Board of Selectmen

Selectmen Approve Contract for Design of ‘Town Hall-Style’ Project at New Canaan Police Station

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The Board of Selectmen at its most recent meeting approved a $67,500 contract with a Berlin-based architectural firm to provide a wide range of services in preparation for a widely anticipated renovation of the New Canaan Police Department. The appointed Police Department Building Committee has proposed retaining the historic architecture of the 1927-built red brick building at 174 South Ave. (originally built as the first New Canaan High School) while fully renovating it—and also replacing the addition on the rear of the structure with a new one. Officials have referred to the project as the renovate-as-new or “Town Hall option,” as a similar project had been done about seven years ago with the expansion and renovation there. The firm, Jacunski Humes Architects, will provide architectural, interior, civil engineering, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, information technology, site planning and landscape design, according to Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer in the Department of Public Works.

Government

Town Upholds $150 Ticket Issued to Local Woman Who Parked in Disabled Space

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Town officials last week voted unanimously to uphold a $150 ticket that had been issued June 27 to a New Canaan woman for parking in a disabled space. In a written appeal submitted to the Parking Commission, Angelique Pesce said she had been “blocked” in the disabled space by a parking enforcement officer at the time the ticket was written, at 9:20 a.m. that Monday. “Falsely trapping a vehicle in a spot handicap or otherwise is unacceptable while I am still present to wait for a spot to open,” Pesce said in the written appeal. “No criminal restraining like blocking my vehicle is appropriate for parking tickets.”
Yet she wasn’t in the car at the time the violation was cited, according to Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg. “She was not in the car at the time the ticket was issued, and you can see that by the picture,” Miltenberg said during the Commission’s Aug.

Berchem Moses

Town Exceeds Legal Budget by 32%

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The town exceeded its budget for legal fees by 32% in the fiscal year that ended June 30, documents show. The total spent in legal fees—$395,947.42 against a budget of $300,000—does not include expenses incurred as part of the town’s purchase of an Elm Street building earlier this year, according to a legal bill approved July 26 by the Board of Selectmen. (Those fees, which the Board of Finance later “re-classified,” had already exceeded $43,000 by January, past bills show.)

During the Board’s meeting, Selectman Kathleen Corbet asked about the $8,000 monthly retainer that New Canaan pays to Berchem Moses PC, the town attorney’s firm. “Relative to the full amount of the budget, about 20%, is that similar to what other towns are?” Corbet asked during the meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. “Is that typically what we should expect in terms of the overall budget, the retainer cost?”

Referring to Town Attorney Ira Bloom, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan responded, “I don’t know exactly what other towns pay but I’m told by Ira that we are in the ballpark.

Board of Finance

Lawsuit: Town’s Denial of Sewer Application ‘Illegal’

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A lawyer representing the owner of a property at Weed and Elm Streets, site of a planned 102-unit multifamily redevelopment, is appealing a municipal body’s decision last month to deny a proposed relocated sewer connection. The Board of Finance, in its role as New Canaan’s Water Pollution Control Authority, violated state law in its “illegal” denial, which was “an abuse of discretion and/or not supported by substantial evidence in the records” for several reasons, according to a complaint filed in state Superior Court by attorney Tim Hollister of Hartford-based Hinckley Allen. The property at 751 Weed St. is already connected to the town’s sewer system, “ample sewer capacity exists for the proposed use” and “no system extension is proposed,” Hollister said in the complaint, received Monday by the Town Clerk’s office. “[T]here are no engineering impediments to connecting,” the complaint said, the sewer extension will be privately funded and “the applicants have a right to approval and the WPCA has a non-discretionary / ministerial obligation to grant the application.” 

“In denying the application, the WPCA illegally used sewer system access to control or regulate land use, which is beyond its statutory authority,” Hollister said in the complaint, and the denial was also “pre-textual in the sense that the record shows that its stated denial reasons were not the actual factors that resulted in the decision.”

“The record contains no factual or legal basis for detail of the application,” the complaint said.

Government

Officials Pursue Noise-Reduction Measures at Waveny Trails Near Merritt Parkway

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Officials say they’re looking at ways the town might partner with nonprofit agencies to reduce the noise along the southernmost trails at Waveny that run alongside the Merritt Parkway. Parks & Recreation Commissioner Keith Richey during the appointed body’s July 13 meeting said he walks that stretch of trail often “and it’s so noisy.”

“Is there anything we can do like a bulldozer pushing earth up to create like a little embankment, or plant a bunch of spruces or do something?” Richey said during the Commission’s regular meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. 

His question came following an update from Waveny Park Conservancy Executive Director Phoebe Knowles. During the update, she cited the Merritt Parkway trail and said “the town removed the really ugly chain link fence this year, which has improved the visuals down there so it looks beautiful.”

In response to Rickey’s question, Knowles and Parks & Recreation Director John Howe said several officials from the town, WPC and Merritt Parkway Conservancy had been out looking the area that very day. The group was “trying to figure out who and how” to address the noise issue, Knowles said. The state Department of Transportation has a right-of-way that runs 90 feet from the center of the parkway, she said.