Waveny will be closed to vehicular traffic on a Sunday morning in October to accommodate a popular car show that benefits a nonprofit group that works with the town on the park’s behalf.
L-R: Doug Zumbach, Claire Drexler, Steve Boeschenstein and Peter Bush attend an Oct. 30, 2024 presentation of a $24,000 check from Caffeine & Carburetors to the Waveny Park Conservancy. Credit: Michael Dinan
The Board of Selectmen voted 3-0 during its regular meeting Tuesday in favor of closing the park to cars from 6 to 11 a.m. on Oct. 19 for Caffeine & Carburetors. (The fall car show at Waveny, and a June 22 event downtown, received unanimous approval last week from the Police Commission.)
Last year, C&C raised $24,000 for the Waveny Park Conservancy while the downtown show raised $16,000 for the New Canaan Community Foundation.
During the selectmen meeting, Parks & Recreation Director John Howe said that last year “due to the success of Caffeine and Carburetors, there were too many cars and you wouldn’t have been able to get a car through it a lot of times, say nothing about an ambulance or a fire truck.”
Oct. 20, 2024 Caffeine & Carburetors at Waveny. Photo courtesy of Matt Konspore
“So with the Special Events Committee, we’ve met many times to discuss how we can make Caffeine and Carburetors still work for the park and still donate to the Conservancy, but make it so that it’s safe and doable,” Howe said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “And one of the things that came out of that was closing the park to car traffic that aren’t registered for Caffeine and Carburetors. So they’re going through a whole process on how to have a pass on their windshield, two different entrances, and if they don’t have the pass, how they’re going to exit and everything else. I think it’s going to work real well compared to what we have had.”
Specifically, non-C&C vehicles entering Waveny from South Avenue will be diverted toward the “Tiger Trail” connector to the New Canaan High School lots (and exit onto Farm Road), while those entering from Lapham Road will be turned toward the Steve Benko Pool lot to exit back onto Lapham.
First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of the five-hour Waveny motor vehicle closure.
New Canaan Police, C&C volunteers and members of the Community Emergency Response Team or “CERT” will be on hand, as they have in the past, to help direct motorists, officials said.
Carlson noted that it’s important for vehicles entering Waveny to keep moving on the morning of C&C.
“The problem that we’ve had in the past is traffic has been backed up and so we’re trying to keep vehicular traffic moving consistently,” she said. “And so you either come in and are directed where to park or directed out.”
The town will put out electronic signage several days before this year’s Waveny C&C so that motorists are on notice about Oct. 19, officials said.
The selectmen said messaging to the community about the vehicular closure for that Sunday morning is important.
Carlson said, “Starting last year, it was a requirement of this event that they charged their vehicles that are showing and that there’s an exhibitor fee. All of that exhibitor fee, 100%, is being held by the Community Foundation … they’re holding all the funds and all the proceeds from the Waveny show go to the Waveny Park Conservancy and all of the proceeds from the downtown show go to a human services fund. Last year, $4,000 went to the merchants, to the gift certificate program, and then another—I think it was $16,000 that was raised—the remainder is going to a fund to help offset those most vulnerable in our communities’ auto repair bills… So I think it turned what was a very frustrating event to many members of the community into something that can really be a great event.”
New Canaan’s Doug Zumbach launched Caffeine & Carburetors as an informal gathering of auto enthusiasts outside his eponymous coffee shop at Pine and Grove Streets. The event would grow to draw thousands. Members of the Police Commission, in approving the 2025 C&C dates last week, thanked Zumbach for his generosity. Addressing Zumbach, Chair Jim McLaughlin called C&C a “spectacular” event “that you created and you deserve credit.”
“It’s an extraordinary event and people are coming from very far with all their incredible cars … it’s not something you’re making money on, you did this on behalf of the town and you deserve enormous credit,” McLaughlin said at the March 19 Commission meeting.
Commissioner Paul Foley added that C&C “put New Canaan on the map” for many.
The selectmen asked whether paddle tennis players had been notified (after the Board vote they will) and whether the closure will interfere with the new Coppo baseball field (no they won’t be playing that early).
Karl called C&C “a win-win.”
He continued: “For years there were those folks who said, ‘Hey, listen, why are we taking so much away from the community? We’re not getting anything back.’ This completely flips it around and says, ‘Hey, listen, this is a great event for those attending, and it’s a great event for the community.’ I think it’s a win-win now.”