Around Town

Waveny Park Conservancy Seeks To Raise $2 Million, Start Work on Grounds Next Spring

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Members of a group seeking to raise money for, recommend and help oversee yet-undetermined capital projects across a big chunk of Waveny Park said Wednesday night that they’re seeking to hit $2 million in order to “break ground” after prioritizing plans through the winter. Calling itself the ‘Waveny Park Conservancy,’ the group has “some money in the bank to get us going, and I think we have pretty reasonable ideas and prospects whereby we can raise this $2 million,” its chairman, Bob Seelert, told the Park & Recreation Commission. “I know a lot of people are trying to raise money for a lot of different things in town—this, that and the other thing—so I suppose there is competition for scarce resources,” he said at the commission’s meeting, held in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. “But the reality is if you live in New Canaan, and you’ve been here a long period of time, if you ever have out-of-town guests into your home, you can do two things with them: You can take them down to Elm Street and bring them over to Waveny. And they all sit there and say, ‘Oh my god, what an iconic place this is, it’s a real gem, I wish I lived here.’ So we think there is enthusiasm for what it is we want to do because, in truth, it is for a really noble purpose.”

Inspired by the model of the Central Park Conservancy, the group incorporated on June 11 with the intention of helping Waveny “thrive in perpetuity” for all New Canaanites, according to Seelert, through a public-private partnership.

Around Town

Waveny Summer Concert Series To Start Wednesday

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The summer season of music has begun, with the Waveny Summer Concert Series kicking off Wednesday. Hosted by the New Canaan Recreation Department, the series will run every Wednesday throughout the summer from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. on the lawn behind the Waveny house. The Recreation Department encourages New Canaan families to bring a chair or blanket, a picnic supper, and enjoy the music at all of the free concerts throughout the summer. The summer lineup features Kenn Morr, Cool Shoes, Gunsmoke, Airborne, The Bookends, Doug Allen, T&T Dreamin’, Billy and the Showmen, Otis and the Hurricanes, Jon Saxon, and Fairfield Counts Band. “Some of the groups we’ve had we’ve had for several years,” Recreation Director Steve Benko told New Canaanite.

News

Town Re-Closes Playing Fields, Hopes to Re-Open Wednesday-Thursday

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Town officials say they’re hoping to open several of New Canaan’s playing fields Wednesday and by Thursday, to open the rest. According to John Howe, superintendent of parks for the New Canaan Department of Public Works, the town opened everything Monday but then had to shut it back down again Tuesday morning with the overnight rain. “I’m hoping that tomorrow [Wednesday] we’ll have quite a lot open and then Thursday, weather permitting, we’ll be back and have everything opened up,” he said. “What we haven’t been able to finish is getting everything lined out, painted and goals put up. We’re still working on it whenever we can, but of course it’s raining.”

Consecutive snowstorms and freezing temperatures contributed to lingering frost from February into March, delaying the opening of the fields.

Government

New Canaan Approves 5-Year Lease for Popular Food Concessions

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Town officials on Tuesday approved a 5-year lease with a local merchant who runs popular snack shacks at town parks. Emad Aziz owns and operates the Apple Cart Food Company, whose food concessions at Mead Park, Kiwanis and the Waveny Pool are fixtures among residents using the town facilities. “I can honestly say that I have never heard a complaint about his service or his food, he’s always positive,” New Canaan Administrative Officer Tom Stadler said during the Board of Selectmen’s regular monthly meeting, held at the Police Department. The board unanimously approved the lease, keeping it at $10,000 per year—half of which goes to the Waveny Pool fund, the other half to the town’s general fund. Raising the rate would simply pass that cost onto residents by forcing Aziz to raise prices, officials said.