Biz on Biz

Biz on Biz: Gelatissimo Appreciates Elm Street Books’ ‘One-to-One’ Recommendations

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On a gloomy day this week, I nipped into Gelatissimo to escape the rain. I was there to find out owner Nuccia Mazzonetto’s favorite local product or service as part of NewCanaanite.com’s “Biz on Biz” feature. 

Inside, I found Mazzonetto behind the gelato counter, serving two teenage girls with heaping cups of the frozen treat, while out the back a staff member churned fresh gelato as I watched. When asked what her favorite local product or service was, Mazzonetto struggled to decide. Eventually, she landed on Elm Street Books. “I love the book store,” she said. 

Mazzonetto said her favorite part about shopping at Elm Street Books is the excellent recommendations they give—whether she’s buying a book for herself or as a gift. 

“They help you,” she said. 

“It’s more one-to-one,” she added.

Bill Oestmann

Officials Approve $97,000 Contract To Replace Day Care Center Roof

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Town officials last week approved a contract worth nearly $100,000 for the installation of a new roof at a local day care. Department of Public Works Building Superintendent Bill Oestmann proposed the contract with Stamford-based J. Antonelli Roofing at the Board of Selectmen’s Aug. 6 regular meeting, held at Town Hall. 

Approved 3-0 by First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Nick Williams and Kit Devereaux, the project will see the rear portion of the Day Care Center of New Canaan’s roof replaced, Oestmann said. “It’s a flat roof, it’s 30-something years old, it is leaking,” he said. For the past several years, Oestmann said, he has had contractors patch the roof, but now a review by engineers has concluded that “it’s time” for a new roof.

Eileen Pickering

‘It’s Bittersweet’: Career New Canaan Firefighter Jim Pickering Retiring

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Town native Jim Pickering, a 1980 New Canaan High School graduate, recalls the exact day he started as a New Canaan firefighter. 

It was July 3, 1989, and Pickering was 27. “The fire department is a brotherhood,” Pickering told NewCanaanite.com Monday. “I have made some great friendships over the years.” At the end of this month, Pickering will retire as a firefighter after 30 years of service with the New Canaan Fire Department—an agency he was inspired by his own family members to join. “My dad was a volunteer, and my uncle—my dad’s brother—was a career firefighter for the town of New Canaan,” he said.

News

Fire Marshal: Gas Leak Reported Monday Night on Main Street 

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Firefighters on Monday night responded to a reported gas leak on Main Street, officials say. At about 9:08 p.m. on Aug. 12, members of the New Canaan Fire Department traveled to the area of Down River Road, where officials from the utility company were already on scene working to control the leak, according to Fire Marshal Fred Baker. NCFD members monitored the area and the leak was abated at about 9:45 p.m., he said in a press release. No evacuations were necessary as Eversource stayed on scene to make repairs, Baker said.

Government

First Selectman: Locust Avenue Lot Repaving Project Likely Put Off to Next Summer

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The widely anticipated repaving of the Locust Avenue Lot likely will take place next summer instead of this year, as originally planned, officials say. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said during an update to the Parking Commission at the appointed body’s most recent meeting that he had “thought it was going to get done in August, but I don’t think it’s going to get done in August” now. Saying he was concerned about “people’s need for parking,” Moynihan told the Commission during its July 11 meeting that the work will involve “re-architecting” the lot. 

“They are going to redo the lot,” Moynihan said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. The town’s budget for the current fiscal year includes a $500,000 item for “parking lot construction” that had been thought to go toward the heavily used and deteriorating permit-and-meter parking lot next to the Post Office. Earlier this year, public works officials said that the repaving project could end up more expensive than originally planned if, when the town starts to dig up the area, it runs into the demolished, buried remains buildings that used to stand there. 

Thought nearly three years ago to be right for an estimated $4 million decking job, the lot is to be removed and replaced during a single estimated two-month period, public works officials have said.