Hilary Ormond

New Petition to Install Surveillance Cameras in Waveny Follows Disappearance of Jennifer Dulos

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Following the disappearance of a New Canaan woman nearly two weeks ago and subsequent searches of Waveny, where police found her car abandoned, a new petition to install cameras in the park is picking up hundreds of signatures online. New Canaan resident Hilary Ormond created the petition Tuesday through Change.org following the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos, who hasn’t been seen since dropping her kids off at school May 24. Police launched an investigation and quickly found her black Suburban parked near Waveny’s Lapham Road entrance. New Canaan Police on Saturday arrested Dulos’s estranged husband, and his girlfriend, in connection with her disappearance, and local, state and federal law enforcement agencies have been seen searching through the heavily used park daily. “I was inspired to create the petition because I wanted to turn my feelings of helplessness arising from the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos into something constructive,” Ormond said in an email, responding to questions from NewCanaanite.com.

Government

Town Officials Call for Less Conspicuous Garbage Dumpsters in Parks

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Town officials said last week that they’re addressing an aesthetic problem whereby those entering local parks in some cases are accosted by the sight of garbage dumpsters. 

The town many years ago switched from trash cans dotted around fields at parks such as Waveny and Mead, to having dumpsters, according to Parks & Recreation Commission Chair Sally Campbell. That effort was “very critical to reducing the amount of trash on the fields and in our parks,” she said during the Commission’s regular meeting, held Oct. 10 at Lapham Community Center. 

“However, we find that every park we drive into we are verbally assaulted by City Carting on the dumpsters,” she said. The answer, according to Commissioner Hank Green, who has looked at how nearby towns handle their dumpsters, will involve putting up three-sided fencing around them. “It should be a pretty easy fix,” Green said.

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.

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.