Government

Town Approves $14,725 Contract for Waveny Pool Work; No Competitive Bids Sought

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Town officials on Tuesday approved a contract with a Stamford-based painting company to spruce up Waveny Pool ahead of the 2018 season. The $14,725 contract with Alladin Services includes $1,900 in contingency and will including cleaning the main pavilion at the pool, locker rooms and cleaning around the pool, Department of Public Works Buildings Superintendent Bill Oestmann told members of the Board of Selectmen during their regular meeting. Alladin has “done a fair amount of work for the town” and has been “responsive” and “good with their pricing,” Oestmann said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “We are seeking your approval to get this done and get ready for the opening day,” Oestmann said. Waveny Pool typically is open from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend.

Animal 411

Failed Heating System Prompts Officials To Close New Canaan Animal Control Shelter

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The New Canaan Animal Control shelter has been closed since Dec. 31, officials say, when they had to shut off the water there because of a failed heat pump at the brick building. The sustained freezing temperatures of the last two weeks essentially rendered the small structure at the dump unusable, according to Bill Oestmann, superintendent of buildings for the Department of Public Works. “When it gets down to these temperatures, it’s an old incinerator building, it’s a non-insulated building that was never designed to have heat in it and the heat they put into it cannot keep up with zero-degree temperatures consistently,” he told NewCanaanite.com when asked about the problem. Mercifully, none of the animals that typically take up residence at the shelter—primarily roaming, injured or “dumped” dogs—have lived there since the heating failed.

Government

Selectmen Approve Funding for New Ambulance, Boiler Repairs

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The Board of Selectmen at its most recent meeting unanimously approved three expenditures including $9,281.10 for emergency repairs to the boiler at Town Hall, $15,099.10 to refurbish 10 snow plows, and $182,326 for the purchase of a new ambulance. Bill Oestmann, superintendent of buildings, told the board during its Dec. 5 meeting that the boiler at Town Hall developed a problem while he was away on vacation a couple of weeks earlier. “I guess it got cold that week and the heat was not responding very well in Town Hall,” Oestmann said during the meeting, held at Town Hall. ”So, the mechanical company came down and found that there were some issues related to the valves.

Government

‘They Need To Be Separate’: Town Officials Weigh Future of Human Services’ Vine Cottage Home

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Should their current base of operations be sold or otherwise offloaded, the municipal employees who work out of Vine Cottage on Main Street likely could not re-locate into Town Hall due to the sensitive nature of their jobs, officials say. Members of the Human Services Department “feel very strongly that they need to be separate from the Town Hall because of confidentiality issues and the clients that they are dealing with,” according to Penny Young, co-chair of the Town Building Evaluation and Use Committee. “And that is why they were not incorporated into this redesign of Town Hall,” Young said at the committee’s most recent meeting, held Sept. 28 at Town Hall. “So that needs to stay uppermost in our mind, is their function and their need for being separate from Town Hall.”

It isn’t clear just where the department, whose staff includes senior outreach and social workers, would move to if displaced from Vine Cottage.

Government

Officials Approve $44,000 in Contracts To Reconfigure Finance Department at Town Hall

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Officials last week approved approximately $44,000 in contracts to reconfigure the Finance Department’s area at Town Hall in a way that makes it more welcoming and also creates space for two more bodies. The department is “the central service agency” of the town and “people need to feel that they can come in and ask any questions” of the staff there, according to interim Finance Director Sandra Dennies. Yet “right now, when you walk in, you walk into a big gray hall,” she told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting, held Sept. 12 at Town Hall. “It is not user friendly.