Claudia Weber

Referendum Filing Pauses Ban on Gas-Powered Leaf Blowers

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New Canaan’s newly adopted ban on the summer use of gas-powered leaf blowers is not in effect, officials say, as opponents have filed for a referendum vote on the measure. The Town Council’s ordinance “is on hold until the referendum process is completed,” according to Town Clerk Claudia  Weber. “I have received a few calls from residents who thought the ordinance was in effect, and I would like to get the word out that the ordinance is on pause until the referendum process plays out,” Weber said. The Town Council, New Canaan’s legislative body, voted 8-4 in favor of a seasonal ban at its May 20 meeting. On May 27, a “A Notice of Intent to Petition,” containing the required 50 qualifying signatures, was received by Weber’s office.

Business

‘We’re So Thankful’: The Adirondack Store on Elm Street To Close Friday

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The Adirondack Store, a beloved retail shop and café that opened on Elm Street seven years ago, is closing its doors this week, the business’s owners say. Christopher English and Stephen Shin said they’re deeply thankful to the New Canaan community for making their store a unique and special place. 

“We’re so thankful that a community like New Canaan really supports its brick-and-mortar,” Shin said. “They come into town, they shop, and we truly have appreciated that, especially in the holidays, from Labor Day to Christmas Day.”

English said that when they opened the Elm Street location, he and Shin “never really imagined that it would turn into a social hub for the community.”

“That’s something we never expected,” English said. “But the people that have worked for us the seven years that we’ve basically been here are just loving and incredible.”

Shin added that those valued workers are “exceptional” and “a reflection of the community.”

“Every single person that’s ever worked for us has been incredible,” he added. English and Shin said that expenses have made the store too difficult to work financially, with $24,000 in monthly rent and bills that have risen steeply in recent years (for example, electric up from $1,200 to $4,000 per month, and health insurance up from $1,600 to $3,900).

News

New Canaan Woman, 62, Charged with Interfering with a 911 Call

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Police on Sunday night arrested a 62-year-old New Canaan woman and charged her with interfering with a 911 call and disorderly conduct. 

At about 7:20 p.m. on May 31, officers responded to Betsy’s Lane on a report of a dispute, police said. There, officers conducted an investigation and established probable cause for the misdemeanor charges. 

It isn’t clear what the woman did or whether she’s related to the victim. Police withheld details, saying it’s a domestic matter. Under state law, people are guilty of disorderly conduct if they “with intent to cause inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk … [e]ngages in … threatening behavior; or … annoys or interferes with another person,” among other reasons. Police released the woman after she promised to appear June 1 in state Superior Court. 

The Domestic Violence Crisis Center in Stamford provides services, support and education for the prevention and elimination of domestic violence.

Amy Murphy Carroll

Selectman: Town Should Plant Screening Trees on Rights-of-Way at Weed and Elm

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One of New Canaan’s top elected officials said Tuesday that the town should prioritize the planting of trees at Weed and Elm Streets to screen the building project that emerges there. Last week, the Planning & Zoning Commission, following a state Superior Court judge’s order, approved a four-story, 102-unit affordable housing complex at 751 Weed St. The property’s owner, New Canaan developer Arnold Karp, has said he plans to begin construction in the fourth quarter. “One way, shape, or form there’s going to be something built at that place,” Selectman Amy Murphy Carroll said during the Board of Selectmen’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. She continued: “It could take a couple of years.

News

Warrant: New Canaan Man Arrested After Threatening Kill His Wife in Her Sleep

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Police last week arrested a 48-year-old New Canaan man by warrant after receiving a report earlier in the day that he’d threatened to kill his wife in her sleep. At about 12:04 p.m. on May 28, a Thursday, Officer John Barlosky was dispatched to a Parade Hill Road home “on a mandated report from a therapist, reporting ongoing abuse,” according to an affidavit from Barlosky that forms the major part of an arrest warrant application signed the same day by state Superior Court judge John Blawie. According to the reporting therapist, working out of a Westport office, a patient had come into a session that day “with numerous bruises on her arms” and told the therapist that her husband had “threatened to kill her in her sleep with a knife,” the affidavit said. The therapist told police that the victim had been in their care for several months “and that she is the subject of both verbal and physical abuse regularly and it’s becoming increasingly worse,” Barlosky said in the affidavit. The husband also is “beginning to be verbally abusive in front of other people in public,” the arrest warrant application said.