NewCanaanite.com (https://newcanaanite.com/author/michael-dinan)
This week on 0684-Radi0, our free weekly podcast (subscribe here in the iTunes Store), we talk to New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski about the violent assault on a woman walking in a residential neighborhood in broad daylight on Monday.
Here are recent episodes of 0684-Radi0:
For today’s Q&A with a local business, we talk to Robert Ubaldo, chef-owner at Farmer’s Table.
The celebrated Forest Street restaurant is open 4:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and is trying to take advance of an expanded outdoor dining area (though, according to Ubaldo, some problems have arisen with respect to plan recently approved by the town that had been developed by a group of citizen volunteers). Here’s our interview.
New Canaanite: You recently have been allowed, as per the state, to open an outdoor dining area, after weeks of only doing pickup. How’s it going for you? Robert Ubaldo: It’s been real tough, because we only have a limited number of seats outside. The tables all have to be six feet away from each other and then also away from the curb and our fit-out barrier, so you can’t fit many people out there.
Town officials voted last week in favor of closing the street in front of the Congregational Church of New Canaan for 90 minutes on Sunday mornings so that the faith community may gather and worship outside while maintaining social distancing.
The Police Commission voted 3-0 in favor of the measure, which will apply to the short one-way stretch of Park Street atop God’s Acre from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Sundays. Deputy Chief John DiFederico, who received and presented the church’s request to the Commission, called it a “very reasonable request.”
“Most other churches in town have their own property and have the ability to expand outdoors into parking lots and what not, but the Congregational Church does not have that luxury,” DiFederico said during the Commission’s May 20 meeting, held via videoconference. “It is very easy to detour around,” he said. “It is not a state road or anything like that, so it would not be too difficult for us to manage. I don’t even know if we would need to station an officer out at that intersection.
For today’s Q&A with a local business, we talked to Felipe Andaur, general manager at Solé. The Elm Street restaurant is open for lunch and dinner every day, and is one of the food service establishments downtown that’s getting an expanded outdoor dining area.
Here’s our interview. New Canaanite: You went from just pickup and delivery to having outdoor dining last week. Hows’ it going? Felipe Andaur: It’s going very well so far.
New Canaan has seen a dramatic increase in thefts from motor vehicles through the first four months of 2020, officials said last week. The larcenies increased from two in 2019 to 17 this year, according to Police Chief Leon Krolikowski. “People are just not locking their cars and [they are] leaving their keys in cars that are getting stolen,” Krolikowski said during a May 20 meeting of the Police Commission, held via videoconference.
“We did have a window broken on a vehicle and a lot of items stolen in it. I suspect because the thieves came in and saw so many valuable items in the car that they decided to break the window and take everything. But that is not the norm.