Government

Aquarion: Cellular Antennas Will Come Off Water Towers at Waveny

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Officials with the company that owns the water towers at Waveny—tall structures that double as a site for wireless equipment from five cellular companies as well as New Canaan’s emergency radio gear—say that though the antennas ultimately must be removed, they’re working with the town to ensure that there’s no gap in service. Aquarion has “already verbally offered to the town that we will leave the antennas on the tank for an additional year,” meaning New Canaan will have until November 2019 to see through an early-stage plan to erect its own tower at the park for the wireless infrastructure, according to Peter Fazekas, the company’s director of public relations. “That will be adequate [for New Canaan] to build a tower and transfer the antennas,” Fazekas told NewCanaanite.com. “The goal here is to find a good solution. We cannot keep them on our tank, so we are looking for a good solution.”

Asked just why the equipment needs to come off of the water towers, Fazekas said, “It is causing problems with maintenance on the infrastructure.”

“We are supposed to do a complete repaint of the tank and we had to cancel that because we could not get all the cell companies to get their equipment off the tank, so we had to cancel that,” he said.

Government

Town Looks Into Putting New Canaan-Specific Message on Water Towers at Waveny

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Officials said Monday that they’ve approached Aquarion about placing some town-specific lettering—such as ‘New Canaan, Home of the Rams’—on the water towers at Waveny. The water company is about to undertake a major project to repaint the towers, and Utilities Commission member Dan Welch said he broached the subject with its project manager to see what was possible. “This seems like something pretty cool that we should be able to do as a town, is to get our name on the towers,” Welch said during the commission’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall. “I talked to him [the Aquarion project manager] about colors. They’re white.

News

‘It Is An Opportunity To Preserve Open Space’: Indian Waters Drive Neighbors Seek Alternative To Planned Development of Aquarion Land

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Saying they’re worried about construction vehicles on a narrow private road and the development of a long-untouched wooded parcel that straddles the Noroton River watershed, residents of Indian Waters Drive are raising concerns about the water company’s plan to subdivide and sell large piece of land at the end of their cul-de-sac. Aquarion’s approximately 19-acre property occupies a wildlife- and wetlands-heavy parcel bordered by the points of three dead-ending roads—Indian Waters Drive, Welles Lane and Thurton Drive. Peter Fazekas, Aquarion’s director of public relations, told NewCanaanite.com that the company has entered an agreement with one neighbor who wants to purchase 8.3 acres contiguous to his or her property, and will pursue a 2-lot subdivision of the roughly 10 remaining acres, with frontage on Indian Waters Drive. Yet for Susan Bergen, a resident of the private road, the Aquarion parcel is a “perfect piece of property to put into preservation.”

“This property is sort of in a green belt with a bunch of others in this town that form a corridor for wildlife and bird life,” Bergen said. Indian Waters Drive includes 15 homes whose owners sign deeds that guarantee they will not allow access to any developer, Bergen said.