Gabriel Almaguer

Jehovah’s Witnesses Seek To Set Up Cart for Personal Ministry in Mead Park

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Town officials said last week they need to tap legal counsel prior to allowing Jehovah’s Witnesses to use a section of Mead Park for their ministry. A representative from the South Salem, N.Y.-based congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission during their regular meeting last week that they’d like to set up a cart for “witnessing” for personal ministry at Mead. “The objective is Bible principles practical with family life,” Gabriel Almaguer told the Commission during its July 13 meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. 

He brought a cart with him to the meeting to show the commissioners. It included a poster saying “Find Family Happiness” with pamphlets including “Awake! Six Lessons Children Need To Learn” “Your Family Can Be Happy” and “My Bible Lessons.”

“What we would do is set it up somewhere, stand next to it,” Almaguer said.

Government

Parks Officials Support Plan for Picnic Area Dedicated to Steve Benko Near Waveny Paddle Courts

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Parks officials last week voted in support of a proposal to create a picnic area near Waveny’s platform tennis courts in honor of longtime New Canaan Recreation Director Steve Benko. The New Canaan Men’s Club, together with the women’s and men’s paddle leagues, raised nearly $6,500 for the effort, according to club member Peter Eldridge. “There was a very strong feeling not only among the paddle players in the club but throughout the membership that Steve was very deserving of a memorial,” Eldridge told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission at their June 8 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

Eldridge noted that club members also felt Benko would be very pleased with the renaming of the town pool at Waveny in his honor. Those behind an effort to do something related to paddle tennis met with Parks & Rec Director John Howe to talk about possibilities, he said. Howe said the funds already raised could go toward purchasing picnic tables for an area overlooking the paddle courts that could be expanded if it catches on.

George Benington

Parks & Rec Proposes Food Trucks at Steve Benko Pool, Kiwanis

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Town officials last week voted in support of having a food truck provide concessions at the Steve Benko Pool once per week this summer. The Parks & Recreation Commission at its regular meeting June 8 also voted unanimously in favor of a recommendation to have a food truck at Kiwanis Park. With labor shortages affecting the community pool’s main concessioner, Apple Cart Food Co., the company “might have a hard time keeping the concession stand open at the pool every day of the week,” Parks & Rec Director John Howe said during the Commission’s meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

“So what we’ve looked into is having a food truck,” he said. “We are thinking Tuesday or Wednesday, and having a food truck come for that day. We’d set them up on the grass outside the gate that’s closest to the dog park parking lot, that section, so we can put up a couple of small pieces of fence so kids won’t have any access to go running into the parking lot or anything like that.”

Commission Chair George Benington, Secretary Francesca Segalas and members Matt Konspore, Rona Siegel, Carl Mason and Gene Goodman voted in favor of recommending the change to the Board of Selectmen.

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‘Leave of Absence’: Moynihan Seeks to Retain Parks & Rec Commissioner After Second Domestic Arrest

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New Canaan’s highest elected official is seeking to retain a Parks & Recreation Commission member on the appointed body following the latter’s second arrest in one year in a domestic incident, records show. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan is asking whether Commissioner Jack Hawkins could take a “leave of absence” instead of stepping down from Parks & Rec following the latter’s May 11 arrest for disorderly conduct, according to emails obtained through a public records request. The Town Charter “provides that Parks and Rec shall have no fewer than 7 and no more than 11 members,” Moynihan said in a May 23 email sent to Parks & Rec Chair George Benington and Tucker Murphy, a staffer in the first selectman’s office. “I don’t know if there is precedent for leaves of absence on boards and commissions,” Moynihan continued in the email, adding that he was copying in the Town Clerk’s office for clarification. 

The email string followed a May 23 inquiry from NewCanaanite.com regarding Hawkins’s status on the Commission. Weapons removed from home

New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski forwarded the following police report on Hawkins’s latest arrest to Human Resources Director Cheryl Pickering Jones at 7:49 a.m. on May 12, according to the emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Around Town

Dedication of ‘Steve Benko Pool’ Set for Saturday, June 4

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Town officials this month voted unanimously to approve a June 4 ceremony to honor and memorialize one of New Canaan’s most recognizable, well-liked and dedicated residents. The Parks & Recreation Commission at its May 11 meeting voted 7-0 to approve a plan to dedicate the “Steve Benko Pool” in Waveny on the morning of Saturday, June 4. “I think it’s wonderful,” Chair George Benington said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “Steve Karl and Robin [Bates Mason] have worked really hard to put this together.”

Benko died Feb. 12 after a brief battle with cancer.