New Canaan Police at about 1:20 p.m. Monday received a report of mail stolen from the mailbox of a White Oak Shade Road home.
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Two new food providers are planning to open on Main Street downtown. The businesses, planned for the former Subway sandwich shop space near the Fire Department, as well as the former Garelick & Herbs space, are now working with the Health Department in the early stages of the application process, Health Director Jenn Eielson told member of the Health & Human Services Commission during an update at their regular meeting Thursday.
Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra and Gary Merjian at the Waldorf Astoria. Contributed
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Congratulations to New Canaan resident Gary Merjian, a lifelong Frank Sinatra fan and former longtime employee at the Waldorf Astoria on winning a contest launched through the “Waldorf Stories” website, documenting an oral history of the famous Park Avenue hotel for its 90th anniversary. Currently the general manager and COO of Pelham Country Club, Merjian started his career at age 21 at the Waldorf Astoria, where Sinatra kept an apartment in The Towers, and worked there for 15 years orchestrating and executing some of the most high profile events, where he was able to meet every living U.S president. “Finally, in 1988, he had his chance to meet Frank Sinatra when he planned a major event for him and became close friends with his management team,” according to the contest citation. “In 1990, they asked him to plan Frank Sinatra’s 75th birthday party, where he was able to close down the famous landmarked Park Avenue lobby for the first time in the history of the Waldorf Astoria for cocktails at midnight for his 200 guests. He even covered the famous Park Avenue marquee to read ‘Frankie’s Place.’ ” Merjian met his wife, Heidi, while the two were co-workers at the Waldorf Astoria, and they’ve been married 32 years, holding their wedding on the Starlight Roof of the hotel’s 18th floor, where Sinatra performed. They won a VIP weekend at the Waldorf, and will be one of the first guests to stay there when it reopens in 2023.
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The New Canaan Building Department on Jan. 27 received an application to demolish a 1963-built split-level home at 107 Pocconock Trail.
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Police at about 2:07 p.m. on Jan. 30 shot an injured coyote on Michigan Road.
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First Presbyterian Nursery School is hiring a new director, details here.
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At about 4:03 p.m on Jan. 29, police received a report of driver’s door and rear windows smashed on a vehicle parked on Millport Avenue.
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Here’s the new “Wine Minute” from Carl Franco of Franco’s Wine Merchants on Elm Street:
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Police received reports of motor vehicles passing stopped school buses at Locust and Hillside Avenues (12:02 p.m. on Jan. 27) and at Park Street and Richmond Hill Road (4:50 p.m. on Jan. 27).
New Canaan’s Arianne Faber Kolb, co-curator (with Micaela Porta) of “Women of Waveny: Artists, Patrons and the Lapham Legacy.” She’s standing next to Abastenia St. Leger Eberle’s “Girl Roller-Skating,” 1906, bronze Rhode Island School of Design Museum. Photograph courtesy of the RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island. Behind Faber Kolb is a portrait of St. Leger Eberle, never before exhibited. Credit: Michael Dinan
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Coming up at 7 p.m. next Wednesday, Feb. 9 at the New Canaan Museum & Historical Society: “Abastenia St. Leger Eberle in Context: American Women Sculptors 1900-1940.” Presented by Dr. Thayer Tolles, Curator of American Painting and Sculpture in the American Wing of the MET and sponsored by the New Canaan Artisans, the lecture will examine the career of Abastenia St. Leger Eberle, sculptor of Waveny’s Lotus Fountain 91918), in the context of other early 20th-century American women sculptors, as well as the popularity of small bronze sculpture for home and garden.
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The criminal trial of Heidi Lueders is underway. The New Canaan woman was charged with five counts of animal cruelty after five dogs who died in her care while she was living in Fairfield in 2018.
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The first three meals from New Canaan-based dil figaro are free, for a limited time only.
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Police at about 1:18 p.m. on Jan. 27 received a report of stickers being placed on gas pumps at the Mobil station downtown. The matter is being handled between Mobil and the other party involved, police said.
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Staying Put in New Canaan is hiring a new executive director—details here.
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A bat captured inside an Indian Waters Drive home and reported to police at 7:34 p.m. on Jan. 28 tested negative for rabies.
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More local events coming up soon:
- Jean Jacobs Gallery Presents: ‘Aesther Chang : Meditations’ an Artist’s Solo Exhibition (February 5 @ 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm)
- ‘The Domestic Herbal: Plants for the Home in the Seventeenth Century’ Presented by Author Margaret Willes (February 8 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm)
- Med Ed at New Canaan Library: “Breast Health: Everything You Wanted to Know but Were Afraid to Ask” Presented by Dr. Helen Pass, Chief of Breast Surgery at Stamford Hospital (February 10 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm)
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Police at 1:38 p.m. on Jan. 28 received a report of a catalytic converter being removed from a vehicle parked at the Talmadge Hill Train Station.
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Finally, a laptop, Apple AirPods and cash was reported stolen from multiple backpacks on the evening of Jan. 26, during a swim meet at the YMCA.