Government

 ’It’s Really Not OK’: Finance Board Chair Comes Down on Spending ‘Contingency’ on Police Station Renovation

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The chair of the Board of Finance this week called for the team overseeing the extensive renovation of the New Canaan Police Department to tighten its belt with respect to spending a total of $2.6 million budgeted for contingencies on the project. 

That figure—$700,000 in contingency for Shelton-based Turner Construction, which is providing construction services, plus $1.9 million for the town—only applies to the recently set $20 million guaranteed maximum price for the South Avenue project, not for the full $29 million price tag that also includes soft costs such as insurance and creating a temporary police headquarters, according to finance board Chair Todd Lavieri. “I really can’t impress upon you enough how important that is not to be spent,” Lavieri told members of the Police Department Building Committee during the Board’s special meeting, held Tuesday night at Town Hall and via videoconference

“We have to be careful that that’s not really kind of code for ‘it’s budgeted for’ ” he continued. “It’s not budgeted for .. and we can have this meeting again in October, and I can bring you the deck that we went through, and it was a $17 million renovation, and it’s now $29 million. I’ve just got to send the message: It’s not there to be spent.

Amy Murphy Carroll

‘We’re All in This Together’: New Canaan Democrats Rally at Annual BBQ [PHOTOS]

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Amy Murphy Carroll, the Democratic candidate for the town’s highest elected position in the upcoming municipal election, told a room full of fellow party members Sunday that in their 27 years in New Canaan, she and husband John have gotten to know many people. “Worked with them, volunteered with them, and just made so many friends across the town,” Murphy Carroll said during the annual DTC BBQ, held at Carriage Barn Arts Center. “Different backgrounds, different interests, different professions, and—oh, gasp—different political parties. And when it comes down to it, all my interactions with people here, we’re just neighbors. We’re friends, we’re fellow New Canaanites.

Government

Police Station Renovation: GMP for Construction Set at $20 Million

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved an amendment to the town’s contract with the construction manager of the New Canaan Police Department renovation that sets the guaranteed maximum price or “GMP” of the project at $20,235,000. 

Another $5 million has been budgeted for soft costs, with about $2 million each for a temporary police headquarters downtown during the renovation and contingencies, bringing the overall cost of the project to about $29 million, according to Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer in the Department of Public Works. The total represents the same figure that members of the Police Department Building Committee presented to town funding bodies in July, Zagarenski told the selectmen during their regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

“It’s the same project, it’s just further developed and competitively bid now,” Zagarenski said. The appointed Committee has put forth a project to retain the historic architecture of the 1927-built red brick building at 174 South Ave.—originally built as the first New Canaan High School—while fully renovating it. The project also will see the addition on the rear of the structure replaced with a new one for parking and with a sallyport and jail cells. Officials have referred to the project as the renovate-as-new or “Town Hall option,” as a similar project had been done about eight years ago with the expansion and renovation there. 

Officials have said the project could start around Thanksgiving of this year and finish in the fall of 2025.

Amy Murphy Carroll

Deadline Passes: Moynihan Will Not Force Primary

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New Canaan’s incumbent first selectman did not file papers to force a primary in September, town officials have confirmed. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, who was soundly defeated by Republican challenger Dionna Carlson at the GOP Caucus last month, had until 4 p.m. Thursday to file with the town clerk. 

Yet, as Town Clerk Claudia Weber confirmed in an email to NewCanaanite.com, no runner-up candidates filed an application. “No one filed a petition for the First Selectman race, and New Canaan will not be having a Primary this year,” Weber said. That means Carlson will face off against Democrat Amy Murphy Carroll for New Canaan’s top job in the Nov. 7 election. 

It also means that Moynihan’s six-year tenure is coming to a close.

Amy Murphy Carroll

Election 2023: Democrats Put Up Three for BOE; Murphy Carroll Accepts First Selectman Nomination

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A Democrat seeking election to the Board of Education on Tuesday night described New Canaan as “a large community with a ton of tiny communities within it.”

For Lauren Connollly Nussbaum and her husband Matt, town residents for 10 years whose three daughters—ages 8, 10 and 13—attend South and Saxe Middle Schools, those communities include one in special education that they’ve found “remarkable and humbling,” she said during the Democratic Caucus, held at Town Hall. 

Other communities “may be in the sports world, in a house of worship, that may be in the Beautification League,” Connolly Nussbaum told 75-plus Democrats in attendance . 

She continued: “Wherever people in New Canaan are, we are building communities. And that is what I want to do on the Board of Education. Continue to build community and include everyone.”

Connolly Nussbaum added, “I feel ready. I feel nervous. I feel excited.