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Rona Siegel Elected Chairman of Parks & Recreation Commission

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The Parks & Recreation Commission on Wednesday night elected Rona Siegel as chairman of the advisory body. 

Voting 8-0 with two people abstaining, the Commission cast its vote during an organizational meeting at Town Hall, conducted by First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. 

Sally Campbell, who has served as Commission chairman since May 2013, said prior to nominating Siegel that she would remain in the group through the year but that she would not seek the chairmanship. 

“I think it’s time to move on,” Campbell said. “I have been chair for countless years and on the Commission for countless years. I have been very happy with how we work, our Commission, with each other, how we work with [Public Works Director] Tiger [Mann], who has been terrific, and John Howe with Parks and Steve [Benko] in Rec, and I think we made a big impact.”

Campbell continued, saying, “I think it’s time for a change and change is always good, so I just wanted to put that out there. And if I can I would make a recommendation for chair, that would be Rona Siegel. She came onto the Commission two years ago and she has been very impactful since then and there has been nothing that she’s taken on that she has not done brilliantly.

Board of Selectmen

Selectmen Table Vote After Learning of Non-Public ‘Meeting’ of Parks & Rec

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[March 1 note: After this article was published, the chair of Parks & Rec said in an email that Carl Mason and Steve Haberstroh did not attend the Friday meeting of the “Tennis Committee,” and that the gathering didn’t constitute such a committee meeting.]

The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday voted unanimously to postpone a vote on a proposed set of fees for tennis passes at Mead Park this summer after learning that the government body behind the proposal came up with the figures during a meeting held out of the public eye. Each year, the Parks & Recreation Commission reviews what the town charges for different types of tennis passes at Mead and makes a recommendation to the selectmen ahead of the season. The fees proposed for this year originated with a Parks & Rec “tennis committee” that met Friday, according to Recreation Director Steve Benko, who presented the item to the selectmen. That revelation led First Selectman Kevin Moynihan to say he was “confused by the process here.” “You said there was a meeting last Friday,” Moynihan said during the Board’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall.

Government

With Interest in Tennis Waning, Town Officials Pursue New Uses for Mead Park Courts, Racquet Club Partnership 

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Town officials are looking to forge a new partnership with the New Canaan Racquet Club and also find some new uses for the under-utilized tennis courts at Mead Park in order to boost attendance there. 

In 2018, New Canaan sold 112 season passes for the clay courts, bringing in about $10,000 in revenues against $14,000 just to open the facility and thousands for more attendants, according to the Parks & Recreation Commission. 

“There is a considerable shortfall on tennis that the town has to make up,” Commissioner Carl Mason said during the appointed body’s Feb. 13 meeting at Town Hall. “Even if we were to look at some of our better years, looking back at 2015 or so, we have a shortfall.”

Though tennis instruction clinics bring in some money, they effectively just “cover their costs” and it’s hard to justify redoing the clay courts for an estimated $140,000 “without any real hard data on usage,” Mason said. 

“We are really not finding any champions for tennis in New Canaan at this point in time,” Mason said while presenting the full Commission with an update on the eight Mead Park courts. 

The Commission should consider whether all of those courts must be dedicated to tennis, given the low demand, or whether “we can convert those courts for other sports,” Mason said. 

“One thing that has been discussed is pickle ball. The hard court is maybe a venue for pickle ball. Or maybe even volleyball, basketball or a flexible field on one of the Har-Tru courts.”

Recreation officials also have met with the New Canaan Racquet Club to talk about a new partnership.

Government

‘Follow Them, Look at Their Car, Get the License Plate’: Parks Commissioner Calls for Self-Policing at Irwin

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A town official on Wednesday night called for a renewed effort to self-police Irwin Park, which she said has seen a resurgence in abandoned dog feces. 

Parks & Recreation Commission member Francesca Segalas said during the group’s regular meeting that reporting offenders to police and having them ticketed has worked in the past. Tickets issued to irresponsible dog walkers last year led to less dog waste left behind, Segalas said at the meeting, held at Town Hall. “And the tickets happened from two citizens reporting, not from the cops stopping them,” she said. “The dog warden caught them but she caught them on information from the citizen. So we need people to go and kind of look and see and if you see somebody who leaves dog poo behind, follow them, look at their car, get the license plate and text it to me and I’ll take care of it.”

The comments come one year after Parks & Rec formed a committee to tackle the problem and one local woman launched a widely discussed public shaming campaign at Irwin, placing ‘Shame On You’ flags on individual piles of excrement left at the popular park.

Amy Murphy Carroll

Did You Hear … ?

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First Selectman Kevin Moynihan during Tuesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting congratulated Caroline Garrity on being named chairman of the Waveny Park Conservancy. Garrity is known to many for her volunteer work with the New Canaan Garden Club. ***

New Canaan Police at 12:05 a.m. Tuesday cited a 21-year-old Waterbury man for possession of less than .5 ounces of marijuana after stopping him at Lakeview and Millport Avenues for driving with a defective headline and marker light. ***

The selectmen on Tuesday voted 3-0 to appoint Dave Hunt to serve on the Board of Assessment Appeals. Bob Avery resigned from the post, Moynihan said. 

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New Canaan Public Schools announced Thursday that Darlene Pianka, the district’s assistant superintendent of pupil and family services, will succeed the retiring Gary Kass in the role of human resources director.