Gene Goodman

Parks & Rec Approves Commercial Ads for Proposed Rink at Waveny

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In a break with precedent, parks officials voted last week to allow commercial advertising on a single-season trial basis for a recreational facility planned for Waveny. A private group seeking to establish a seasonal outdoor ice rink at Waveny plans to install the 60-by-120 structure some time later this year in part of the parking lot that serves the Orchard softball field. By selling ad space on the rink’s “dasher boards”—the panels lining the inner wall of an ice rink—the private group could raise about $20,000 to $25,000 annually to help offset operational costs, one of its members, Gene Goodman, said during the Nov. 10 regular meeting of the Parks & Recreation Commission. 

Goodman, who also is a Parks & Rec commissioner, joined Chair Rona Siegel and fellow commissioners Francesca Segalas, George Benington, Carl Mason, Hank Green, Jake Granito (also a member of the private group, officials say), Steve Haberstroh, Matt Konspore and Jack Hawkins in voting 10-0 to allow for the advertising for the upcoming season. (The Commission has one open seat.)

It’s unclear just when the ice rink would be installed or how long it would be in place.

Government

Parks Officials Propose Children’s Playground Area at Waveny 

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Parks officials on Wednesday voted in favor of requesting funds for next fiscal year to update the fitness area at Waveny while also creating a children’s playground area. 

Located just below the main road through Waveny, next to the parking lot that serves the “Orchard Field” softball diamond, the all-abilities fitness station has equipment that will need to be replaced in a few years, according to Parks Superintendent John Howe. Many kids already use that equipment “even though it’s not age-appropriate for them,” and the area is large and flat enough to get a poured-in-place surface not only for the fitness area but also for new playgrounds for younger children, Howe told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission at their regular meeting. “We feel strongly that a playground would really round out recreation at Waveny Park,” Howe said during the meeting, held via videoconference. “We would say that we need to put a fence just so that kids would not be able to go into the roadway from there. But we could make a wooden fence similar to down at Mead Park where it would blend into the surrounding woods and everything else.”

Commission Chair Rona Siegel and members Carl Mason, Francesca Segalas, Steve Haberstroh, Hank Green, Gene Goodman, Laura Costigan, George Benington and Jack Hawkins voted unanimously in favor of a future funding request.

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Parks & Rec Recommends Raising Nonresident Fee for Waveny Pool by $25

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Parks officials on Wednesday voted unanimously to recommend a $25 increase to the fee nonresidents pay for season family passes to Waveny Pool. 

The increase would bring to $1,250 the fee paid by nonresident families for one of 100 nonresident passes that are sold following a lottery. 

Here’s a look at the Parks & Recreation Commission’s proposed fees:

 

Those voting in favor at the Commission’s regular meeting at Town Hall included Chair Rona Siegel, Carl Mason, Jack Hawkins, Laura Costigan, Francesca Segalas, Doug Richardson, Matt Konspore, Steve Haberstroh, Hank Green and Gene Goodman. Commissioner Sally Campbell, attending her last meeting as a member of the appointed body, did not indicate a vote either way. Residents, with the exception of those using nanny passes, may purchase a book of 10 guest passes for $80. The town-owned, self-sustaining Waveny Pool is open each year from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Recreation Director Steve Benko noted that the Commission had adjusted some of the resident fees last year. 

“The individual fee was a little low” prior to last year, Benko said.

Government

Parks Officials Pooh-Pooh Proposed Bocce Court at Irwin

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Town officials last week pooh-poohed a local woman’s suggestion that one or two bocce courts go in at Irwin Park, saying she should seek alternate locations and put together a more formal proposal that has wide backing. Parks & Recreation Commissioner Sally Campbell during the appointed body’s Nov. 13 meeting told New Canaan resident Liz Orteig that she should connect with locals who had won support three years ago to put bocce courts in at Mead Park. 

Campbell asserted that Irwin Park is deed-restricted—though officials noted that there are still areas there where bocce courts could go, see below—and questioned Orteig about applying to a local nonprofit origination for grant money for the project. “Before we entertain anything, I would like to see what your research has,” Campbell said at the meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. “Are they in other parks?

Government

Town: Changes Coming to Traffic Islands at Mead Park To Improve Flow

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Town officials plan this month to realign a traffic island in Mead Park so that motorists don’t cut the wrong way past it, and also to re-stripe the parking for areas that are expected to see heavier use with the newly turfed little league baseball infields. Public Work Director Tiger Mann told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission at their most recent meeting that the town wants to “try and manage the parking in and around the [Mead Park] Lodge” as well as the traffic that flows toward that area from the main entrance on Park Street. 

Specifically, the traffic island at the “T”—where the main parking lot approaches the tennis courts—will be reconfigured, with new hash marks to go down, to prevent drivers from zipping past it on the left. “Right now we have got a lot of people cutting to left of the island, even though we have signage that says ‘keep right,’ they are cutting to the left because it is a little bit wider in that area,” Mann told the Commission at its March 13 meeting, held in Town Hall. “If we if we reorient island—the tree to the western side of the island is in decline, so we are looking to take that out—realign the curb itself, making it straighter so that it will actually narrow down that left-hand lane, so people will be forced to go to the right and around the T,” he said. The town also will either curb or stripe an area below the traffic island to make it narrower and indicate to motorists that they should keep right as instructed, he said.