Around Town

‘It Helps Make the Park More Accessible’: Remade Trails at Waveny Near Completion

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Waveny visitors benefitting from a nonprofit organization’s efforts to improve trails at the popular park soon will have another new footpath to enjoy. The Waveny Park Conservancy’s long-standing plans to upgrade pedestrian paths alongside the main road through the park, from South Avenue to the main house, soon will be completed. “The old trails there are very worn down and basically dirt trails,” Conservancy board member and Parks & Recreation Commission Chair Sally Campbell said when asked about the project. “These new ones give it a good surface that can take a beating and helps runners stay out of the mud and tree roots, things like that,” Campbell said. “They’ve been very well utilized and well received by the public.”

The Board of Selectmen on July 10 unanimously approved a $45,800 contract with a New Canaan-based landscaping company to finish the final stretch of the trail, meaning park-goers starting at South Avenue can use it all the way into Waveny.

Government

Officials To Clear ‘Sledding Hill’ Lawn at Waveny of Invasive Species, Prune Trees

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The nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring and improving Waveny Park is to embark on a new project focused on the sledding hill that runs east of the balcony behind the main house and down toward the pond, officials say. The Waveny Park Conservancy this year is focused on “redoing the pond and all the landscaping surrounding the pond,” Parks & Recreation Commission Chair Sally Campbell said during the group’s June 13 regular meeting. As such, the Conservancy is seeking to clear of invasive species and brush the lawn that flanks the main central path down to the pond and to prune and clear of vines a set of white oak trees in the same area, according to Campbell. Plans also call for the removal of an “alien tree” on the lawn, she said. With those projects done, and the revitalization of the pond itself on the Conservancy’s roadmap, the vista and experience of walking down from Waveny House will be greatly improved, she said.

Around Town

Journey to ‘England or France’ at Updated Parterre Garden [CORRECTION]

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After months of planning and “yard work,” a newly designed formal garden at Waveny House is in place and residents say they’re enjoying it. Those visiting the town park can now use additional benches as they walk through new plantings, boxwoods and shrubbery along the northern wall of the “parterre garden,” just east of the balcony behind the mansion. “Sitting on the back patio of Waveny and looking down at the parterre, you are transported to England or France,” said New Canaan Garden Club First Vice President Manda Riggs. New Canaan resident Cassidy Little visited the garden on a recent afternoon and is looking to use it as a backdrop for a photography project. “I’m very familiar with Waveny, I run through its trails almost every day in the fall,” she said.

Government

‘It’s a Great Town We Live In’: Councilmen Praise Public-Private Partnerships in Funding Waveny Trails, Platform Tennis Court [UPDATED]

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Citizens’ generosity helped push New Canaan’s legislative body last week to approve taxpayer funding of projects that will enhance Waveny for two sets of park users. Members of the Town Council in approving bond issuances of $50,000 and $70,000, respectively, to improve trails at the popular park and to create a fifth platform tennis court—an additional requested for several years—cited donations from two private groups as reasons to move forward. Specifically, the Waveny Park Conservancy is matching dollar-for-dollar the town’s $50,000 investment in improving trails starting with those that run behind “the cornfields” (soon to become ‘Waveny Meadows’), and platform tennis users are contributing $35,000 upfront toward a fifth court. “Those two projects are just a great example of how lucky we are to have the public and private combination of funds because without the private part of this, we would not be able to get this done,” Town Councilman Steve Karl said at the group’s regular meeting, held May 16 at Town Hall. “With the trails, we are basically doubling the amount of money we are spending there, and in the case of the platform tennis court, it’s another $35,000 in.

Government

Selectmen Approve $34,700 Contract for Outdoor Wall Repairs at Waveny House

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Town officials on Tuesday approved a $34,700 contract with a Warren, Conn.-based company to repair stone walls around Waveny House. The Board of Selectmen voted 2-0 to approve the contract with Meduri Masonry, a company that Public Works Director tiger Mann said “has done some very good work for using the past on various projects throughout town.”

“This is for wall repairs in and around the house itself,” Mann told the selectmen at their meeting, held at Town Hall. “These will be comprised of the one existing wall that is adjacent to the parterre garden that is being replaced right now, and the wall to the north of it has actually collapsed over time.”

First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectman Kit Devereaux voted in favor of the contract, which includes $30,200 plus $4,500 in contingency. Selectman Nick Williams was absent. “This is a town-funded project, this is not a partnership with the [Waveny Park] Conservancy, and the funds are currently available,” Mann said.