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Five Property Owners Appeal Tax Assessments

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Five more property owners are seeking reductions to tax assessments following a revaluation that saw New Canaan’s Grand List increase 23.6%. The New Canaan Field Club on Smith Ridge Road and commercial property owners on Elm Street, Main Street and South Avenue in downtown New Canaan filed appeals this month in state Superior Court. An attorney representing the Field Club in an April 18 filing that the $4,226,110 assessment is “grossly excessive, disproportionate and unlawful.”

The Field Club appealed to the New Canaan Board of Assessment Appeals but “the Board elected not to conduct an appeal hearing relating to this commercial, industrial, utility or apartment property with assessed value in excessive of one million dollars,” attorney Michael D. Reiner of Farmington-based Greene Law, P.C. said in the complaint. “A tax was laid on the aforesaid property/properties which tax has been or will be computed on an assessment which, under all circumstances, is manifestly excessive, unlawful and could not have been arrived at except by disregarding the statutes for determining the taxation and valuation of the Premises,” the complaint said. The other appealing parties are (owner—address—assessment):

Cherry Street West LLC — 156 Cherry St.

Government

Town To Knock Down Gazebo Behind Lapham

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The Board of Selectmen last week voted 3-0 in favor of a contract with a Norwalk-based company to remove a gazebo behind the Lapham Community Center. Located near a planned baseball stadium, the structure is “past its useful life,” according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “The benches on the inside are rotted out,” Mann told the selectmen during their regular meeting, held April 16 at Town Hall and via videoconference. “We’ve got some other issues working on it. And it’ll either require some additional work to maintain or we should necessarily remove it.”

He added, “It is quite close to the work at Coppo Field and will probably be impacted by that work.

Government

‘Our Flagpole Should Not Be a Speech Mechanism’: Selectmen Pass New ‘Flag Policy’ for Town Buildings

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New Canaan’s highest elected official this week instituted a new “flag policy” for town buildings. 

First Selectman Dionna Carlson in introducing a draft policy Tuesday for the full Board of Selectmen to review noted that it wouldn’t apply to school buildings. Carlson said that during her first week in office she “had an individual come up to me and asked to fly another country’s liberation flag.”

“And I guess my predecessor allowed a week of flying that flag,” Carlson said at a regular Board meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. 

“And I feel very strongly that the only flags that should be flown in municipal buildings are the American flag, the state of Connecticut flag and any town flag,” she continued. “I was thinking about school flags, and I really do believe that those should be reserved for the schools. The other thing that I’m trying to avoid is who gets to fly what flag when?…  If we did the school flags at the municipality, do we fly it for a football win? Then do we fly it for every debate [team] win?

Government

‘I Don’t Want Town Funds Being Used for This’: Carlson Pushes Back on Contract for Stanchion Repair

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Town officials decided Tuesday to wait for an insurance claim to be processed prior to repairing a low painted brick column that marks the start of a public road near the Merritt Parkway. One of the two columns located at the start of White Birch Road—opposite the off-ramp from Merritt Parkway Exit 37 northbound—was struck and damaged by a vehicle in December, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. The “stanchion” is in the public right-of-way and helps delineate White Birch, a residential street, for motorists exiting the parkway, Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting by way of seeking approval of a $5,350 contract to repair it. Yet New Canaan’s highest elected official pushed back on spending taxpayer dollars on the project. “I’m just going to throw it out there: Why are we reconstructing this?” First Selectman Dionna Carlson said during the meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference.

Government

Rec Department Launches Women’s Pickup Soccer Program Starting April 28

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Spurred by interest from two New Canaan residents, officials say they’re forming a women’s pickup soccer group that will play Sunday nights starting later this month. The new program (register here) will run 8 to 9:30 p.m. weekly starting April 28 through June 2 at Water Tower Turf Field 1 at New Canaan High School (closest to Lapham Community Center, where there’s close and ample parking), according to Assistant Recreation Director Zack Philippas. “It’s a pick-up style, so it means each week teams will be formed based on the players that are there,” Phillippas told NewCanaanite.com. “And this flexible format ensures that everyone gets plenty of playing time and an opportunity to get new teammates. And it also allows us to have 14 people sign up and we could do 7-on-7 on a smaller size field.