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.

Animal 411

Police: Two Bobcat Sightings in Waveny This Month

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The head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control unit is urging Waveny visitors to bring a hazing tool with them after two reported bobcat sightings in the popular park this month. A bobcat crossed in front of a jogger’s path at Waveny on Nov. 20, following an initial sighting reported on Nov. 8, according to Officer Allyson Halm. It’s a good idea at Waveny to have a hazing tool of some kind, mostly because of coyotes, she said.

Government

Garden Club, Landscape Architect at Odds Over Future of ‘Parterre Garden’ at Waveny

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New Canaan should pause before approving a plan that would see a formal garden at Waveny house changed from its original design, according to local landscape architects. Located directly east of the balcony out back of the 1912-built Waveny house, the parterre garden is “the most important formal garden in town,” an “historically significant” area that “deserves a great deal of thought before it gets radically changed,” Keith Simpson told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission at their most recent meeting. “That configuration of the boxwood hedge has been there for over 100 years and I think it has stood the test of time,” Simpson said at the Nov. 8 meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. “And also, the Olmsted office is probably the best known firm in the history of landscape architecture in the country.