Around Town

Waveny LifeCare Network To Propose 70-Unit Residential Retirement Building on Oenoke Ridge Road

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A local nonprofit organization is seeking to expand housing options for seniors with a 70-unit, three-story residential retirement building on Oenoke Ridge Road that includes access to a range of healthcare services. The one- and two-bedroom building, to be called ‘Oenoke Ridge,’ would be located in an area where Waveny LifeCare Network already owns property, between the New Canaan Historical Society and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church campuses, according to the organization’s president and CEO, Russell Barksdale Jr. Waveny has a .88-acre property at 65 Oenoke Ridge Road, owned by the Historical Society, under contract pending approval for its project by the Planning & Zoning Commission, Barksdale said. The 140,000-square-foot Oenoke Ridge would operate under a “buy-in” model as a new, higher-end piece of New Canaan’s “Continuing Care Retirement Community” or ‘CCRC.’ Many seniors who want to remain in New Canaan no longer want to or able to care for large houses and properties, yet The Inn independent living complex isn’t right for them and while they want access to medical care, they’re far too active for the skilled nursing facility on Farm Road, Barksdale said. 

“It is giving them a beautiful condo that is spacious and allows them to truly age in place and have services provided to them as their needs change,” Barksdale told NewCanaanite.com in an interview. At Oenoke Ridge, residents would pay a lump sum of $750,000 or $850,000, depending on whether they’re seeking a one- or two-bedroom unit, in addition to an all-inclusive monthly fee of $4,500.

Around Town

Waveny Pursues Plans for Expanded Senior Housing Options in New Canaan

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A nonprofit organization that has served New Canaan for decades is commissioning a study to determine demand for senior housing in town, officials say. Due to conclude within about one month, the study forms part of a larger effort to help meet the need for diverse senior housing in New Canaan, according to Russell Barksdale, Jr., president and CEO of Waveny LifeCare Network. Members of the organization—which includes Waveny Care Center, The Village and The Inn, as well as outpatient and day programs—already have presented to residential real estate brokers to get feedback on one- and two-bedroom apartment styles and layouts that would help a senior “move in and age in place and hopefully never move again,” Barksdale said. 

Waveny will continue to solicit feedback from local experts, residents and officials as it looks closely at three parcels of land in New Canaan that may be right for senior housing development, he said, including neighbors of those properties. 

“There may be others look at and consider,” Barksdale said. 

“The expectation is we will go, before choosing, to meet with the town and go over and meet with neighbors to make sure they can support what we are thinking about doing. So this is not something where we will design it and lay it out and close on the land and then go to [Planning & Zoning] to push it through. This is something where we are going to be inclusive of all the community and give everyone an opportunity to look at it, talk about it, neighbors, look at plans and drawings and make sure before go to P&Z to have input and support to do what we want to do and what we believe is the need for the area.”

Asked what is the range in the number of units Waveny is thinking about creating, Barksdale said the completed market plan and demand study will help determine that figure.

Around Town

‘You Have To Work At It’: Waveny Care Center’s Prized Volunteerism Receives Boost from Local Family

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As Diana Siano and Pickie Rosemond Harvey-Smith made their way through The Village  at Waveny Care Center on a recent afternoon, they catch sight of handsome Harry Sharlach. “Harry! Oh Harry!” They swoon. Sharlach turns but it is too late: He vanishes into a cloud of kisses. Both Siano and Sharlach are part of a vast network of volunteers that bolsters the day-to-day care at Waveny LifeCare Network, where Harvey-Smith resides.

Business

‘The Inn’ of New Canaan Earns Perfect, Near Perfect Scores on Surprise Health Inspections of Dining Facility

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The Inn of New Canaan, an in-town senior residence and part of the Waveny LifeCare Network, has consistently earned perfect or near-perfect marks from health inspectors for several years, records show. Out of a possible 100 points, the dining room at The Inn—it’s available to residents there and their guests only—for more than a dozen years has earned an average of 99 during unannounced biennial inspections by sanitarians with the New Canaan Health Department, according to a review of the organization’s files at Town Hall. Anthony Pacchioni is The Inn’s director of dining services. Sanitarians use a state Department of Public Health standard, citing eateries for violations that range in seriousness and corresponding weight from 1 to 4 points. A “failed” inspection is triggered either by one or more 4-point violations or a total score of less than 80 points.

Business

Karl Chevy Awards Corvette Stingray after Hole-in-One at Waveny LifeCare Network ‘Swinging for Seniors’ Fundraiser

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In the days prior to hitting a hole-in-one on the 174-yard seventh at the Country Club of New Canaan a few weeks back, John Polera had told his friends what a nice job he thought Chevrolet had done with their Corvette Stingrays and that one day he’d like to own one. It so happened that on Monday, May 18, Polera was part of a foursome playing in a fundraiser for the Waveny LifeCare Network, where the special prize on that par-3 hole was a new, black Stingray. “After I struck the ball [with the six iron], I saw it was going right toward the flag and I said to myself, ‘This could be a pretty good shot,’ thinking it would be close,” Polera, an attorney from Armonk, N.Y., recalled Friday afternoon from the showroom floor at Karl Chevrolet on Elm Street, his friend, professional client and fellow member of that foursome Jim Darling standing nearby. “And it landed on the green, took one bounce and rolled right into the middle of the cup. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ I said, ‘It disappeared.