Town officials say they want to create at least two new trails within Waveny as well as a more formal pedestrian entrance to the southern portion of the park.
The first new trail would cross from an existing one near the pedestrian crosswalk at the Saxe baseball field to the turf playing fields of New Canaan High School, officials said during the Board of Selectmen’s regular meeting Tuesday.
A more formal pedestrian entrance to the park opposite Conrad
Road also would be installed, they said, with a new trail leading into the southeastern corner of the park and former “cornfields” area, which has been restored as a meadow.
The project also would include a “maintenance upgrade of the northeast section, behind the high school and up to Farm Road,” Greg Reilly, the town’s grant writer, said during the selectmen meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. A final part of the project would provide funding to study options for a “buffer between the Merritt Parkway and the southern part of the trail, something that the [Waveny Park] Conservancy has talked about as something they’d like to achieve,” Reilly said.
Reilly discussed the proposed work at Waveny by way of garnering support from the selectmen, and engaging the public, for an application for $484,000 in state funding. Under the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s “Recreational Trails Grant Program,” the town would pay $121,000 (25%) toward the project. The selectmen said the Conservancy would contribute half of that sum through the town’s annual appropriation for Waveny, made in conjunction with the nonprofit organization. The application is due March 1, Reilly said.
The trail that leads toward the turf fields at NCHS would roughly follow the route of the Tennessee Gas Line, which is buried underground and cuts across part of Waveny, officials said.
Referring to the northernmost “panhandle” of Waveny that runs to Farm Road, Parks & Recreation Director John Howe called it a “very well used section.”
“A lot of people go through that area and adding a trail up along the [Tennessee] Gas Line will be a great addition to keep the loops going,” he said.
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of a resolution that will allow the town to apply for the grant.
The town likely will seek state permission for a pedestrian crosswalk on South Avenue/Route 124 at Conrad Road, officials said.
Moynihan said one of the town’s goals is to direct pedestrians using Waveny trails to exit toward South Avenue where there are formal crosswalks in place. Currently, there are “spurs” along South Avenue that have been created by use over time, and crossing the state road at those points is dangerous, he said.
Public Works Director Tiger Mann said the town did “eradicate a couple of ones that people had created” some years ago, and also improved others “to try to have everyone come through one crossing” at South Avenue.
Reilly said he expects to hear in June whether the town has been awarded the DEEP grant.
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