Government

‘That’s a Parked Car’: Officials Uphold Town Woman’s Ticket

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New Canaan’s Parking Commission last week upheld a $25 parking violation issued to a town woman who said that because she sat inside her vehicle while it was running to take a phone call, that she should not have been cited for overtime parking in a 15-minute zone at Morse Court. Alexandra Lawer told the volunteer commission during its Sept. 14 meeting that she received a call on her cell phone as she was driving through town on July 17, so she decided to park at Morse Court in a short-term parking space next to J. Crew to answer the call. “I was sitting there ‘standing’ with my car on,” she told the commissioners at the meeting during her appeal, held at Town Hall. “I only had a 15-minute conversation, so it didn’t make sense for me to turn off my car.

Government

Officials Consider Prohibiting Gas-Powered Car Owners from Using Electric Vehicle Parking Spots

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New Canaan’s Parking Commission last week broached the idea of prohibiting the owners of gas-powered cars from parking their vehicles in the two spaces at Morse Court equipped with recharging stations for electric cars. Commission Chairman Keith S. Richey said during the group’s regular meeting that due to the growing popularity of electric cars, restricting access to those spaces would better serve both residents and visitors who own them. According to Richey, the town has resisted implementing the rule in the past because there were very few electric cars being driven in the area. “We have reached the tipping point where there’s enough electric cars that need to be charged when parked in New Canaan,” Richey said during the meeting, held at Town Hall. “So, I think that we should make it electric car-only parking in those two spots.”

Stacy Miltenberg, superintendent of the Parking Bureau, told the commission that she has witnessed electric car owners taking the wire from the recharging station and bringing it across to Cherry Street to charge their cars because the two parking spots at Morse Court were filled.

Business

Parking Officials Open Discussion on Increasing Parking Times on Elm Street from 90 Minutes to Two Hours

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New Canaan’s Parking Commission on Thursday broached the possibility of extending the parking limit in the heart of the downtown from 90 minutes to two hours due to the increasing requests of residents who dine, shop and conduct business downtown on a regular basis. Stacy Miltenberg, superintendent of the Parking Bureau, said she’s hearing residents who park on Elm Street voicing similar concerns to those that prompted officials to boost the limit on Main Street to two hours, namely, it’s “located in an area where there’s doctor’s offices, salons, and people sometimes need more than two hours and they can’t pay for it.”

“I have not heard anybody complain that they’ve never had enough time when they’re parking [at Main Street], so it seems to be working well,” Miltenberg told members of the commission during their regular meeting, held at Town Hall. Miltenberg said that in addition to residents coming into her office and telling her that when meeting with friends for coffee or a meal on Elm Street, often 90 minutes just isn’t enough, if the parking limit were increased, it would have a positive impact on parking enforcement employees. Therefore, she recommended that the parking limit for every downtown street should be two hours. “The streets are all different times,” she said.

Government

‘A Lot of Energy’: New Canaan Democrats Gather for Party’s Annual BBQ To Support Candidates for Local Offices [PHOTOS]

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More than 100 local Democrats gathered at Kiwanis Park on Sunday to connect with each other ahead of November’s election, hear from and support their party’s candidates and mingle with Connecticut’s delegates in Congress. The New Canaan Democrats’ 14th annual BBQ was hosted by Democratic Town Committee Chairman Bob Smith and attended by U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen and Secretary of the State Denise Merrill. The three-hour event—in addition to raising campaign funds at $40 to $50 per ticket—shed light on local candidates’ plans for the town’s future, encouraged residents to get further involved in the town’s election process, and put a spotlight on some of those stepping down from their elected offices. As attendees dined on a buffet of BBQ ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, and assorted sides courtesy of Dinosaur Bar-B-Q, both elected officials and candidates shared their thoughts on the political landscape on the local and national levels.

Government
Talmadge Hill Railroad Crossing

Officials Provide Update on Municipal Lot Permit Waiting Lists, Security Measures

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Parking officials received an update during a recent meeting on continued efforts to contact town commuters regarding their placement on permit waiting lists for the Lumberyard, Richmond Hill and Talmadge Hill municipal lots. Parking Bureau Superintendent Stacy Miltenberg told members of the Parking Commission at their May 11 meeting that the agency started making calls to commuters at the end of January to confirm whether they still wanted to purchase a permit and she reported the following results:

Lumberyard: Out of 70 commuters contacted, 28 purchased permits, 17 declined, and 25 did not respond
Richmond Hill: Out of 29 commuters contacted, 8 purchased permits, 11 declined, and 10 did not respond
Talmadge Hill: Out of 94 commuters contacted, 34 purchased permits, 26 declined, and 34 did not respond

Miltenberg said that the bureau has stopped making calls to commuters on the waiting lists because they’re now in the process of sending out renewals to current permit holders, scheduled to be mailed out this month. “We can’t give current permits out while we start doing renewals because I have to change the whole computer system over [from one task to the next],” she said. The bureau anticipates that it will pick up the waiting list call process again at the end of August once the renewal process has ended. Miltenberg added that the bureau is currently working on putting the municipal lot waiting lists online, so commuters can view updated versions of them in “read only” mode.