Around Town

Q&A with S.T.A.R. Founder Fatou Niang

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New Canaan-based nonprofit organization Stand Together Against Racism, or S.T.A.R., is holding a special event to cap off Black History Month— Soul•Fête: From Africa to America, A Culinary Tasting Immersion—from 7 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, March 2 at Carriage Barn Arts Center. We catch up with S.T.A.R. founder, New Canaan resident and proud Kansas City Chiefs mom Fatou Niang about the event, organization, programming and Super Bowl in this exchange. New Canaanite: We last checked in with S.T.A.R. during the very well-attended Juneteenth celebration on the New Canaan Museum & Historical Society’s campus last summer. Catch us up—what have you been doing at S.T.A.R.? Fatou Niang: We’ve been busy.

Around Town

‘I Was Getting My Hair Colored’: Parking Ticket Appeals

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The New Canaan Parking Commission recently received the following appeals letters from ticketed motorists. 

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“I received a parking ticket when parked in front of J. Crew on 1/18/23. I was meeting an old friend at LePain Quotidien. I am 75 years old and have been shopping in your town for over 47 years. I never, ever knew you had a two hour rule. I went back with my husband and I now see that in fact there are small signs but none was in front of my car car and honestly I was unaware.

News

Dale Lawrence Cheney, 46

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Dale Lawrence Cheney passed away on January 25, 2023, in New York City. He was born in Alexandria, Virginia, to Darwin and Bonnie (Gray) Cheney on January 15, 1977. He grew up in New Jersey and Northern Virginia with his two brothers and two sisters. He attended Brigham Young University (class of 2001) in Provo, UT where he studied Accounting and met the love of his life, Lauren Colton, his wife of 22 years (married August 5, 2000, in the Washington DC LDS Temple). He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School (class of 2006) where he learned to be an effective business leader and made lifelong friends.

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CORRECTION: Grand List Increase Stands at $88 Million

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For those who have missed our correction as published on the updated story: NewCanaanite.com wrongly reported the Grand List increase at $629 million on Wednesday morning. I apologize for the mistake. 

I’d entered ‘7.936’ in my calculating spreadsheet instead of ‘7.396,’ which led to the wrong figure. It was published in our newsletter headline before I caught my error. Sorry about that—I’ll be more careful in the future. The first selectman’s office and assessor both had provided accurate information on the Grand List, and the inaccurate report was entirely my own fault.

The newsletter is a static emailed page, and it took about one hour for the site to cache the correction after I updated the story, so those who came into the site via the newsletter or directly before about 7:30 a.m. received inaccurate information.

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Grand List Increases by $88 Million; Top-10 Taxpayer Accounts [CORRECTED]

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[CORRECTION: NewCanaanite.com wrongly calculated the Grand List year-over-year increase prior to the Feb. 1, 2023 newsletter going out. I apologize for the mistake. A standalone correction can be found here.]

The total value of taxable property in New Canaan—including homes, commercial properties and motor vehicles—increased by about $88 million from 2021 to 2022, according to preliminary figures. 

Given the last budget cycle’s mill rate of 18.372, the year-over-year increase in funds for the town from the taxable property would come to about $1.6 million—though the Grand List won’t be finalized until after the Board of Assessment Appeals process. The Grand List’s $8 billion total reflects upticks in the total value of taxable real estate and personal property and motor vehicles.