Alexandra Van Nes

Ethics Investigation: Moynihan Bemoans Personal Legal Fees, News Coverage

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New Canaan’s highest elected official on Tuesday bemoaned an ethics complaint lodged against him last year, as well as personal legal fees he incurred in fighting against it and local news coverage of an appointed municipal body’s public meetings as it investigated the matter. The complaint lodged Nov. 1 with the Ethics Board—accusing First Selectman Kevin Moynihan of violating the town’s Code of Ethics by using the authority of an elected office to write a letter endorsing Republican candidates for the Board of Education in the run-up to the municipal election—“has not gotten a lot of press except by Mr. [Michael] Dinan who has managed to make several articles out of something that initially was confidential,” Moynihan said during a regular Board of Selectmen meeting. “But also, conveniently, Mike manages to attend meetings at night that he otherwise wouldn’t attend, so this has been a bit of a show. I think the whole thing has been rather disappointing and certainly a disservice to me.

Aaron LaTourette

Selectmen Call for Cost Breakdown on Library’s ‘Legacy Building’ Project

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday called for a cost breakdown of the estimated $1.5 million that New Canaan Library officials have said they need now in order to move and secure the original 1913 library within their downtown campus next spring. In a similar presentation to one they’d made to the Board of Finance last month, library officials told the selectmen that fundraising and construction for a new approximately $40 million facility are going very well. It’s on track to open to the public Feb. 1, 2023, according to library Board of Trustees member Ian Hobbs and Executive Director Lisa Oldham. Yet a separate preservation project approved by the Planning & Zoning Commission in December, to relocate the 1,200-square-foot, “legacy” building about 80 feet to the western property line—making space for a planned green—will cost about $2.5 million all-in, Hobbs and Oldham said.

Government

Town Contemplates Movies, New Water Activities at Kiwanis Park

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The town’s plans for public use of Kiwanis Park may include movies and water-related programs at the swimming hole there, officials say. As it is, the Old Norwalk Road park is well-designed to serve younger children, and recreation officials are working to develop new programming that could help draw older kids, too, according to interim Parks & Recreation Director John Howe. “We’re changing some of our programs,” Howe told members of the Board of Selectmen at their April 19 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “We are going to try to do more things down there, get some life back into Kiwanis.”

He added, “Kiwanis works great for little kids, because they can walk in and out of the sand and they have all that sensory stuff they can do with sand. And then they kind of gravitate toward the pool as they get older.”

Kiwanis Park, like the Steve Benko Pool at Waveny, opens Memorial Day weekend.

Bill Oestmann

Health Department To Be Relocated Temporarily to Irwin Park

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Town officials say they plan to move the New Canaan Health Department temporarily out of the agency’s Vine Cottage home this spring or summer in order to spruce up the prominent Main Street building. 

The exterior repairs to the turreted, yellow structure will take about three weeks, according to Bill Oestmann, superintendent of buildings with the Department of Public Works. “There’s some wood rot over there and some water damage on the outside of the building, which we all can see,” Oestmann told members of the Board of Selectmen during their April 19 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. Asked about the status of the Health Department, he said, “I’m going to move them out. I’m going to them up to Irwin for probably about three weeks, weather-permitting. For a couple of reasons.

Government

106 and Carter: Officials Consider Directing Motorists to Clapboard Hill Road

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One way to address the problem of motorists seeking to cross Route 106 from Carter Street to Canoe Hill Road—a difficult maneuver, given limited sight lines and busy traffic—may be to encourage drivers to enter the state road sooner. If northbound motorists on Carter connect to 106 by cutting through on Clapboard Hill Road, they would be better positioned to turn left onto Canoe Hill Road a bit further up, officials said during last week’s Board of Selectmen meeting. “You would have all the traffic come down Clapboard Hill onto 106, make a turn onto 106 and then you can then proceed with a left-hand turn onto Canoe Hill or proceed onto straight up 106 itself at that point and basically bypass the intersection,” Public Works Director Tiger Mann told the selectmen during their April 19 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

“So the thought is to put signage at Clapboard Hill saying ‘Alternative Route,’ right? So that we’ll get people to go down Clapboard Hill. That’s an alternative.