The Board of Selectmen at its most recent meeting approved a $1,200 contract for a Woodbury-based architect to plan for the foundation of a new pre-built modular building at the dump.
It’s unclear what purpose will be served by the future structure planned for the Transfer Station. The director of the New Canaan Department of Public Works has talked recently of the need for a dedicated building to store road salt.
The selectmen voted 3-0 in favor of the contract with Gary Nurnberger, Architect LLC at its Dec. 15 meeting, held via videoconference. The funds were approved as part of a standing Board agenda item on contracts valued at less than $10,000.
Selectman Kathleen Corbet asked DPW Director Tiger Mann, “That’s going to be part of this report you will come up with, with all of the different components thereof, in terms of creating that little modular?”
Mann said, “Yes, there will be a matrix for you, or spreadsheet, showing you where everything is.”
In advocating for funding of a “salt dome” or “salt barn” at the Lakeview Avenue facility, Mann has indicated that the former incinerator building could be reused or moved to make room for different operations at the Transfer Station. It wasn’t clear whether the report mentioned by Corbet referred a new overall plan.
Part of the incinerator building itself is used for the town’s animal control shelter—a use and space that’s made headlines in recent weeks, as some surviving dogs from a widely discussed neglect case are being cared for there. Selectman Nick Williams has urged First Selectman Kevin Moynihan to allow for a public-private partnership whereby local residents could donate toward a new or improved facility for animals. It’s unclear how much that would cost.
An approximately $500,000 earmark for purchase of a salt dome has been moved for more than a decade to the third outlier year in the fluid Five-Year Capital Plan, DPW officials have said.
The architect’s notes on the contract approved by the selectmen say, in part, “The proposed project tentatively consists of: Produce a foundation plan for a pre-built modular building (designed and drawn by others) for the town’s use as a base for said building. My understanding is the building itself will be filed separately by the manufacturer.”
I think citizens are entitled to know exactly what type of building (storage for road salt?) is being discussed since our taxes will be paying for it. Let’s start 2021 with more transparency when it comes to expenditures.
And I would prefer that our animals are held in a better place