Around Town

Parks Officials Seek ‘No Dogs’ Designation for Bristow Bird Sanctuary

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Saying off-leash dogs are disrupting wildlife on the public property, town officials are pushing to rid the Bristow Bird Sanctuary off of Route 106 entirely of canines. The Park & Recreation at its April meeting voted to request the rule formally by way of the Town Council. There used to be a “No Dogs Allowed” sign at the Old Stamford Road entrance to Bristow, but there also long has been a dog litter bag dispenser and receptacle, so that creates a mixed message, said commissioner Andrea Peterson. “It should be a wildlife sanctuary, and it was a bird sanctuary and people walking their dogs, it’s disruptive to the birds and especially if people let them off-leash,” Peterson said at the group’s April 9 meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. Some parks officials raised questions about the move.

News

Mesh Windscreens Coming to Little League Baseball Fences at Gamble, Mellick

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The little league baseball fields at Mead Park are getting a privately funded upgrade that advocates say will create a more attractive, stadium-like setting. New Canaan Baseball will spend about $3,600 of its own money for top-of-the-line mesh windscreens that soon will drape the outfield fences at Mellick and Gamble Fields. The Park & Recreation Commission unanimously approved the measure at its April 9 meeting, held in Lapham Community Center. When a fellow commissioner asked if the height of the fences would be raised as a result of the project, Richard Kilbride said with a smile: “Only when the visiting team bats.”

In truth, the fences themselves will stay the same, said Brian Rogers, a New Canaan Baseball board member who presented the project. “The fences, some of the areas are beat-up and unsightly,” he said.

Government

New Canaan Nears Decision on Selling Waveny Pool Passes to Out-of-Towners

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The divisive question of whether New Canaan will sell Waveny Pool family passes to out-of-towners again this summer hinges on two things, parks officials said this week: How much money is collected from passes sold to residents, and whether the plaster lining of the pool itself will hold for another season. If that major capital project at Waveny Pool must be done prior to the Memorial Day weekend opening, the facility—which is designed to be self-sustaining—would fall short of funds based on the roughly 330 passes already sold to New Canaan residents, the Park and Recreation Commission said Wednesday at its regular meeting. The commission will wait until after April break to take a look at how much money has come in to offset the cost, prior to making a decision on nonresident pass sales, commissioner Richard Kilbride said at the meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. “The thinking was that in a couple of weeks’ time, in terms of where we are in pass sales and in terms of where we are in terms of what we might need to do with this budget, that the subcommittee could do some sort of go/no-go on nonresident sales at that point,” Kilbride said. Last year, 100 passes were sold to nonresidents, raising hackles from some New Canaan users—as well as at least one online petition protesting the practice, with a comment thread that turned personal and combative.

Government

2014 Waveny Pool Fees Set; $1,000 for Nonresident Family Passes

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Though their presence at Waveny Pool raised some eyebrows last summer, out-of-towners will be able to purchase family passes for the facility’s 2014 season. Officials on Friday approved a slate of fees for this summer, including a $1,000 nonresident family pass—a practice that’s expected to boost what recently has been a flat membership, and associated revenue, according to Recreation Director Steve Benko. “There was a lot of controversy last summer because we took in 100 nonresidents,” Benko said during a special meeting of the Board of Selectmen, held in the training room at the New Canaan Police Department. Yet the extra bodies at Waveny Pool have been welcome in the wake of a membership decline that recreation officials saw in the wake of the 2008 economic downturn. What likely happened, Benko said, was that many New Canaanites were forced to give up memberships to private clubs at that time, and that opened up coveted spots for Waveny Pool-goers who had been on waiting lists.

Government

Town Council to Vote on Flexi-Pave Trail Extension at Irwin [UPDATE in Comments]

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Town officials on Wednesday will vote on a proposal that would extend the Flexi-Pave path at Irwin Park around the circumference of the Weed Street property. The “sustainable porous pavement,” as it’s called, was installed about seven years ago along a long, popular loop at Irwin, running north of the entrance and then up along the Wahackme Road side and back toward the buildings at the park (occupied now by municipal bodies). Advocates for the project say the final 555-foot stretch across the “great lawn” would “complete the loop” at Irwin. Funds raised privately several years ago went toward what’s been laid down so far, and extra monies from that effort—long kept in a dedicated “Special Projects Account”—would be used to pay the approximately $53,000 needed for this final stretch. The Town Council, whose approval is required for capital projects on town land, is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the proposal.