Board of Selectmen

Replacing Tennis Court Fence Posts Bent by Tornado To Cost $9,000

By |

Town officials on Tuesday approved a $9,000 contract with a West Haven-based company to replace fenceposts bent by a rare tornado that struck New Canaan earlier this month. The Oct. 2 tornado appears to have started in the area of Marshall Ridge Road and then cut a path southwest that included New Canaan High School and Waveny grounds, “and it took a lot of trees down,” Recreation Director Steve Benko told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting. And it bent an approximately 100-foot section of the fence on the eastern end of the tennis courts at New Canaan High School, which will require replacing the posts to fix, Benko said. “When the courts were built, the posts were already cemented into the ground,” he said at the meeting, held in Town Hall.

Board of Selectmen

Still Standing: Selectmen Forgo Vote on ‘Mead Park Brick Barn’ Demolition, Opening Question of Board’s Powers

By |

After 90 minutes of debate and public comment at a tense meeting Tuesday, town officials ultimately decided to forgo voting on whether to approve contracts to demolish the “Mead Park Brick Barn” and remove its would-be contaminant-laden debris. By taking no action on a pair of proposed contracts—one for about $44,000 to raze what some call the “Richmond Hill Garage,” and another for about $9,000 to safely dispose of its remains—a divided Board of Selectmen effectively stalled the structure’s demolition. 

After hearing from the public and echoing much of the same thinking they had voiced last month, the selectmen also opened up a new question about whether or not the Board is acting appropriately by forestalling a demolition already approved by other decision-making bodies in local government. “My problem is I think it is a nullification of the bodies that voted on this,” First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said during the Board’s regular meeting at Town Hall. Moynihan referred to the Town Council’s 6-6 vote in May—which he himself broke, as per the Town Charter—to include $65,00 to raze the Barn as part of a larger bonding package. After that, the town applied (to itself) to demolish the 1911-built structure on the northern edge of Mead Park, where Standard Oil’s horse-drawn delivery wagons used to fill containers for fuel delivery in New Canaan.

Board of Selectmen

First Selectman: Town To Create New Canaan ‘Tourism and Economic Development Commission’

By |

New Canaan’s highest elected official on Tuesday said the town is close to creating a new appointed body that’s responsible for promoting local tourism and economic development. The Tourism and Economic Development Commission could include 10 to 12 people, according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. “Other towns have this kind of effort,” Moynihan told NewCanaanite.com during an interview moments after a Board of Selectmen meeting at Town Hall. “Ridgefield has an Economic Commission, and also in talking to the Glass House and others, we really need more of a tourism effort.”

The future commission first was mentioned during the selectmen meeting, as the Board voted 3-0 in favor of a $12,347 contract with a company—Revize Software, which describes itself as a government website specialist—to redesign and host the municipal website. 

Christopher Kaiser, the town’s IT director, said during the meeting that Revize had been chosen from among four or five vendors with “extensive municipal website design” experience and that the company seemed like a good fit. He added that it’s been a pleasure and a help to work with the recently appointed Technology Advisory Committee as well as consulting with the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce. 

Randy Dalia, chairman of the Technology Advisory Committee, said a newly designed municipal website is a “technical tool.”

“We still need better marketing, economic development, public relations,” Dalia said, voicing an assertion that the Committee has made before.

Selectmen Approve $100,000 Contract for Windows at Irwin Barn; Some Broken by Vandalism

By |

Town officials last week approved a $100,000 contract to restore broken windows at the 1908-built Irwin Barn, including some that resulted from vandalism. The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously at its regular meeting for the contract with Ridgefield-based Alden Bailey Restoration, one of two companies that put in a bid for the job. “They need a lot of health and care to get back up to par,” Buildings Superintendent Bill Oestmann told the selectmen at their Oct. 9 meeting, held in Town Hall. “There’s a couple that will have to be replaced.”

First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted 3-0 for $101,200 contract, which includes $9,200 in contingency.

Board of Selectmen

Town Resident Flags Noisy Late-Night Gas Line Construction Work, Cites Safety Concerns

By |

A Green Avenue man filed a formal complaint with New Canaan’s highest elected official that crews installing gas lines on Saturday worked during off-hours in a way that’s been disruptive for residents. 

Drew Magratten in an email to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said the crews worked from 6:30 a.m. until past 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 6, and in doing so “have abused our neighborhood’s good will.”

“We pay a lot of money to live here and it is NOT in order to have to listen to endless beeping, yelling and diesel-powered equipment rumbling at all hours,” Magratten said in his email, obtained by NewCanaanite.com. “Our street and the adjacent street has been blocked by large equipment all week and God only knows when they will finish, if ever.”

The letter continued: “Who is permitting this? You? The town’s residents did not agree to these disruptions. My neighbors and I would like some assurances that they will stop. Immediately.”

Moynihan during Tuesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting at Town Hall acknowledged that Magratten is “absolutely right” and that the town did not give permission for Saturday evening work.