Arnold Karp

‘Let Us Get Further Down the Road’: Merritt Village Developer Addresses Criticism of Retaining Wall

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The local man who is building the 110-unit Merritt Village complex at the edge of downtown New Canaan is asking for time and rationality from residents complaining about a short stretch of retaining wall that has sprung up along Park Street. Merritt Village is not yet 1 percent finished, according to Arnold Karp of Karp Associates, who won approval for the landmark project two years ago following several months of hearings before the Planning & Zoning Commission. “There is a million-dollar planting plan that obscures and hides the walls,” he told NewCanaanite.com. “Before everybody becomes an architectural critic, let us build the project. We’ve put in 215 feet of wall and have gotten a thumbs-up from some of those who drive by and some nasty comments through New Canaanite.

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Officials: Fire System at Lapham Community Center Has Failed

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The fire system at Lapham Community Center has failed and must be replaced on an emergency basis, town officials said this week. The system was original to the 1915-built building and only the panels had been upgraded during an original renovation in 1996, according to Penny Young, co-chair of the Town Council’s Infrastructure and Utilities Committee. “They don’t give any signals,” Young said during an Oct. 15 Committee meeting, held at Town Hall. “So they are working on the replacement of that.

Government

Valley Road Homeowners Reject Town’s Offer for Historic House

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The owners of an antique house on Valley Road have rejected the town’s offer to purchase the home and some of the land around it, officials said last week. 

Instead, the First Taxing District of the Norwalk Water Department will have a caretaker stay at the red-painted 18th Century house at 1124 Valley Road to use it as an “operational base” for work at the adjacent Grupes Reservoir, according to Conservation Commission member Chris Schipper. “They plan to use the house in connection with the water business, so they do not intend to sell it as this time, and I guess that from our perspective that simply defers a decision,” Schipper said during the Commission’s regular meeting, held Oct. 11 at Town Hall. “The only thing that we should be alert to, if they are not maintaining the property, is the risk of demolition by dereliction.”

He added: “The good news its is no longer on the demolition queue. The bad news is it is sort of in abeyance.

Cristina A. Ross

Officials Provide Updates on Natural Gas Installation, Repaving

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The repaving of Farm Road from South Avenue to Old Stamford Road will be completed by mid-November and state roads including Old Stamford Road and South Avenue will be have temporary patches removed and permanent patches installed in the next few weeks, town officials said Monday night. South School and Saxe Middle School already have been connected to the new natural gas lines, and Eversource will have connected the natural gas lines to New Canaan High School by Wednesday, according to Cristina A. Ross, co-chair of the Town Council’s Infrastructure and Utilities Committee. East School is hopefully to be completed by year’s end, she said. Also, Eversource has received 200 service requests from residents seeking to hook up to natural gas and the town has received over 50 applications for permits to do so, Ross said during the Committee’s regular meeting. The utility company is planning a three-year installation period, from 2019 to 2021, she said, with roads repaved in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Government

Town Officials Call for Less Conspicuous Garbage Dumpsters in Parks

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Town officials said last week that they’re addressing an aesthetic problem whereby those entering local parks in some cases are accosted by the sight of garbage dumpsters. 

The town many years ago switched from trash cans dotted around fields at parks such as Waveny and Mead, to having dumpsters, according to Parks & Recreation Commission Chair Sally Campbell. That effort was “very critical to reducing the amount of trash on the fields and in our parks,” she said during the Commission’s regular meeting, held Oct. 10 at Lapham Community Center. 

“However, we find that every park we drive into we are verbally assaulted by City Carting on the dumpsters,” she said. The answer, according to Commissioner Hank Green, who has looked at how nearby towns handle their dumpsters, will involve putting up three-sided fencing around them. “It should be a pretty easy fix,” Green said.