Around Town

Annual Fishing Derby Set Postponed to April 27 at Mill Pond [UPDATED]

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Update Thursday April 18

Due to expected poor weather, the Fishing Derby has been postponed to Saturday, April 27 at Mill Pond. Original Article

One of New Canaan’s most unique and beloved community events is set for Saturday morning. 

Registration for the New Canaan Annual Fishing Derby will start at 8 a.m. at Mill Pond, with the derby running 8:30 to 11 a.m., organizers say. Held in memory of George Cogswell, a former New Canaan Police officer, the free Fishing Derby has been held each year—primarily at Mill Pond—since the 1980s. “It’s been going on for so many years, people just know about it and it’s something kids do with their dad,” said Jenny Esposito, president of the Kiwanis Club of New Canaan, an event sponsor. “It brings the townies together and it’s just really sweet, with the police, the firemen, the town, the Chamber.”

The pond will be stocked with 370 pounds of rainbow trout and prizes are awarded for participants 15 and younger in categories such as first boy and first girl to catch a fish, largest fish caught and smallest fish caught.

Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

Recycling 101: What’s In, What’s Out, and Why

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What’s the deal with recycling? Confusion about what’s acceptable, doubts about where it all goes and whether costs outweigh benefits are questions we literally can’t afford to leave unanswered. With our municipal budgets stretched to the max and the effects of climate change looming large, it’s critical for us to understand the proper way to recycle in New Canaan–and the cost to each of us when we get it wrong. Join our team of local recycling and waste management professionals for straight talk on the “how” and “why” of recycling in our town. Our own Tiger Mann, Director of New Canaan Public Works, will be joined by Jennifer Heaton-Jones, Executive Director of the Housatonic Resources Recovery Authority, and Jay Greco and Patricia Swope from City Carting to give us everything we need to get recycling right.

Around Town

Officials: Pushback from Neighbors on Stop Signs Planned for Elm and Weed Streets

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A plan to install stop signs for Weed Street motorists approaching the intersection at Elm is meeting with resistance from some neighborhood residents, officials said last week. Designed to make it safe for pedestrians using soon-to-be-striped crosswalks that will connect to a new sidewalk running up the west side of Weed Street to Irwin Park, the stop signs could back up traffic, neighbors fear, according to Tiger Mann, director of the Department of Public Works. “The traffic would back up all the way back to Irwin, and then gum up that intersection, especially since there is another stop sign at Frogtown Road intersection,” Mann told members of the Town Council at their March 22 meeting, held at Town Hall. “So to try and stop twice in a small span of time would affect traffic flow.”

The comments came during a discussion of the DPW’s funding request for sidewalk installations and improvements for next fiscal year. The Board of Finance approved $300,000 in spending for sidewalks in fiscal year 2018, town documents show (see page 50 here).

Government

Town Approves Contract To Address Pavement Needs on Three Roads

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Officials on Tuesday approved a $761,413 contract with a Norwalk-based paving company to address road repair and maintenance needs on three town roads— Spring Water Lane, Adams Lane and Hillcrest Road. It’s the most recent cluster of streets fixed under the municipality’s “Pavement Management and Improvement Program” since 2004, as New Canaan works toward bringing all town roads into a cycle of re-paving and maintenance—some of which haven’t been touched in more than 30 years, officials said. Under the program, roads are re-paved and then after 10 years get a “microthin overlay” and may undergo Cape Seal and crack-sealing maintenance, according to Tiger Mann, director of the Department of Public Works. Prior to its launch in 2004, the town hadn’t done any substantial road work since 1984, Mann told the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting. “And now we have done 67 percent of the town roads, so some of those roads that latter 33 percent could be longer than 20 years,” he said at the meeting, held in Town Hall.