Government

Town To Add Disabled Parking Spaces at Waveny, Mead

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved an approximately $27,000 contract with a Bridgeport-based company that will include removal and installation of line striping throughout town. Part of the work that Safety Marking Inc. will do under the $27,527.32 contract will add one disabled parking space at the Steve Benko Pool lot and create accessible spaces in the Mead Park Plaza lot and next to the softball field near the water tower at Waveny, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “At present, the Mead Park Plaza is not striped, so we’re trying to stripe it so we can actually delineate an accessible space and then try to quantify the spaces so try to maximize the use,” Mann told the selectmen at their regular meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. 

“Right now, there’s about three cars that can park in there because of the way people are parking, we are looking at getting upwards of six with an accessible space and a location for a bike rack. At the Benko Pool we are going from four to five accessible spaces and then at the softball fields we actually added an accessible space on that side. So there were four spaces, we added an accessible space.

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.

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.

Around Town

‘Tireless Caring, Devotion and Love’: Friends Remember Steve Benko; Town Renames Waveny Pool in His Honor

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Bea Watkins got to know Steve Benko at New Canaan High School in the late-1960s, and for the last 11 years has worked for him as office manager of the town’s Recreation Department. There at the Rec offices in Waveny House, they often reminisced about mutual friends, parties and weddings, as well as Watkins’s brother, Lem, who’d worked for Benko one summer years ago. “I have always been in awe of Steve’s work ethic and proud to be on his team,” Watkins told NewCanaanite.com in an email when asked for her thoughts on Benko. “He always took such pride in everything he and our crew has had to accomplish for the residents in terms of activities, programs, and facilities. With the recent influx of new residents who continue to voice how astonished they are with all that the Recreation Department and the town has to offer, I know that it is largely due to the hard work and effort of Steve.”

Calling Benko “Mr. New Canaan,” Watkins remembered her friend as singularly passionate about the town and what it offers. “I always enjoyed sharing thoughts and ideas with Steve and a good argument was exciting as well,” she said.