I’m not sure what all the fuss is about, but here’s the latest in the Duck Boat Tour proposal in Norwalk:
The chairman of the Common Council’s Recreation, Parks and Cultural Affairs Committee says a plan to launch duck boat tours in Norwalk remains alive, even though it’s taking time to hammer out the details.
The proposal by Splashdown Tours LLC of Stamford to use the Veterans Memorial Park parking area to launch duck boat tours through Norwalk was pulled from the parks committee agenda last Wednesday night.
“We pulled it. They didn’t get all their ducks in a row — permits and stuff. They’ll come back as soon as they get all their stuff together,” said Fred A. Bondi, parks committee chairman, who supports the concept of duck boat tours in Norwalk. “Anything that doesn’t cost us anything. I talked to somebody up in Boston and they said (duck boat tours) worked very well there.”
Daniel H. Kryzanski, manager of Splashdown Tours, pitched the plan to Bondi’s committee in May and was told to return in June as details were worked out and a draft operating agreement was drawn up.
Kryzanski told The Hour he plans to be at the July meeting of the parks committee and hopes to have details of the operating agreement between the city and Splashdown Tours worked out be then. He said the tours would run from Veterans Memorial Park. The duck boat would be stored on private property at night. While a tour route hasn’t been worked out yet, SoNo would be on the itinerary, according to Kryzanski.
The Department of Recreation and Parks has put together a proposed operating agreement for the parks committee to review, according to department Director Michael A. Mocciae. In a June 10 memorandum to committee members, Mocciae outlined key points of the proposed lease agreement.
I hope someone is thinking about making Norwalk the exclusive site of the Duck Boat Tour in Fairfield County. A 30 mile radius should serve as competitive barrier to make Norwalk unique. But then I read the next part:
For this year, the department is recommending that the duck boat not use the launch ramps at Veterans Memorial Park, but tour only land areas, and that a set fee per month be established. Use of the parking lot without storage, for instance, would be $1,000 per month (30 spaces). Use of the David S. Dunavan Boating Center for displaying souvenirs would run $250 per month, according to the memorandum.
Hours of operation would be Monday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., for the season of July 1, 2009, to Oct. 18, 2009. The agreement would be “revisited prior to next season when the tours would be launching from the boat ramp as well as (have) a longer season,” Mocciae wrote.
“We are looking at this year’s operation as a pilot program. Since this would be the first of its kind in Norwalk … neither we nor the vendor could predict its success,” Mocciae wrote. “It is our hope, as was attracting Stew (Leonard’s) at Calf Pasture Beach, to increase traffic into the parks, gaining revenue at the gates, as well as introducing tourists to other attractions in the parks and throughout the city.”
Other tour boat operators are monitoring the duck boat tour proposal.
What no water portion? That’s the whole point of a duck boat tour, you are on land and water. What’s the point otherwise. You might as well just drive around in a bus.
source: The Hour, Duck boat idea still afloat in Norwalk, By ROBERT KOCH, 06/22/2009
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“We pulled it. They didn’t get all their ducks in a row — permits and stuff. They’ll come back as soon as they get all their stuff together,” said Fred A. Bondi, parks committee chairman”,
Did Fred make a funny? Am I the only one who noticed this line. Has he hired new writers? When do we hear “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck; it must be a cumquat”
The duck boat idea is a good one. They have them in Plymouth and up at the Cape, and they’re a big tourist draw.
Almost as good as the Mom’s reaction to oral sex by kids in the LMMM bathrooms being “blown out of proportion.” The Hour is fun to read again!
the duck boats are a great idea. norwalk is finally getting it!
Um, Rose, Norwalk isn’t Plymouth and/or the Cape. Pilgrims didn’t land here and this is hardly the ultimate northeast seaside vacation paradise! They have them in Seattle, too, but Seattle IS a tourist destination and one of the most beautiful cities in the country.
It’s not so much about what “is” as what it “could be” – if people would only realize the tourism goldmine this City is sitting on! Unfortunately there are always negative people like you who keep attempting to cloud the message.
thanks rose. well said.
the party in the park last weekend was the proof that there are thousands of people in this area who are hungry to experience our rich history and cultural attractions. The days of norwalk being run by negative self-haters is over.
ignore them.
Yet Second Hand Rose vociferously refuses to acknowledge the potential in preserving the hsitoric area around the Green and encouraging the Inn to upgrade its’ facility by using the historic asset it already owns. Go figure…
Duck boat tours that don’t go in the water ? Isn’t touring the harbor, with somebody pointing out the points of interest, the whole purpose of duck boat tours? They could even park and board someplace away from the water, but ridng into the water, cruising around, and riding back up on land, is the whole point.
I have often wondered why more boat tours of the harbor are not offered in season. There are some, but it surprises me there aren’t more.
#8, with the exception of Mill Hill, St. Paul’s Church and the building that Kydes Real Estate is in, there IS NO “historic area around the Green” except in certain people’s wishful thinking. Once all those old buildings surrounding the Green were allowed to be expanded/rebuilt/remodeled/additioned/landscaped, whatever historic value they might have had prior to any work done on them disintegrated.
If you’re going to spend this much time worrying over something that doesn’t exist any longer, why not turn your efforts into something that makes some sense, like putting bricks into the sidewalks in the area of East Norwalk where the original Norwalk homesites existed when the town was founded?
Now THERE’S something TRULY sad – the original settlement area of Norwalk doesn’t even have one single building, signage, or markers to show that this is where Norwalk started in 1641.
There’s no point in tearing your hair out over 93 East Avenue; that building is a vermin host, a firetrap, and a good example of urban blight. It needs to go, and go before someone gets the idea to set it on fire. Then you’ll really have a problem .
Why can’t they keep commercial enterprises out of the parks instead of encouraging them to come in?
#9 – The duck boat can’t do the water part this year because it doesn’t have the Coast Guard certificate. It will be ready to pass the Coast Guard inspection next year, but for this year, the owners want to get some exposure and build some excitement for the full water/land tour next year.
#11 – Just curious, are you advocating that Stew Leonards at Calf Pasture, and the other food vendor at Vets, along with the Sheffield Island tour and the visitor’s dock cease and desist because they are in city parks? I’m guessing that would also include the Oyster Festival, The Columbian Festival, any concerts, the upcoming Patriot Days re-enactment of the Burning of Norwalk this year and probably another pARTy in the Park next year?
That seems pretty drastic. It would also kill off any cultural life that Norwalk has just begun to encourage, not to mention the added revenue to both the City’s coffers and the local merchants. That’s pretty steep.
#11, because every other city in America realizes their park and rec departments can’t possibly provide all the recreational and other services that parks need to provide to draw people in, without raising taxes, and they don’t have the budgets to hire the staff to run the concessions and facilities. So they rent out their space and get a valuable revenue source that funds improvements, maintenance, and rec programs.
It’s the smart way to run a park system, and all parks professionals and park advocates (yes, park lovers) promote it.
There is nothing wrong with making the parks vibrant and well-used places, without burdening taxpayers, that serve their communities at all times, and to people of ALL abilities, instead of providing limited uses for just athletes and their spectators, and are otherwise empty and scary places.
Tried the new coffee house on North Main Street “The Tribecca” this afternoon. Clean, bright, comfortable, and good coffee.
I was lucky that there was plenty of open parking spaces on the street, so it was a pleasure to go there. I don’t know what will happen if you have to go into the lot for parking, as there is too much FREE and ACCESSIBLE parking at Starbucks and Dunken Donuts. I wish them the best.
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