Government

Town Approves $778,000 Contract To Create ADA-Compliant Entrances to Waveny House

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Town officials on Tuesday approved a $750,000-plus contract with a Ridgefield-based company to create ADA-compliant entrances to Waveny House. The work is to include a new sidewalk leading to the west porch of the public building, new doorway there and raising of the “loggia” by the balcony out back, as well as upgrades to a fire escape along the side of the brick mansion, home to two municipal departments and site of special events. An existing ramp that runs up to the west porch “was not compliant,” according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “So the thought was to change that grade, make it more of a sidewalk, no longer a ramp, and slope it into the western porch, and then change the access through the doors there into the building,” Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting, held via videoconference. “Through our code consultant it was determined that we needed access out onto the loggia on the back porch.

Bill Oestmann

Town Approves $20,000 Contract To Design ‘Playhouse’ Roof Replacement

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Town officials last week approved an approximately $20,000 contract with a Valhalla, N.Y.-based firm to get design and engineering plans for a roof replacement at The Playhouse building on Elm Street. The roof has “a lot of problems,” according to Department of Public Works Superintendent of Buildings Bill Oestmann. “That roof has been leaking,” he told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting, held July 7 via videoconference. “It’s in bad shape. The cupola up there needs work, too.”

First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted in favor of the $19,493 contract with Watsky Associates, Inc.

The actual roof replacement has been estimated to cost about $230,000, officials said.

Bill Oestmann

Town Approves $6,250 Emergency Pump Repair at Playhouse

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The Board of Selectmen last week approved $6,250 for the emergency repair of a circulator pump at The Playhouse on Elm Street. The pump, one of three in the basement of the 1923 building, circulates hot water throughout the Playhouse for its heat, according to Bill Oestmann, superintendent of building in the New Canaan Department of Public Works. On a Saturday just before the COVID-19 public health emergency unfolded, a crew entered the building to swap things around and get heat back into the theater, Oestmann told the selectmen during their April 7 meeting, held via videoconference. 

“In doing so, I had to take one of the pumps from an upper level offline, and use it,” Oestmann said. “These pumps are [in a] really tough environment down there. They are all leaking a little bit and they’re very, very old.”

First Selectman Kevin Moynihan had already approved the payment to New Canaan-based Modern Plumbing & Heating for the work on an emergency basis.

Around Town

New Committee To Develop Formal Purchasing Policy for the Town

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A newly formed committee will develop a formal purchasing policy to help guide the town’s process of awarding bids to contractors, New Canaan’s highest elected official said last week. The Audit Committee identified the need for such a written policy, and it will be developed soon by the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure, according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. “Right we have a policy out of [the] Finance [Department] which is not very clear to me,” Moynihan said during a regular Board of Selectmen meeting, held Dec. 17 at Town Hall. 

“This committee is going to recommend purchasing policy—a written purchasing policy that is more clear—but also a committee like this can review with [Public Works Director] Tiger [Mann] and [Buildings Superintendent] Bill [Oestmann] the lay of land we have with contractors and how realistic it is to put things to bid when we don’t want to get the lowest bigger out of Bridgeport with unreliable work and that kind of thing.”

The committee will put together a purchasing policy that the selectmen can review in February or March, Moynihan said. The matter arose as the selectmen discussed whether to approve an approximately $13,000 contract with a with a Shelton-based heating and air conditioning company to install A/C units at Lapham Community Center.

Government

Town Pursues State Grant To Help Pay for Roof Restoration at Gores Pavilion 

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The Board of Selectmen last week voted 3-0 to apply for a state grant that would help fund the restoration of a roof on a historic building in Irwin Park. If awarded, the Historic Restoration Fund Grant would provide matching funds for the estimated $100,000 roof job at Gores Pavilion, according to Bill Oestmann, superintendent of buildings with the New Canaan Department of Public Works. “If all things go well, we will have mostly like a spring project to get that roof up and on that building,” Oestmann told the Board at its Dec. 3 meeting at Town Hall. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted in favor of the town applying for the grant.