Around Town

PHOTOS: Final ‘Caffeine & Carburetors’ of 2018 Hits Downtown New Canaan Sunday

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Thousands of specialty and classic auto enthusiasts gathered in downtown New Canaan on Sunday for this year’s final ‘Caffeine & Carburetors’ show. Launched by New Canaan’s Doug Zumbach out front of his eponymous coffee shop on Pine Street , C&C is  now a fixture of New Canaan, with four shows per year. Typically two of those shows are downtown and two are at Waveny, though this year due to a scheduling snafu, the second would-be Waveny event was held on Pine and Elm Streets. Local families pushing strollers and holding dog leashes mingled with the car owners and their fans on a crisp, clear autumn morning. Here are some photos from the event, whose major sponsors include Bankwell:

Business

PHOTOS: ‘Caffeine & Carburetors’ Returns to Downtown New Canaan

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Hundreds of auto enthusiasts gathered in downtown New Canaan Sunday morning for the third “Caffeine & Carburetors” event of 2018. Pine Street and the one-way stretch of Elm were closed to motor vehicle traffic as New Canaan residents and visitors to town mingled over brew from Zumbach’s Gourmet Coffee, owned by C&C founder Doug Zumbach, visited tents set up by nonprofit organizations and sponsors and learned about the vehicles themselves and morning’s happenings from New Canaan’s Peter Bush, known to many locals as a longtime host on The Fox-95.9 FM. 

“It’s a great turnout,” C&C volunteer Matt Konspore of New Canaan said on the clear, sunny morning while guiding slow-moving vehicles out of the show. 

Flo Carbone of Bankwell, a sponsor of the event, said from the local bank’s tent: “Everyone is out having a great time, beautiful day.”

Caffeine & Carburetors will return to downtown New Canaan Oct. 21 for the final event of the year.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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One of the attorneys for the lunch ladies charged with first-degree larceny, Stamford-based Darnell Crosland, told reporters Monday that he and his client have agreed to be filmed by A&E as part of the TV network’s planned show, “The Accused.” The show “tells the dramatic stories of people at the most vital and most terrifying moment of their lives,” according to A&E. “This gripping series reveals the true inside story of what happens when someone is accused of a crime they believe they did not commit. Featuring the defendant, their family and their legal teams, ‘The Accused (working title)’ reveals the personal cost of every charge, watching each case unfold from the defendant’s point of view. It shares every twist and turn of this traumatic experience from their first meeting with their lawyers right up to the verdict allowing viewers to judge the subject’s innocence for themselves.”

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A new business is “popping up” next Wednesday at 4 South Ave. (formerly Funky Monkey) in New Canaan.

Government

Police to Parks Officials: We Have No Safety Concerns Regarding ‘Caffeine & Carburetors’ at Waveny (or Downtown)

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Parks officials on Tuesday night reasserted that they have safety concerns about how the Caffeine & Carburetors auto enthusiasts’ gathering at Waveny, even though the deputy chief of police said that the New Canaan Police Department has no such worries. In fact, Deputy Chief John DiFederico told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission during their special meeting, “We have no issues at all from a police and safety perspective either here in Waveny or downtown.”

“We have worked closely for the past five years with Caffeine & Carburetors and from my perspective they are one of the most organized groups that we have worked with,” DiFederico told the Commission during its meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. “What they bring to the town—the size, the volume of people and the volume of traffic—they work very closely with us, they are very organized, they work with Public Works and with [the Community Emergency Response Team]. They hire as many officers as we need to cover the event. They are open to all suggestions.

Government

Testy Parks Officials Critical of ‘Caffeine & Carburetors’ at Waveny

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During a testy meeting last week, parks officials said the ‘Caffeine & Carburetors’ auto enthusiasts’ gathering at Waveny in June violated several of the conditions established for the event. Though the June 17 show “was very well attended and it was a beautiful day” and “people seemed to really enjoy it,” still some members of the Parks & Recreation Commission “were concerned that some of the procedures we asked to be put in place were not followed,” Commission Chair Sally Campbell said Wednesday night. “We had some controls over who was coming and exhibiting cars, and we wanted to ensure that our fields and our park weren’t damaged and then we were concerned about safety,” Campbell said at the meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. “All of these are very correctable. But we just wanted to bring them up because we thought they were very important.”

According to Campbell, about half of the exhibitors who had registered in advance did not display show placards on their windshields, many spectators appeared to drive into Waveny by South Avenue instead of parking at New Canaan High School, as planned, exhibitor cars were parked in front of the footpath along the main road through Waveny, forcing pedestrian traffic into the roadway and unauthorized food trucks were selling food and creating a mess.