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.

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.

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.

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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.