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

New Canaan Tradition: Fishing Derby at Mill Pond Set for April 12

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Town officials have set the date for a cherished community event at Mill Pond whose roots go back nearly 50 years in New Canaan. Derby Day—listed on the town’s website as the George Cogswell Memorial Fishing Derby 2014, named for a former New Canaan police officer—will start at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 12 (registration opens at 8:30 a.m.), according to a press release issued by New Canaan Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tucker Murphy. The pond, which New Canaan has dredged every other year, will be stocked ahead of the event with 370 pounds of rainbow trout, Murphy said. The dredging of Mill Pond came up recently, at a March 19 Town Council meeting, during a presentation from Department of Public Works Director Michael Pastore and Assistant Director Tiger Mann. According to Mann, Mill and Mead Ponds (neither of which were skate-able this past winter) are dredged every other year at a cost of about $10,000 each time.

Around Town

New Canaan Public Works Targets Trail Work at Waveny

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With funds from a state grant in hand, town officials are upgrading trails at Waveny so that they drain and hold better. New Canaan got $150,000 from the state that will go toward replacing soggy trails with a processed milling base at two main trails in Waveny, with leftover funds to be dedicated toward a third stretch, according to Tiger Mann, assistant director of the New Canaan Department of Public Works and senior engineer for the town. “With the trails, for a long time they [town officials] were putting woodchips in and they would just get soggy and gather water and start to erode,” Mann said. “So this is taking all of that out and putting in a nice, proper base of gravel, so that they all drain. And then if we need crossings, because we have streams coming down off of South Avenue, we put in a little crossing and put a trail up over the top of it.”

The work will be done in two phases and will cover the stretch of trail that runs from Lapham Road (near the Merritt Parkway overpass) toward South Avenue.

Around Town

Traffic Notice: Maintenance Repair This Week on Ponus Ridge Bridge

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Motorists traveling on Ponus Ridge near the northwest corner of town will need to take extra precautions between Clearview Lane and Rippowam Road this week, as officials close one lane of traffic there for bridge maintenance work. According to a notice posted to the town’s website by the New Canaan Department of Public Works, a contractor starting Monday will replace the railings and guardrail on Ponus Ridge Bridge. The bridge spans a creek that crosses under the road from Collins Pond and feeds the Rippowam River (which flows south through downtown Stamford and feeds the Long Island Sound near Southfield Point). “During construction one lane on the bridge will be closed,” the notice says. “The lane closure will remain in effect overnight during the duration of the project, which is expected to last one week.”

DPW officials will place warning signs on both approaches and stop signs at each end of the bridge.

News

Lingering Frost Threatens to Delay Start of Some Youth Sports Programs

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New Canaan parks officials say they’re concerned that lingering winter weather may prevent fields from thawing and then drying out, meaning they won’t be ready for youth sports programs in town. The frost has not yet come out of the ground, John Howe, superintendent of parks for the New Canaan Department of Public Works told the Town Council Wednesday during the group’s budget meeting, held in the New Canaan Nature Center’s Visitor Center. “This is really the first year in 16 years that I am really nervous about this,” Howe said. “We are dependent on the weather and the 15-day forecast for opening the fields looks ‘not good.’ Next week will be below freezing,” he added. New Canaan, along with the rest of the Northeast, has been walloped by winter storms whose traces can still be seen around town, despite a couple of days in the past week that reached the upper 50s.