Key Points
- Four new outdoor lighted pickleball courts are expected to be completed by late November.
- Commissioners are revisiting a potential dog park location and considering the project as an FY2028 budget priority.
- Growing demand for athletic fields is prompting discussion of fairer scheduling and reservation improvements.
Why It Matters: The projects and policy discussions could expand recreation options while addressing residents’ competing demands for limited town facilities.
Wilton’s new outdoor pickleball courts are “off and running” and construction is expected to be completed by late November, Parks and Recreation Department Director Steve Pierce told the Parks and Recreation Commission (PRC) during the commission’s Tuesday, Oct. 13 meeting.
“We had the contract redone three times by town counsel,” Pierce said. “That will be signed Monday, and they’ll be starting construction later in the month, and it’ll be done by late November according to the contractor I spoke to.”
Pierce did not say when the courts will be open for play.
Wilton’s Board of Selectmen (BOS) included $300,000 for the four outdoor lighted courts in its Fiscal Year 2027 bonding plan at the request of PRC, moving the project up from its original slot in the Fiscal Year 2029 budget.
GMW previously reported that the commission was considering a site near the Wilton High School tennis courts — the gravel lot on the southwest corner of School Rd. and Danbury Rd./Rte. 7.
The pickleball courts at the Comstock Community Center are in continuous use, Pierce noted, highlighting the demand for more courts in the town.
Pierce said that his department is investigating ways to add electronic locks on the courts, operated either by a numeric keypad or key cards that would be provided to town residents who register. Such a system would also allow the town to track usage trends when coupled with the department’s online registration system. Pierce said his team is also considering the feasibility of electronic signage at the courts that would indicate availability to accommodate walk-ins.
“That’s a real dream down the road,” he said.
PRC Chair Alix Korpan wondered if the schools might start using the courts to teach pickleball to students. Pierce noted that colleges are starting to form pickleball teams, and he expected that high schools would soon follow suit.
Pierce said the Parks and Recreation Department plans to issue an announcement when the contractor breaks ground on the new courts.
“Hopefully we have a mild winter and people will be able to get out and enjoy it,” Pierce said.
Dog Park Discussion Revived as Commissioners Discuss Making it a FY2028 Budget Priority
Although the proposed dog park was not on the agenda for PRC’s Oct. 13 meeting, Korpan brought it up at the beginning of the meeting, noting that several people in town have contacted her inquiring about where things stand.
“I have someone trying to set up a meeting with somebody who can maybe help talk to me about a potential location that I don’t really want to talk about yet until I know how real it is,” Korpan said.
Later in the meeting, when the discussion returned to the topic, Korpan said that the dog park “kind of got put on the back burner” because of other commission priorities including the installation of lighting at Guy Whitten Field, the repairs of the sidewalk at Veterans Memorial Stadium and the pickleball courts, and by the fact that the project did not yet have a budget.
Korpan referred to a location that was previously considered but she did not identify it publicly.”
“It’s the same location,” Korpan said. “I just sort of reignited the conversation with somebody that I think can connect me with a person who can really help make it happen.”
Korpan stressed that she thinks the dog park should be a priority for PRC’s fiscal year 2028 budget recommendations, a topic that the commissioners discussed in some detail. Pierce said that site selection was a prerequisite for determining the project’s budget, because the location would determine things such as grading and landscaping, accessibility and amenities, as well as ongoing maintenance. Korpan suggested that the department could consider several designs that required different budgets, to provide the town with options.
Pierce noted that other dog parks have friends’ groups that help raise funds for maintenance and activities, and said that the department was exploring awareness-raising events. He noted that a planned “Mutts in Merwin” event two years ago at Merwin Meadows Pond was preempted by the August 2024 floods.
Pierce also mentioned that he was recently researching the history of the town’s efforts to establish a dog park for a civics class presentation when long-time Wilton resident and volunteer Cora Martin gave him a 68-page binder documenting an ad hoc committee organized by the BOS back in 2005 to investigate dog park options. Pierce said he would scan the binder and send it to the commissioners as a PDF for their reference.
“This location that we’re talking about is not in the giant book,” Pierce said. “But it’s an interesting bit of history to go through. Again. Again.“
Review of Program Costs Planned for Budget Preparation
Pierce said that his department will soon begin preparing its draft FY2028 budget proposal, including the dog park, with the intent of presenting the draft to the commission for review in November or December.
In preparation, Pierce reviewed the department’s revenue-generating programs — both those contracted out and those run by the department itself — so that commissioners can help the department determine whether prices are up-to-date and accurate.
Pierce reiterated that the parks and recreation budget is self-sustaining, dependent on revenues from registration and user fees, and any revenues in excess of what the department calculates as the break-even number can be put back into programs. Over time, the BOS has also used excess revenue to purchase necessities like computer software and insurance, and to fund the program coordinator position.
“We’re up to about $220,000 worth of revenue that we turned back to the town for the program coordinator and a lot of other things,” Pierce said.
Pierce explained that the department reports revenues from all programs to Town Hall “on a daily basis,” and Town Hall staffers enter those numbers into the Munis accounting system. Because the revenue collection and payment systems are separate, the process has to be done by hand. The fact that an estimated 90% of program applications are done online and paid for by credit card, Pierce said, makes that process easier.
The commissioners did not review and discuss the prices of the various contracted and in-house programs, but Pierce and Korpan said they will be discussing the accounting process and pricing further.
Proposal to Gather Stakeholders to Discuss Field Scheduling
As the demand for the town’s athletic facilities increases year-round, the need for the Parks and Recreation Department to upgrade its scheduling system is becoming acute. Pierce told the commissioners that the priority right now is improving the transparency of the reservation and registration system for football, field hockey, lacrosse and other field sports.
“I think the best way to do that, personally, is to have a meeting with all the stakeholders, if you will, and talk to them about where we are and how we can be better and how we can serve them better,” Pierce said. “And they can work with us to make scheduling a little less chaotic.”
Korpan agreed that the town needed “a more equitable allocation of fields,” noting problems caused by groups that will reserve several dates for a field to allow scheduling flexibility, thereby blocking out those dates from being scheduled by others in the meantime.
The Parks and Recreation Department is working with the current reservation and registration provider to see what improvements can be made and is also looking at other vendors and technologies. Ideally, Pierce said, a system would be able to send out notifications to people who have registered for a field to let them know about openings and schedule changes.
Pierce said he hoped to have more to report on the stakeholder gathering at PRC’s next meeting.
The scheduling issue is more pressing now that fall sports registrations are “in full swing,” according to Pierce. “Everybody’s scrambling trying to get more field space because of the inclement weather,” he said.
Pierce noted that due to declining registration for intramural basketball, the department recently combined girls’ basketball across third through eighth grade into a single program instead of having separate programs by grade.
Etched Pavers, New Staff
With work now nearly completed on the Veterans Memorial Stadium sidewalk — only the gutters remain to be installed — Pierce reminded the commissioners of the previously discussed idea of selling commemorative etched pavers to raise funds for field maintenance. Pierce said the department ordered extra pavers for that purpose, and he would be happy to investigate the costs involved and present the idea to the BOS if the PRC wanted to move ahead with it.
“If we can provide the paver and have someone do the etching, that would be a home run for us,” he said.
“You can sell [them] for the dog park too,” Commissioner Mark Shaner suggested.
Pierce also informed the commissioners that his department has hired a new administrative manager, Mike Cesarini, who previously worked for the department as the summer day camp sports counselor.
“Great guy,” Pierce said. “He’s been very diligently getting up to speed on everything. He’s running softball right now, God bless him.”
“He’s a great addition,” Pierce said. “Stop by, have a cup of coffee, say hi to him. … I think he’s going to work out wonderful for us.”
