Town officials on Tuesday approved the sale at Waveny this week of commemorative T-shirts benefiting the county’s high school athletics organization.
The Board of Selectmen during its regular meeting voted 3-0 in favor of allowing the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference or ‘FCIAC’ to sell the T-shirts at its cross-country finals, to be held Wednesday.
Junior Drew Davis (l) and sophomore Cali Brannan (r) finished 1-2 for the Rams at the FCIAC Cross Country Championships at Waveny Park, Oct. 21, 2015. Credit: Terry Dinan
“The FCIAC likes to sell commemorative T-shirts for this event,” Parks and Recreation Director John Howe told members of the Board at their regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.
First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of allowing the sales.
Carlson noted that New Canaan likely is one of the few communities that doesn’t allow that type of commerce in its parks by right. She asked whether money earned through T-shirt sales goes back to the FCIAC.
Scenes from the FCIAC Cross Country Championships at Waveny Park, Oct. 21, 2015. Credit: Terry Dinan
Howe said that wasn’t clear, though “it goes into their coffers.”
“There are some expenses they have,” he added. “We don’t routinely do it, but we could charge them for the setup of the course and things like that.”
Carlson said that would be “a fair use of proceeds.”
Scenes from the FCIAC Cross Country Championships at Waveny Park, Oct. 21, 2015. Credit: Terry Dinan
“Because we don’t do this as-of-right,” she said. “My whole thing with selling in the parks—at least my own personal [view], I don’t want to speak for either of the other selectmen—is that if we’re going to sell merchandise in the parks, and I think it’s a good way to help bolster our different athletic groups for their fundraising activities, I would like to see those proceeds put back into, the community somehow, with our kids or their sports or whatever… I don’t definitely don’t want the parks to become big merchandise selling places.”
Murphy Carroll noted that the town should find out whether the FCIAC is selling the T-shirts at cost or if the organization is making a profit.
New Canaan’s legendary cross country coach, Bob Mosley. Credit: Contributed
Howe said the expense on the town’s side for setting up the cross-country championships is minimal.
Karl called the cross-country championships, which have been held in Waveny since the 1980s, “a great event.”
“We happen to have the perfect place for a cross-country event like this,” he said. “And it’s just great that everybody can enjoy Waveny the way they do.”
Wednesday is forecast to be “another nice day,” Howe said.
Scenes from the FCIAC cross country championship, Oct. 20, 2014. Credit: Terry Dinan
Carlson said she had a child who ran cross-country and was at the championships every year.
“It was a great event,” she said.
Murphy Carroll said, “It would make sense to do this not the day before, because obviously the T-shirts are printed.” Drawing laughter from the room, she added, “What if we were just cranky?”
Howe said he had hoped to present the request to the Board at its meeting two weeks earlier, but the NCHS athletic director was tied up.