Government

Drones at Waveny: Citing Safety Hazards, Town Officials Call for Use Policy

By |

Saying the drones they see flying at Waveny with greater frequency represent safety hazards, parks officials will set about drafting a policy on the use of the devices there. Recreational drone operators and at least one out-of-town Realtor—practicing her listing flyovers—have sent the devices overhead during baseball and softball games at nearby fields, according to Steve Benko, director of the New Canaan Recreation Department. With a policy in hand, signage and organization, those who fly drones hopefully would become as responsible and respectful as the men who fly model airplanes as part of the venerable New Canaan Radio Control Society, Benko told members of the Park & Recreation Commission at their regular meeting this month. “Unfortunately, Waveny Park has become ‘Fairfield County Park,’ ” Benko said during the meeting, held May 11 in Lapham Community Center. “Everybody from Stamford, Darien, Westport and Norwalk comes here and they think, ‘I can just do that.’ ”

And in some cases, they appear to feel very strongly.

Government

‘It’s Awesome’: Parks Officials Support Waveny Park Conservancy’s Plan for a New Trail

By |

Parks officials on Wednesday night voted unanimously in favor of a private group’s plan to create a new trail in Waveny Park where walkers, joggers and others now are forced into the roadway for lack of one. As it is, the trail that snakes alongside the Waveny Road from the South Avenue entrance ends at a traffic triangle where the Carriage Barn driveway comes into it. Under a proposal from the Waveny Park Conservancy, a new trail would climb the hill up toward the main parking lots in front of Waveny House, according to Keith Simpson, a local landscape architect who sits on the nonprofit organization’s board. “I am showing some additional trees because we want to do some additional trees, and if the budget allows, we would like to put some trees in and cut down some brush so that there is no doubt about it, people can see the trail from the road,” Simpson told members of the Park & Recreation Commission during their regular monthly meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. “Because we want them incentivized to get up and then that would presumably strengthen our hand and the police department’s hand to say we really, really want strollers and people with dogs off the road because we have created an 8-foot-wide trail for you.”

The commission voted 8-0 in favor of constructing the new trail (it needs selectmen, finance board and Town Council approval, and will be paid for entirely by the conservancy) as presented.

Animal 411

Parks Officials Plan Improvements To Grounds at Spencer’s Run Dog Park in Waveny

By |

Parks officials may try fencing off portions of Waveny’s dog run this spring and then again in the fall in order to re-grade the area so it’s safer for all the mammals who go there. The root systems of trees that used to stand in what is now Spencer’s Run have rotted underground, creating bumps and divots in the popular dog park that appear flat after mowing, according to Kit Devereaux, a regular park user (with her white poodle, named ‘Louis Armstrong’). So when the grass grows over those areas “it creates sort of a trap, and so they [a committee of volunteer liaisons between Spencer’s Run and the town] would like to have half of it re-graded and then other half re-graded,” Devereaux told members of the Park & Recreation Commission Wednesday night at their regular meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. If New Canaan’s parks superintendent deems it a worthwhile project, half of Spencer’s Run could be cordoned off and re-graded now through June, and then the full park would be available to paying users through the summer, with the second half addressed in the fall, Devereaux said. Asked whether there are any concerns about the remaining space being too small for visitors (there are some 480 registered users of Spencer’s Run, two-thirds of them nonresidents who pay higher fees), Recreation Director Steve Benko said that the area being looked at now “still has a decent amount of grass.”

“So he [the parks superintendent] can go in, he can aerate it, he can over-seed it, he can get the grass to grow fast.

Around Town

Parks Officials Support May 22 and Oct. 16 Caffeine & Carburetors at Waveny

By |

Following a successful trial of two Caffeine & Carburetors gatherings at Waveny in 2015 that yielded zero complaints, the event’s founder on Wednesday night secured support from parks officials to pursue two more dates this year. The Park & Recreation Commission voted overwhelmingly in favor of May 22 and Oct. 16 for Caffeine & Carburetors at Waveny—both Sunday mornings. Commissioner Jason Milligan was the sole member of Park & Rec not voting in favor of the event. Doug Zumbach, owner of the eponymous gourmet coffee shop on Pine Street where Caffeine & Carburetors was born as a far smaller gathering of automotive enthusiasts, told the commission at its regular monthly meeting that he’s already garnered Police Commission support for April 17 and Sept.

Sports

New Canaan Girls Cross Country 6th, Boys 10th at FCIAC Championships

By |

After training in weather that felt more like fall–and over this past weekend, winter–during the days leading up to Wednesday’s FCIAC Cross Country Championships; on race day it resembled late-summer with the sun shining brightly on Waveny and a temperature near 75 degrees. So is the byproduct of running cross country in New England. And in what is arguably the best high school cross country conference in all of New England, the New Canaan girls team finished sixth while the New Canaan boys team finished tenth in Wednesday afternoon’s FCIAC Championships. “I’m really, really pleased,” girls head coach Art Brown told NewCanaanite.com. “Going in, I thought we had a shot at [defeating] Ludlowe and Darien and we beat them today, which was very satisfying.