Around Town

Retired New Canaan Lawyer Turns To Fungi Farming

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Pondering what to do after 50 years of practicing law, fourth-generation New Canaan native Richard Stewart turned to YouTube. 

It was 2019, and on the global video-sharing platform, he stumbled upon an unexpected hobby: growing culinary mushrooms.

“I knew I was ready to step away from law, and I needed something new to dive into,” Stewart told NewCanaanite.com on a recent morning. “I found a YouTube video that said you could gut your basement, grow mushrooms for 15 hours, and make $500 a week. That sounded like the perfect retirement plan.”

Stewart continued with a laugh: “Five years later, I’m working 50 hours and losing $500 a week.”

A member of the New Canaan High School class of ’61, Stewart has spent nearly 50 years living in New Canaan and now operates a small mushroom farm in North Salem, N.Y., called Stewart-Watson Farm. A graduate of Beloit College in Wisconsin, Stewart served as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam era before earning his law degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1972. After 11 years practicing in the courtrooms of West Hartford and Stamford, he returned to New Canaan to open his own firm, where he worked until his recent retirement.

Homepage Featured

Town Approves $25,000 for Traffic ‘Flaggers’

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[The NewCanaanite.com Summer Internship Program is sponsored by Karp Associates.]

Municipal officials last week approved a contract for flagging services on local roads, including for the Putnam Road sidewalk replacement. The Putnam Road work, which has about two weeks left, has “alternating one-way traffic,” according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. 

“We use the flaggers to direct the motorists,” Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen during their July 8 meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. “Since we have one lane closed, we’ve got to be able to get them through the work zone safely.”

First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of a $25,000 contract with All State Flagging LLC. Mann said the town has a contract already with a different company, Precise Traffic Control, “but they are currently working on the paving projects and there’s just not enough flaggers to go around for Precise to utilize.”

The flaggers are there to prevent people from using the sidewalks, but to get drivers through the work zone without risk, Mann said. They also warn motorists on the Putnam curve where they can’t see ahead, he said.

News

Weed Street Home Sells for $2,080,750

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The following property transfer(s) were recorded recently in the Town Clerk’s office. For more information about each property from the assessor, click on the street address. To get the history of a New Canaan street name, click here. ***

July 3

621 Weed St. $2,080,750
Brooke Debany to Chau Prutting

95 Louise’s Lane

$2,450,000
James Frey to Ashton/Nemec LLC

July 2

23 Vitti St., Unit 201

$1,380,000
CH Vitti Street Associates LLC to Olha Yarema-Wynar

181 Lambert Road

$800,000
James Cullinane to Laura Maness Brisson

39 & 49-51 Locust Ave.

Board of Selectmen

Town: Irwin House Demolition on Track for Late-August/September

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Irwin House is expected to be demolished in late-August or September, officials said last week. Located in the Weed Street park of the same name, the brick Irwin House was built between 1961 and 1963 after the original 1920’s shingle-style house—once owned by IBM founder Thomas Watson, Sr.—burned down in a fire. Noting that the structure needs an estimated $1.3 million in exterior work alone, town officials publicly discussed the prospect of demolishing Irwin House during this year’s budget process. The Board of Selectmen in April approved a $58,000 contract with an environmental services firm to find out what hazardous materials are inside Irwin House, and advise on how best to get rid of them so the full demo can go forward. 

During the July 8 Board of Selectmen meeting, Public Works Director Tiger Mann said that the town “got the initial environmental assessment back” and that DPW is “still working on the specifications.”

“And once that comes in, then we’ll get a good feel as to our number for environmental,” Mann told the selectmen during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “Then we’ll go out to bid and look to get the people that are there currently out and housed where they need and take the building down some time in late-August-September-ish.”

Specifically, work must be done at Irwin Barn, he said (a separate structure that is not under threat of demolition). 

“We’ve already done some work at Irwin Barn as far as the waste and water lines, to be able to then relocate Butch, our maintenance man, from the garage to the Irwin Barn and give him a palace where he can wash his hands and go to the bathroom,” Mann said.

Business

Proposed Hotel Property Sells for $8.7 Million

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The downtown property where a 40-room hotel has been proposed sold this month for $8.7 million, according to a property transfer recorded July 2 in the Town Clerk’s office. Already identified as the “contractor purchaser” of 39 and 49-51 Locust Ave., the new ownership company—called Two Corners LLC—is headed by New Canaan resident Elliott Siderides. He’s the founder and president of New Canaan-based Windward Development, Inc., which is behind the hotel proposal. In appearing before the Planning & Zoning Commission in May founder and president of New Canaan-based Windward Development, Inc. alongside his two sons—John Siderides, Windward’s in-house architect, and Andrew Siderides, Windward’s head of development and construction management—Elliott Siderides detailed the proposed adaptive reuse of brick-exterior commercial buildings on Locust, including one that formerly housed the Board of Education and, temporarily, the New Canaan Police Department. During the hearing, he said that the extended-stay portion of the hotel is designed to serve “people who are visiting their elders at Waveny for a week…people who want their own place, coming back to visit their kids for a month… business owners who may come into town for a week because of remote capabilities,” he said. 

“The typical room has two bedrooms with a kitchen and a living room and/or flex rooms that can create a more expanded living situation,” Siderides told P&Z at the hearing.