Around Town

‘A Huge Hit’: Asphalt Pads Installed Under Benches in Spencer’s Run

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New Canaan’s popular dog park got an upgrade recently designed to eliminate a hazard and improve the use and beauty of the facility. In the past, when their owners have sat on the half-dozen steel benches scattered throughout the Waveny dog run, some dogs “would lay under the bench and they would dig holes,” according to Recreation Director Steve Benko. “The volunteers were constantly filling holes in,” Benko told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission during their most recent meeting, held Nov. 11 via videoconference. So working with the Department of Public Works, officials had the town’s go-to paving contractor install four-by-eight-foot asphalt pads under each bench in Spencer’s Run, Benko said.

Government

Rec Director: Waveny Has Become the ‘Destination Park in Fairfield County’

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With its parking lots filled to capacity and hundreds of people walking the trails, Waveny has become a “destination park” for all of Fairfield County, according to the town’s recreation director. Waveny “has been overwhelmed with visitors on weekends to walk the trails, walk the fields,” Steve Benko told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission at their Nov. 11 meeting, held via videoconference. “We have kind of become the destination park in Fairfield County. A lot of outside people coming through.

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Waveny To Get Four Dog Poop Bag Receptacles in 6-Month Trial

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Parks officials last week voted 7-1 to allow a nonprofit organization that funds landscaping projects in Waveny to pay for six months of having a private company install and empty four trash cans designed to collect used dog poop bags. The Waveny Park Conservancy will pay Stamford-based Doggie Doo Not! $1,930 to install pole-mounted green metal mesh receptacles in three different areas of the park. 

There’s a “burgeoning problem of the pet waste that is being left all over Waveny,” according to Jane Gamber, a Conservancy board member. 

The receptacles would go on either end of what locals know as the “cornfields” area in the southeast corner of Waveny, as well as in the parking lot near the Powerhouse Theater and Lapham Road trail entrance but the Merritt Parkway, she said. “Each of the stations would include one of the round cans,” Gamber said. “They have a lid on them that is spring-loaded so that they remain closed.

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Parks Officials Vote 11-0 To Support New Canaan Softball’s Proposal To Plant Trees by ‘Orchard Field’ at Waveny

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Parks officials last week voted unanimously in favor of a youth sports organization’s proposal to fund and help plan for the planting of trees by a softball field in Waveny. An iconic tree located behind the backstop at the “Orchard Field” at Waveny recently came down, prompting New Canaan Softball parents to plan for its replacement, according to Jeff Fortmann, a town resident and father of two children who serves on the organization’s board and who swam short-distance events in the early-1990s for the New Canaan Y team. “That tree was beloved,” Fortmann told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission at their regular meeting, held Oct. 14 via videoconference. Softball parents consulted with Recreation Director Steve Benko and Parks Superintendent John Howe, and have developed a plan to raise $5,000 toward purchase of trees.

Around Town

Parks Officials To Dog Walkers at Waveny: Carry Used Poop Bags Back Out

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Town officials are urging Waveny visitors to carry their trash out, following complaints regarding full dog poop bags left inside the popular park. In addition to a section of Waveny along Lapham Road near the Merritt Parkway where dog-walkers long have dropped the used bags, the area commonly known as “the cornfields” in the park’s southeastern corner is seeing full bags left behind, officials said Wednesday night during the Parks & Recreation Commission’s regular meeting. “This is absolutely an outcry for the residents of New Canaan to really understand the carry-in and carry-out of a park that is getting more use than it ever has, and I think we are extremely lucky to have such beautiful facilities,” Commission Chair Rona Siegel said during the appointed body’s meeting, held via videoconference. “And to see them treated in such a manner is beyond disturbing. So I would just reiterate that this is the time with the use and all the effort and sweat that goes into these parks to make them beautiful and for everyone that people are reminded to take their trash with them.”

For years, the problems of discarded poop bags and dog waste left uncollected at parks such as Waveny and Irwin has resurfaced.