Around Town

Parks Officials Approve Plan for Border Collies to Scare Geese out of Mead Park

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Parks officials on Wednesday accepted a private group’s offer to pay a Wilton-based company about $3,000 to use border collies to run Canada geese off of the large baseball field at Mead Park this spring. The birds’ droppings are an “enormous problem” and baseball players are in regular contact with the fecal matter just in virtue of playing the game, Paul Giusti, who identified himself as representing Friends of New Canaan Baseball, told the Park and Recreation Commission at its regular monthly meeting. “I think all of you know it is really bad [for baseball players], let alone [for] the toddlers that are there that are crawling around in this and these geese are getting onto Mellick and Gamble also,” Giusti said at the meeting, held in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. He was joined by Jim Higgins, president of New Canaan Baseball Softball Inc.

“We will do the first three months during the baseball season and see how this all works out. It’s not like it’s a bullet-proof kind of solution, but I think it will improve the situation for the toddlers, for the ballplayers, for everybody that is there to have a better experience at Mead Park.”

The commission approved the plan 8-0, breaking from its own policy of waiting one full month between a hearing a request or making a decision on it, citing the timing of the baseball season’s planned start in early April.

Government

Fees Set, Upgrades Planned for 2015 Season at Waveny Pool

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Praising members of a volunteer group that sets policy at Waveny Pool, the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved a new slate of fees for the 2015 season at the popular summertime destination. The finances of the self-sustaining Waveny Pool have seen a “dramatic change” for the better, in part because of a Park & Recreation subcommittee that has “put some business acumen behind the way that business was being run,” First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said during the board’s Feb. 10 meeting. “[Recreation Director] Steve [Benko] was incredibly adaptive to that and the pool is on really solid footing again,” Mallozzi said at the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. The approved fees are as follows, with a reduction in regular family passes and an increase in passes that allow for daily use and guests—changes designed to lure families to purchase season passes rather than mixing and matching daily and guest passes to save money (article continues below):

 

Out-of-town families that purchase higher-priced season passes to Waveny Pool—mostly residents of Darien, reigning runners-up for the state football title—already are making inquiries of the Rec Department for the upcoming season.

Around Town

Park & Rec Hears Proposal for Two Caffeine & Carburetors Events at Waveny

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If approved, twice-yearly Caffeine & Carburetors gatherings at Waveny could require advance registration from participating antique and specialty car owners, as well as a donation of non-perishables to the New Canaan Food Pantry by exhibitors and attendees—a voluntary option last fall. Park & Recreation Commissioner Rick Kilbride said during the group’s regular meeting Wednesday night that making charitable giving a part of Caffeine & Carburetors would be “directionally an extremely appropriate balance for a community like this.”

“I think it could go a really, really long way if everybody participated in that way—in terms of being aware and supporting some of these or one of these specific charitable efforts,” Kilbride said at the meeting, held in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. “I don’t know how to make that mandatory, but I think there is an implied obligation for every exhibitor and attendee.”

Caffeine & Carburetors founder Doug Zumbach is seeking approval for four events this year—April 19 and Sept. 13 on Pine and Elm Streets, and May 10 and Oct. 18 at Waveny.

Government

Rec Director on Waveny Caffeine & Carburetors: ‘It Went Very Well’

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The first New Canaan gathering of classic and specialty auto enthusiasts to be held somewhere other than the downtown—the Oct. 19 event at Waveny—went “very well” and “people seemed to enjoy themselves,” the head of the Recreation Department said Wednesday night. Caffeine & Carburetors’ debut at New Canaan’s treasured park saw cars “in a nice orderly manner on the roads, the parking lot, around the front circle of the house,” Steve Benko said at the regular meeting of the Park & Recreation Commission meeting, during the first public postmortem of the 3.5-hour event. “I didn’t see any issues or problems,” he said at the meeting, held in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. “Doug [Zumbach] and his crew stayed after to pick up signs and pick up garbage.

Around Town

New Canaan Garden Club Plans Dogwood Grove for Irwin Park

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Just as the nonprofit group unveiled plans to plant a vibrant wildflower meadow at Irwin Park, the New Canaan Garden received approval from town officials to kickstart a dogwood grove at the Weed Street park. Things will start off with four dogwoods going in just off of the Flexi-pave footpath toward the northwest corner of Irwin (near enough to Wahackme) and “will not interfere with the playing fields,” club member Katie Stewart told the Park & Recreation Commission at the group’s regular meeting Oct. 8. “It’s timely because they should be planted right now, and the long-range plan would be to do a total of 12, so there would be this wonderful bloom all at once,” Stewart said. The commission unanimously approved the effort.