Footer Featured Widget

Feds Find Dozens of ADA Violations at New Canaan Public Facilities

By |

Federal officials in an investigation regarding violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act have cited dozens of barriers to access at public facilities throughout New Canaan. Launched last summer, the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation led to an “on-site survey” of five public facilities in New Canaan in May, according to a Site Survey Report issued Oct. 7 by Diane Perry, an architect in the DOJ’s Disability Rights Section. The investigation at the five facilities—Waveny House, Town Hall campus, Mead Park, Firehouse, Waveny paddle courts and hut and playing fields at New Canaan High School—yielded a total of 109 citations, according to the report, obtained by NewCanaanite.com. 

The barriers range from what appear to require small changes, such as new or relocated signage, to substantial infrastructure projects, such as entirely new accessible routes where none currently exist or changes to the slope of walkways and ramps already in place. In some cases, the DOJ cited barriers following very recent projects.

Board of Selectmen

‘If You Want To Manage, You Run for First Selectman’: Moynihan Pushes Back on Selectmen’s Request Regarding Part-Timers

By |

For the third straight meeting, New Canaan’s highest elected official on Tuesday squared off with fellow members of the Board of Selectmen regarding part-time municipal employees. Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams have said that the Board has an established practice of approving all hires for the town, including those who work part-time on a seasonal or permanent basis. The issue arose when a permanent part-time hire at Waveny House recently was discussed at a Town Council meeting but not before the selectmen. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan responded by saying that such oversight is not the Board’s job, and obtained an opinion from a lawyer in the town attorney’s firm backing up that position. During this week’s regular selectmen meeting, Corbet said she’d reviewed the lawyer’s opinion letter asserting that “the temporary employees, the seasonal employees, the budgeted part-time employees don’t typically come to the Board of Selectmen.”

“I thought it did, so I did some research and in fact I just type in ‘part-time employees’ and they all came up, so we have in fact quite a history of a process as I just further reminded myself, substantially, including every part-time employee and of course there might be one or two that haven’t come before us so I’m going to request that again,” she said.

Government

Town Purchasing Its First-Ever Electric Vehicles

By |

The town for the first time is purchasing electric vehicles or “EVs” for its municipal fleet, officials said Tuesday. 

The two 2023 Chevy Bolts that New Canaan is purchasing from New Canaan’s Karl Chevrolet will be used by multiple members of all Land Use Departments at Town Hall, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. Those include Planning & Zoning, Inland Wetlands, Health, Engineering and the Assessor, Mann told the Board of Selectmen at its regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

“It will be our first in town,” Mann said during the meeting. “So it will be a nice place to start with our Land Use departments.”

First Selectman Kevin Moyinhan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of the $65,844 contract with Karl Chevy. They are replacing old police vehicles that were shifted to the municipal fleet after exceeding their useful lives, Mann said. Those vehicles, now nearly 20 years old, will be used for scrap and sold for $500, he said.

Berchem Moses PC

‘The Town Engaged in an Illegal Process’: P&Z Decisions Nullified by Superior Court Judge

By |

The town suffered a legal defeat this month when a state Superior Court judge sustained appeals that had been filed by neighbors of Grace Farms following a series of Planning & Zoning Commission decisions regarding the Lukes Wood Road organization last summer. 

The neighbors—David Markatos, Jennifer Holme, Timothy Curt and Dona Bissonnette—said they were aggrieved as adjacent landowners when P&Z approved changes to Grace Farms’s special permit through two meetings in May and June 2021. The changes included relocating a religious institution office to Puddin Hill Road for staff parking, allowing the organization to host “casual attendance” activities events on site with for-profit entities and easing reporting requirements to the town. In issuing his Nov. 15 decision, Judge Matthew J. Budzik of state Superior Court in Hartford found fault with the way P&Z discussed, reached and noticed its decisions regarding the application. He noted that once a local P&Z Commission publishes a notice of decision, “that decision is final and may not be opened.”

“To provide potential appellants proper notice of that final decision, a local commission must ‘provide notice adequate to ensure a reasonable opportunity within the applicable time constraints to obtain the information required to form an opinion on whether or not to appeal,’ ” Budzik wrote in his Memorandum of Decision.

Government

St. Aloysius Parish Reimagines Campus with Planned ‘Education and Faith Center’

By |

St. Aloysius Parish is preparing to build a new 26,000-square-foot facility on its campus at South Avenue and Cherry Street that will include a new school, community room, youth center, meeting spaces and large green area connecting all parts. The project is estimated to cost $26 million—more than half of which already has been raised—with construction planned to start in the spring, according to the Rev. Rob Kinnally, pastor at St. Aloysius. “This project re-imagines our parish campus to accommodate our growth from 2,600 families to more than 3,000 families in the past six years,” Kinnally said in a press release.