Amy Murphy Carroll

ARPA Funds: Town Weighs $500,000 in ‘Premium Pay’ Stipends to ‘Essential Workers’ During COVID

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Town officials say they could direct $500,000-plus of an approximately $6 million windfall in federal funds for New Canaan to municipal employees who have worked long hours due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Board of Finance “has been talking about a premium pay element for some employees after COVID and that will probably be for a half-million dollars or more,” according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. 

“One of the purposes of these funds are to give premium pay to employees who, because of COVID, may have worked extra hard,” Moynihan said during the Oct. 5 meeting of the Board of Selectmen. “That is something that has been discussed and I think the Board of Finance will talk about that,” Moynihan said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

The comments came during a general discussion of how the town should spend the first tranche of about $6 million granted to New Canaan through the American Rescue Plan Act. 

Town officials disclosed the windfall mid-summer, and since then elected and appointed bodies including the selectmen, Board of Finance and Town Council have weighed in on how to spend the money, including outlining a process for such decisions. The town has until 2024 to spend the money.

Board of Finance

Finance Board Chair: Selling Police Building ‘Wouldn’t Pay for the New Structure’ at Saxe 

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Based on a recent public presentation, revenues generated by selling the current police station would not offset additional costs that would come with building a new one on a Saxe Middle School baseball field, versus renovating-on-site, according to the chair of the Board of Finance. 

Though selling off the police building at 174 South Ave. “could offset some building costs” and “would be a source of property taxes for years,” still “the delta between the new police building at a new site and the ‘Renovate on Site’ option was significant,” Todd Lavieri said in an Oct. 3 email to town officials, obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request. 

“The sale of the current structure wouldn’t pay for the new structure,” Lavieri said in the email, sent to fellow Board of Finance members and Tucker Murphy, a staffer in First Selectman Kevin Moynihan’s office, with the Board of Selectmen and town CFO Lunda Asmani copied in. “Not even close. It might help close the gap between the two options, at best.”

Cited by Selectman Nick Williams during a heated discussion of the Saxe proposal at the selectmen’s Oct.

Board of Finance

Proposal for New Police Station on Saxe Baseball Field Unveiled

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A team assembled by First Selectman Kevin Moynihan on Wednesday night unveiled a proposed new $23.5 million police station that would be built on a Saxe Middle School baseball diamond. The two-story, approximately 24,000- to 25,000-square-foot glass-and-brick exterior building would sit on 3.6 acres running east off of South Avenue, along a line of trees that separates the school property from the New Canaan Y (see videos embedded above and below), according to a presentation from a New Britain-based architectural firm. 

The new station would also include an underground level with a shooting range, and 89 parking spots would be spaced across about 36,000-square-feet around the building, according to Eric Rossi and Chuck Boos, a specialist and founding principal, respectively, at Kaestle Boos Associates, Inc.

The Saxe ballfield was one of about a dozen potential sites that the firm’s representatives, Moynihan, New Canaan Department of Public Works officials and a former Police Commission chair have been studying out of the public eye for months and it’s “the site that’s risen to the top of the heap,” Rossi said. “This site is fairly flat,” he told members of members of the Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance and Town Council gathered at Town Hall and via videoconference for a special meeting. 

“It’s an existing [baseball] field, 60-foot baseline [baseball] field. Using the site allows us to get all the redundancies and all the site and mechanical systems that we need to get into police station in an easy way. The generator can go on-grade.

Government

Town: Carriers ‘Very Interested’ in Proposed Cell Tower for Northwestern New Canaan

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The town’s highest elected official said this week that multiple carriers are showing interest in offering service through a new cell tower proposed for northwestern New Canaan. To be sited in a wooded hill at 1837 Ponus Ridge, just north of the intersection at Dan’s Highway and across the street from Laurel Reservoir, the proposed tower if approved by a state agency would serve New Canaan’s public safety needs and also have traditional cell carriers. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan told members of the Board of Finance Tuesday night that the Danbury-based wireless infrastructure company that will apply to the Connecticut Siting Council for permission to erect the tower, Homeland Towers, “has had some good news that the carriers are very interested, beyond AT&T which has already signed up in that location.”

“There seems to be a focus away from New York City now, and focusing on the suburbs, with the carriers, because they realize people are working from home and they need to ramp up their service in the suburbs,” Moynihan said during the meeting, held via videoconference. “So I’m getting very good vibes from the carriers that they’re willing to work with us on several locations.”

His comments came during an update to the Board of Finance on various matters before the town. New Canaan for years has grappled with a lack of cell service through large areas of town, including much of the northeastern and northwestern quadrants.

Government

Moynihan: Playhouse To Have New Movie Operator in September at the Earliest

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The town-owned Playhouse on Elm Street likely will have a new operator in September at the earliest, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said this week. The town “may have news about a potential operator soon,” Moynihan told members of the Board of Finance during their regular meeting Tuesday, held via videoconference. Municipal officials “are working on the assumption that the town wants a first-run movie theater and that’s what we’re working on,” he told the Board during a general update. “If we can’t achieve that, we would look to other things,” he said. “But I think that’s a consensus in the town and certainly it supports restaurants and merchants to bring people to New Canaan.