Betty Lovastik

Town Committee to Private Group: We Can’t Change a Town Ordinance Allowing You To Place Ads in Waveny Ice Rink

By |

A committee of New Canaan’s legislative body at its most recent meeting decided against a recommendation to amend a local ordinance in order to allow a private group to have advertising in a makeshift ice rink planned for a public park. Though certain members of the Town Council Bylaws & Ordinances Committee argued in favor of allowing New Canaan Ice Inc. to run 10 to 15 paid “dasher board” ads along the walls of a rink planned for Waveny, others cautioned that making such an exception to a clearly written ordinance would set a bad precedent. Tom Butterworth, a Committee co-chair, noted that there appears to be a lack of enforcement with respect to the Section 42-8(G) of the Town Code, which reads: “No person shall distribute any handbills or circulars or post any bills, notices or advertising matter of any kind and nature in any park.”

Yet “we want a pristine Waveny,” Butterworth said at the Nov. 22 meeting, held via videoconference. 

“We want to have a rule that basically tells the world that Waveny gives you this pristine experience with nature,” he said. “And that’s a laudable goal.

News

Letters to the Editor

By |

NewCanaanite.com recently received the following letters to the editor. ***

Editor, New Canaanite:

When I sit down at the small memorial plaza in Mead Park, I am surrounded by beautiful flower beds along the memorial walk. While enjoying them, I also think of the more than two hundred (200) hanging flower baskets along Elm Street and the big planters at the entrance to Town Hall. Then I remember seeing the ladies in the yellow shirts weeding and planting at thirty-three (33) triangles at intersections. 

Who are those dedicated hard workers who never tell us who they are? The display window of the Chamber of Commerce next to the movie theater identifies them as the more than two hundred (200!) devoted volunteers of the New Canaan Beautification League.

Footer Featured Widget

Police Commission: ’There Would be a Lot of Dissent’ To Relocate NCPD Headquarters

By |

The head of the appointed body that oversees the New Canaan Police Department said at the group’s most recent meeting that its members are eager to move forward with a building project at the current police station site. The Police Commission is aware of significant deficiencies in the current building as-is and “we’re not seeing any other location that makes sense to us, where it should be,” according to Chair Paul Foley said. “And I think there would be a lot of dissent in town to move it onto another location—into the woods or onto a field at Saxe—and the neighbors would like to see it stay where it is, as well,” Foley said during the Commission’s Feb. 16 meeting, held at police headquarters and via videoconference. “And as we suggested in our memo to the town bodies, we would like to keep it in place and then get a deeper dive, a further study, as to either renovate the current building or to tear it down and build a new structure.

Board of Selectmen

Town ‘Hard at Work’ on Application for Relief from Affordable Housing Law 

By |

The town has not yet applied for its next four years of relief from a widely discussed state law regarding affordable housing but is working hard toward its application, officials said this week. Municipal officials are “moving forward and we are consulting with the town attorney at this point,” Town Planner Lynn Brooks Avni told members of the Board of Selectmen during their regular meeting Tuesday. 

“We are hard at work putting it together,” she said. As of now Planning & Zoning has received just one 8-30g application for an affordable housing project at the corner of Weed and Elm Streets, and “I don’t know whether there are more,” Brooks Avni said. “I am sure there could be more, but we have only one in our hands right now,” she said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

Brooks Avni added, “The way it works is the state has 90 days to approve once we formally submit. So if an 8-30g application comes prior to us receiving a Certificate of Completion for Affordable Housing, which is effectively the moratorium, we have to accept and they can file.”

The comments came as the selectmen appointed a New Canaan committee to participate in a regional planning group focused on affordable housing, as per state law.

Election 2021

Election 2021 Republican Caucus: Town Council Candidate Tom Butterworth

By |

New Canaan resident Tom Butterworth is seeking the endorsement of the Republican Party for re-election to the Town Council. We put some questions to the incumbent about his candidacy. Our exchange follows. New Canaanite: Tell us about yourself—how long have you lived in New Canaan, what have you been involved with here in town and what led to your decision to seek re-election? Tom Butterworth: My wife Libby and I have lived in and loved New Canaan for over 30 years.