Government

Officials Support Proposed ‘Twin Bridges’ Design for WWII Memorial Walk at Mead Park

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When funds are in hand to repair a failing footbridge at Mead Park—whether that money comes from the town or is raised privately—the structure itself should mirror a proposed new footbridge, so that together they help form a cohesive World War II memorial walk there, parks officials say. The “Gold Star Walk”—a footpath along the northern and eastern edges of Mead Pond that’s dedicated to the 38 New Canaan men who died during Second World War—requires two bridges to traverse the underground streams that supply the pond’s water. Though its foundation is secure, the decking and handrails on one of those bridges, already in place, are in dire need of replacement—an approximately $15,000 to $17,000 job. A private group led by  1947 New Canaan High School graduate Jim Bach has secured nearly all of the $37,000 needed to build the second footbridge, but the two structures aesthetically must look exactly alike, according to local landscape architect Keith Simpson, who is helping him. “What I am afraid of is that we will get the funds to do this [new bridge] and it will look really good, and then this [existing bridge] will be band-aided by the town with a way that goes about doing things ‘financially’ and the two bridges will actually never look alike,” Simpson told members of the Park & Recreation Commission during their regular meeting Wednesday.

Government

‘It’s Awesome’: Parks Officials Support Waveny Park Conservancy’s Plan for a New Trail

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Parks officials on Wednesday night voted unanimously in favor of a private group’s plan to create a new trail in Waveny Park where walkers, joggers and others now are forced into the roadway for lack of one. As it is, the trail that snakes alongside the Waveny Road from the South Avenue entrance ends at a traffic triangle where the Carriage Barn driveway comes into it. Under a proposal from the Waveny Park Conservancy, a new trail would climb the hill up toward the main parking lots in front of Waveny House, according to Keith Simpson, a local landscape architect who sits on the nonprofit organization’s board. “I am showing some additional trees because we want to do some additional trees, and if the budget allows, we would like to put some trees in and cut down some brush so that there is no doubt about it, people can see the trail from the road,” Simpson told members of the Park & Recreation Commission during their regular monthly meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. “Because we want them incentivized to get up and then that would presumably strengthen our hand and the police department’s hand to say we really, really want strollers and people with dogs off the road because we have created an 8-foot-wide trail for you.”

The commission voted 8-0 in favor of constructing the new trail (it needs selectmen, finance board and Town Council approval, and will be paid for entirely by the conservancy) as presented.

Animal 411

Parks Officials Plan Improvements To Grounds at Spencer’s Run Dog Park in Waveny

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Parks officials may try fencing off portions of Waveny’s dog run this spring and then again in the fall in order to re-grade the area so it’s safer for all the mammals who go there. The root systems of trees that used to stand in what is now Spencer’s Run have rotted underground, creating bumps and divots in the popular dog park that appear flat after mowing, according to Kit Devereaux, a regular park user (with her white poodle, named ‘Louis Armstrong’). So when the grass grows over those areas “it creates sort of a trap, and so they [a committee of volunteer liaisons between Spencer’s Run and the town] would like to have half of it re-graded and then other half re-graded,” Devereaux told members of the Park & Recreation Commission Wednesday night at their regular meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. If New Canaan’s parks superintendent deems it a worthwhile project, half of Spencer’s Run could be cordoned off and re-graded now through June, and then the full park would be available to paying users through the summer, with the second half addressed in the fall, Devereaux said. Asked whether there are any concerns about the remaining space being too small for visitors (there are some 480 registered users of Spencer’s Run, two-thirds of them nonresidents who pay higher fees), Recreation Director Steve Benko said that the area being looked at now “still has a decent amount of grass.”

“So he [the parks superintendent] can go in, he can aerate it, he can over-seed it, he can get the grass to grow fast.

Government

Neighbor’s Concerns About Nature Center Grounds Include Disused Trails, Fallen Trees

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Officials say the New Canaan Nature Center neighbor who recently flagged concerns about the park’s grounds is taking issue specifically with what he calls disused trails not properly “returned to nature” as well as improper removal of fallen trees. John Busch of Oenoke Ridge Road additionally showed members of the Park & Recreation Commission “examples of water walkways that are left to fall apart or rot,” commissioner Gene Goodman said during the group’s Feb. 10 meeting. The resident “suggested that there are ways to make the park more in tune with what the park should be, especially if you want it natural,” Goodman said at the meeting, held in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. “Things that are not being done or are not being done correctly, in his opinion, that would be a benefit.”

Busch had come to the commission’s January meeting and expressed in general terms that he was dissatisfied with management of the Nature Center’s grounds.

Government

‘We Would Have To Know That You Have the Money’: Parks Officials Stop Short of Supporting Plan To Finish WWII Memorial Walk at Mead Park

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Though they conceded that a footbridge in Mead Park is structurally unsound and that a proposal to finish and maintain an area memorializing New Canaan’s World War II vets is nice, parks officials say greater detail is needed in order to support the plan more than conceptually. Private funds would be used to build an estimated $37,000, second bridge over the main in-flow to Mead Pond at one end of the “Gold Star Walk,” as well as to ensure that trees dedicated to New Canaanites who perished during WWII are healthy. Yet the Park & Recreation Commission needs a detailed cost estimate and assurances that private monies are in place to repair an existing footbridge, according to Sally Campbell, the group’s chairman. “We cannot approve anything unless we really see a firm plan,” Campbell told local landscape architect Keith Simpson during the commission’s Feb. 10 meeting, held in the Douglas Room at Lapham Community Center.