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Gas-Powered Leaf Blower Ban: Town Clerk’s Office Receives Petitions with 1,000-Plus Signatures

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Those seeking to overturn New Canaan’s recently adopted summertime ban on gas-powered leaf blowers last week submitted petitions to the town with more than 1,000 total signatures calling for a referendum vote on the measure, officials say. “We now begin the lengthy process of checking the validity of the signatures,” Town Clerk Claudia Weber said. In all, 701 qualifying signatures are required in order to move the referendum process forward, Weber has said. If the Town Clerk’s office is able to verify those signatures, the Town Council will have 30 days from the date of the filing of the petition—June 26—in which to set the date and hold the referendum. The number of votes required to overrule the Town Council’s action must be the majority of votes and must be equal to, or at least, 15% of the electorate as of the last completed voters’ list.

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NCPD

Man, 42, Arrested Twice for Criminal Trespass

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Police last week arrested a 42-year-old Syosett, N.Y. man twice and charged him with first-degree criminal trespass in connection with a domestic matter. At about 11:50 p.m. on June 22, officers responded to a South Avenue home for a reported trespass violation of an active protective order, police said. After identifying the man and confirming the protective order, police arrested him and additionally charged him with disorderly conduct. He was scheduled for arraignment the following day. Then, at about 8:51 a.m. on June 24, officers responded to the South Avenue residence on a report of a dispute and that the man was inside the home, violating the order.

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Did You Hear … ?

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New Canaan Police at 9:07 a.m. on June 19 received a report of a vehicle stolen from a South Avenue home. It was recovered in Waterbury. The theft is under investigation. ***

New Canaan’s 250 Celebration Parade will step off from the Lumberyard Lot on Elm Street at 9:30 a.m. Saturday and proceed along South Avenue to Saxe Middle School. Details here.

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Arrest Warrant: California Man Stole $1,272,500 from New Canaan-Based Company

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Police on May 20 arrested a 33-year-old Canoga Park, Calif. man by warrant in connection with the theft of $1,272,500 from a New Canaan-based real estate investment company in 2024. The man is accused of hacking email accounts at the company and using them to fool a bank into wiring the money into his own account, according to the affidavit of New Canaan Police Office Thomas Patten that forms the major part of an arrest warrant application signed in October 2025 by state Superior Court judge Bruce Hudock. The company reported the fraud to police in March 2024, Patten said in the affidavit, after making “an investment into a real estate project in the metro Boston area.”

“The construction lender, Santander Bank, required [the company] to deposit $2,172,500 with the bank as a completion guaranty for hitting certain construction milestones,” the arrest warrant application said. 

The company had started hitting those milestones in February 2024 “and they were to have $1,272,500 released back to their investor account at their Bankwell bank account at 156 Cherry Street in New Canaan,” but those funds never arrived, the application said. Company officials soon discovered that their emails had been hacked for some unknown period of time and were “being monitored by the perpetrator(s),” whose methodology included funneling emails related to the wire transfer into unopened folders in Microsoft Outlook while also using email accounts “to provide alternative wire instructions,” Patten said in the affidavit.

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Meet 2026 Summer Interns Valentina Fuentes Jimenez and Jack Zussman

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Please welcome our 2026 Summer Internship Program participants, New Canaan High School rising senior Valentina Fuentes Jimenez, and University of Connecticut senior Jack Zussman, a town resident. 

This summer’s internships are sponsored by Karp Associates and the New Canaan Racquet Club. We met with Valentina and Jack on Sunday afternoon for an introductory interview. Here are transcriptions of our conversations:

Valentina Fuentes Jimenez

New Canaanite: Give us some background on you. How long have you been in New Canaan? What schools did you come up through? 

Valentina Fuentes Jimenez: I moved here in fourth grade, and I went into East School.