Government

Local Woman: Out-of-Towners Are Violating Rules in Use of Paddle Tennis Courts at Waveny 

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Nonresidents are using New Canaan’s platform or “paddle” tennis courts at times when attendants are not there to monitor registrations, including Fairfield County league players, according to a local woman who holds a permit to play at the Waveny facility. There are “there are quite a few people from other towns that know when our offseason starts and they are using our paddle courts,” Terri Hott told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission during their regular meeting last week. “All of us that have passes—and that’s revenue for the town—make our reservations,” Hott said during the March 10 meeting, held via videoconference. “If these other leagues are not paying for the use of the courts and they are reserving the courts, I mean, what revenue is collected on that?”

“One Sunday I was there, there were just people driving by and they jumped on the courts with their kids. And just to throw a ball or something with their child.

Government

‘It Looks So Wonderful’: High Praise for First-Phase Work Done in Bristow Bird Sanctuary

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The completed first phase in restoring a long-neglected and little-known bird sanctuary in New Canaan—one of the nation’s oldest—is earning high praise from town officials and visitors. Described as a quiet and beautiful wooded area, the Bristow Bird Sanctuary and Wildwood Preserve—thanks to volunteers and Department of Public Works personnel—features attractive new footbridges over meandering streams, a newly dredged pond, seating areas and varied bird feeders, officials said during last week’s meeting of the Parks & Recreation Commission. Responding to a presentation from Public Works Director Tiger Mann on the work that’s been done in Bristow in the past six months, Commissioner Francesca Segalas said, “It looks so wonderful.”

“I am so happy to see this,” she said during the meeting, held Jan. 13 via videoconference. 

Mann shared a photo walkthrough that he’d captured the same morning, starting at the northern end of the 17-acre bird sanctuary—accessible through Mead Park, at the back of the little league baseball fields—and following pedestrian trails toward its other entrance along Route 106. As he walked along, Mann said he found the park “very quiet.”

“I didn’t hear anything,” he said.

Government

‘I Don’t Like It’: Parks Commissioner Voices Concerns Over Proposed Fee To Use Tennis Courts at NCHS

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Calling it “clubby” and restrictive, a member of the Parks & Recreation Commission last week pushed back on a proposal to start charging residents for use of the tennis courts at New Canaan High School. Commissioner Francesca said the proposed $30 or $35 seasonal pass fee for the hard-surface courts means residents would have no public courts left to play tennis for free, such as Darien residents have in Cherry Lawn Park. “I don’t like it,” she said during the Commission’s regular meeting, held Jan. 13 via videoconference. “We have to pay for everything.

Francesca Segalas

Parks & Rec Supports Use of Pesticides on Athletic Fields

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Saying it’s healthier for athletes, parks officials last week voted in favor of a recommendation to keep using pesticides on New Canaan athletic fields where it’s legal to do so. Referring to a consultant’s report that compared the surface hardness of a grass field treated with pesticides (Conner Field off of Farm Road) versus one that’s pesticide-free (Saxe Middle School’s), members of the Parks & Recreation Commission voted 7-1 during their regular meeting Dec. 9 to recommend to the Board of Selectmen that New Canaan continue a midsummer application of chemicals on fields at Conner, Mead Park and Waveny. In making the recommendation, the Commission referred to a memo from Parks Superintendent John Howe, New Canaan High School Athletic Director Jay Egan and Recreation Director Steve Benko saying fields that don’t use pesticides are harder and therefore more likely to cause concussions. The trio, identified as the “New Canaan Fields Committee,” cited a $3,000 “Core Performance Quality Standards Assessment” of Conner and Saxe fields from Tom Irwin Advisors of Burlington, Mass. 

“Based on the information provided in the [Tom Irwin Advisors] report, the data shows that the use of pesticides on Conner Field has had a positive effect on the quality and safety of that field for athletic contests,” the memo said.

Government

‘It’s Very Refreshing’: Parks Officials Praise Local Family Volunteering To Help Collect Litter at Waveny

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Parks officials last week praised a local family that’s volunteering to help spruce up at a local park. Though town officials often field complaints about trash, Parks Superintendent John Howe said New Canaan’s Sky Minckler contacted him recently to ask whether it would be OK if she and her daughters “picked up litter and debris at Waveny trails and if they could put it in the dumpsters we have there and everything else.”

“And when we always think about Mead Park and all the litter at the playground, it’s very refreshing to know that someone is out there that’s willing to help us,” Howe told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission at their regular meeting, held Dec. 9 via videoconference. “And I wanted to thank her for that.”

Minckler, a guest at the meeting, said she and her husband had grown up in New Canaan and recently moved back to town. “We are running into a lot of people who are looking to volunteer in town, because the kids have nothing to do during COVID because they can’t do the soup kitchens and their senior citizen bits and what not,” she said.