iced tea, and sit and chat with their friends. Or somebody brings their lunch up there.