Bill Oestmann

Town Approves Contract To Sell Movie Projector, Sound System at Playhouse

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Town officials voted last week to sell the existing projector and sound system in the Playhouse movie theater on Elm Street. 

The Board of Selectmen at its regular meeting Sept. 6 voted 3-0 in favor of selling the 11-year-old equipment to Niskayuna, NY-based Integrity Entertainment Systems for use in a refurbished Massachusetts theater. (The new operator of the Playhouse will use digital equipment and the projector room itself will be removed, officials say.)

New Canaan did not pay for the projector and sound equipment, which originally cost about $100,000, but became its owner under an agreement to terminate its lease with Bow Tie Cinemas, the former operator of the iconic Elm Street movie house, according to Bill Oestmann, buildings superintendent with the Department of Public Works. “The shelf life on that type of equipment is usually eight to 10 years, but since it hasn’t been running, it has a minimal use, there is an interest in repurposing this,” Oestmann told the selectmen at their meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “The original company who actually sold the equipment was able to actually sell it for us.

Bill Oestmann

Selectmen Approve Lease Agreement for Temporary NCPD Headquarters Downtown

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved a two-year lease for the New Canaan Police Department to relocate to a building downtown during the widely anticipated renovation of its South Avenue headquarters. 

The building at 39 Locust Ave., longtime home of New Canaan Public Schools, will be vacated by the district following the academic year now underway, according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. 

“It so happens the Board of Ed space fits the needs for two years,” Moynihan said during the Board of Selectmen’s meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

Under the lease agreement, the town will pay about $30,000 per month in rent, through June 2025. According to the agreement, the Board of Education is paying the building’s owner—a limited liability company whose principal is a Frogtown Road man, state records show—about $217,000 for terminating the lease early. Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of the lease. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the Board of Finance and/or Town Council must also approve it. Bill Oestmann, buildings superintendent with the Department of Public Works, said the town must “do a few things to make the space meet the needs for Police Department usage.”

“And that will include a generator,” Oestmann said.

Bill Oestmann

Town Approves $62,000 Contract to Repair Gazebo in Waveny

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The Board of Selectmen last week approved a $62,100 contract with a Ridgefield-based company to repair the gazebo in Waveny Park. The company, Alden Bailey, has all supplies in stock to do the work, according to Bill Oestmann, superintendent of buildings in the Department of Public Works. The gazebo’s roof needs repair “and the structure itself is needing a little cleaning up,” Oestmann told the selectmen at their Aug. 23 meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. “Kids over the years have done a little vandalism to it,” Oestmann said.

Bill Oestmann

Town Council To Solicit Public Input on Plans for Playhouse on June 23, 29

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The town will hold two meetings this month to solicit public input on a plan to have a New Jersey-based company operate the Playhouse on Elm Street. The movie theater closed in March 2020 due to the pandemic, and became available to a new tenant nine months later, when Bow Tie Cinemas terminated its lease. Over the past several months, the town has been working toward a proposed lease agreement with Montclair, N.J. Cinema Lab. The discussions have been held out of the public eye, with the town claiming an exemption from Connecticut Freedom of Information Act under the “real estate” category. Yet during last week’s regular meeting of the Town Council, details of the proposal with Cinema Lab were made public, and the legislative body scheduled public hearings at 7 p.m. on June 23 and 29, both in-person at Town Hall and via videoconference, to take public comments.

Government

Town Approves Contract To Improve ADA Access To Playhouse

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Town officials last week approved an approximately $34,000 contract with a local architecture firm to draw up accessibility improvements to and around the movie theater on Elm Street. 

The Board of Selectmen voted 3-0 during its June 7 meeting to approve the $33,925 contract with Architectural Preservation Studio, DPC, which has offices in New Canaan and New York City. Part of the work will involve designing a three-set switchback ramp to be installed on the Playhouse side of the staircase that runs at the far end of the alley between the movie theater and Le Pan Quotidien, according to Bill Oestmann, superintendent of buildings with the New Canaan Department of Public Works. The ADA-compliant ramp would address a change in grade of about five or six feet between the alley and the parking lot behind it, providing access to that lot for the disabled, Oestmann told the selectmen. “It is pretty steep,” Oestmann said at the meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. “It’s going to be a switchback, most likely, so we are going to come up with a few ideas hopefully to how we can achieve that and make it aesthetically nice too,” he said.