Amy Murphy Carroll

First Selectman: Work To ‘Begin Shortly’ on Former Outback Teen Center

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Work soon will start on long-vacant public building located behind Town Hall that is to be be made ready for a paying tenant, New Canaan’s highest elected official said last week. The former Outback Teen Center “will begin shortly so that the building will be available for July 1,” First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said during the April 9 Board of Finance meeting. The main floor of the building is to be rented to a local dance studio, while the New Canaan Department of Human Services is to move into the ground floor of the building. 

The town has been approved for a state Capital Improvement Program grant covering more than $400,000 for the project, officials said. Finance board member Amy Murphy Carroll noted that although the town had approved funds for engineering and other studies needed ahead of a renovation of the Outback, funding the physical work was to wait until New Canaan knew better just what it would do with Vine Cottage (where Human Services currently is located). Yet given the news about the state grant, Murphy Carroll said, “it’s different now.”

Building officials in the past had pegged the cost of renovating the Outback at about $300,000.

Christopher Kaiser

Officials: Town Website on Track for May Relaunch

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Town officials said this week that the re-launched municipal website is on track to go live in May. Designed to be more useful and interactive than what New Canaan currently has, the new site will live at the same Web address, newcanaan.info, and its features will include increased online bill pay functionality, a more robust “news” section, sign-ups for various kinds of alerts and tie-ins with town-operated social media accounts. Those in municipal government helping to design and train on the site are “engaged” and “excited,” New Canaan’s director of information technology, Chris Kaiser, said during Wednesday’s meeting of the Technology Advisory Committee. 

Discussions about the look and navigation of the site, as well as its color palette and featured photos are ongoing, Kaiser said during the meeting, held at Town Hall. And while all the data that lives on the town site’s thousands of Web pages is “migrated” over to the new one, “we are in a stopgap where anything going to the old newcanaan.info site is held” and will be part of the re-launch. Appointed in February 2018, the five-member Committee—Chairman Randy Dalia, Secretary Jeff Platt, Michael Abbott, Paul Pureka and Annamari Mikkola—has been studying the use of technology generally by the town government, with an eye on making it more efficient, cost-effective and convenient for residents.

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Local Restaurant To Undergo Re-Inspection After Citation for ‘Toxic Items’ Placement 

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A restaurant on Main Street in New Canaan is to undergo re-inspection by local health officials who this week found an insecticide and chemical compound improperly stored in its kitchen. During an unannounced April 9 inspection at the Indian restaurant, a sanitarian in the New Canaan Health Department discovered a “risk factor” violation in the category of “toxic items properly stored, labeled & used,” according to the inspector’s report. Specifically, the inspector found Raid and isopropyl alcohol stored on shelf above a dishwashing area and near food container storage at Chef Prasad restaurant, according to the sanitarian’s report. Inspectors use a state Department of Public Health standard, citing eateries for violations that range in seriousness and corresponding weight from one to four points. A “failed” inspection is triggered either by one or more four-point or “risk factor” violations, or a total score of less than 80 points.

Amy Murphy Carroll

Board of Finance Approves Bonding for Estimated $2 Million Roof Replacement at South School

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The Board of Finance on Tuesday voted unanimously in support of nearly $2.2 in bonding for the replacement of the roof at South School—a project that’s expected to take place this summer and to be completed by the start of next academic year. As Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi had outlined during the budget season just passed, the 20-year-old roof has reached the end of its useful life and has started to fail, with water coming in through the ceiling in places following heavy rain. The project, which is expected to come in at about $2 million, went out to bid in January and will be completed by North Haven-based Greenwood Industries Inc., New Canaan Public Schools Director of Finance and Operations Dr. Jo-Ann Keating said. The overall $2,046,000 figure is less than the nearly $2.2 million that town funding bodies approved in the capital budget for fiscal year 2020—it represents $1.6 million with a 20% contingency and $100,000 in soft costs, according to Keating. The town will only bond what is spent, officials said.

Board of Selectmen

Selectmen Vet New ‘Whistleblower’ Policy

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Saying some details needed to be worked out, the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday deferred its vote to approve an updated policy designed to help public officials report wrongdoing. The selectmen during their regular meeting discussed a revised version of New Canaan’s “whistleblower policy” with Tucker Clauss, chairman of the Board of Ethics, the appointed body that’s been developing it. First issued in 2012, the policy needed to be updated so that it covered not only Town Hall but also the Board of Education, Clauss said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. The language of the existing policy also needed to be clear that it didn’t override other requirements, such as for teachers to report suspected abuse or neglect to the appropriate legal and regulatory authorities, Clauss said. There’s also a provision in the policy now in place that deals with immunity from criminal prosecution.