News

NCPD Officer Christopher Dewey Earns Stephen W. Wood Officer of the Year Award

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Town officials last week honored an 11-year veteran of the New Canaan Police Department who has served in a number of roles and designed special training as its officer of the year. Officer Christopher Dewey during a ceremony at Town Hall on Thursday was awarded the 2023 Stephen W. Wood Officer of the Year. In addition to police and municipal officials, the ceremony was attended by Wood’s wife, Pat, and daughter, Kimberly Wood LaTourette. The award “holds a special significance” for NCPD, Chief John DiFederico said, as it honors the memory of the late lieutenant, “affectionately known as “Woody’ by many of us.”

“Lt. Wood dedicated 33 years of his life to serving the New Canaan Police Department and the community,” DiFederico said at the ceremony, held in Town Hall. “This year we’re going to recognize Officer Christopher Dewey.

Around Town

‘A Wonderful New Canaan Tradition’: May Fair Delights Kids, Families [PHOTOS]

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New Canaanites and visitors to town descended on “the midway” at St. Mark’s Episcopalian Church on Friday and Saturday for the 75th annual May Fair. Peter Hanson of Marvin Ridge Road said he’s lived in the same house in New Canaan for 60 years and on Saturday morning attended his 60th May Fair. “The rides have gotten bigger,” Hanson said as he and his wife, Karen, prepared to dig into their strawberry shortcake. “Everything is getting smaller in my life—the school I went to, the house I grew up in.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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New Canaan Police at 7:56 a.m. on April 30 received a report of a vehicle stolen from an Old Studio Road driveway. It was recovered in West Hartford. ***

Congratulations to New Canaan resident Justina Marque, a ninth-grader at King School, on winning a 2024 Global Education Benchmark Group Salomon Prize. The award recognizes students who effectively use writing or other media to illustrate/reflect their intercultural and global growth through classroom study, travel programs, or other school experiences. ***

The 2024 New Canaan CARES Home Tour will be held Friday, May 31 (home tour 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., patron party 2 to 4 p.m.).

Around Town

New Canaan Land Trust Acquires ‘Grupes Homestead’ on Valley Road

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The New Canaan Land Trust has acquired a long-disused property on upper Valley Road, guaranteeing preservation of an antique structure once slated for demolition and providing a first-ever headquarters for the esteemed local nonprofit organization. 

The acquisition of 1124 Valley Road, final as of April 19, ends years of enmity between the town and 2.23-acre property’s former owner, the First Taxing District of Norwalk. 

The town in 2018 had offered to acquire what was then a full four-acre parcel for $1.2 million. But the Taxing District rejected that offer. After applying for a demolition permit and then withdrawing it, the Taxing District later rejected the town’s offer to purchase just the house with .8 acres carved out around it, for $250,000—a figure New Canaan had arrived at following an appraisal of the property. Then former First Selectman Kevin Moynihan (a retired lawyer who routinely overspent the town’s legal budget) threatened to take it by eminent domain. The property abuts the Grupes Reservoir connects directly to the Browne Preserve, one of the first properties to come under the protection of the Land Trust.

Around Town

Podcast: New Canaan Unplugged

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This week on 0684-Radi0, our free podcast (subscribe here in the iTunes Store), we talk to Dr. Raquel Harrison, a New Canaan resident who is one of the founders of a new initiative. New Canaan Unplugged is a parent-led effort to help families navigate the social media and smartphone landscape, with a focus on thoughtful boundaries around technology. (Their newsletter sign-up is here.)

Here are recent episodes of 0684-Radi0: