Government

Town Hires 103 Part-Time Summer Workers

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The Board of Selectmen at its most recent meeting voted in favor of hiring more than 100 part-time employees for the 2026 summer recreation season. Parks & Recreation Director John Howe told the elected body at its May 19 meeting that he is seeking to hire 103 this summer, as the town does each year, to help operate a wide range of municipal facilities, including revenue-generating ventures such as the pool at Waveny and camps. “103 kids,” Howe said at the Board of Selectmen meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “This is anything from lifeguards for the Steve Benko Pool to supervisors to summer camp counselors and even umpires. It’s all our seasonal help for the summer.”

First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted in favor of the request.

News

‘The Community Is Very Concerned’: South Avenue Repaving To Start in September

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A long-running construction project in New Canaan is now expected to stretch into the 2026-27 school year, officials said Tuesday, raising traffic concerns for the town. The water company, Aquarion, four years ago began installing a 36-inch water main in New Canaan, leading to road closures and detours on the eastern side of town. The final stretch of that project will see construction crews install the pipe on South Avenue—a state road, Route 124—from Harrison Avenue to Farm Road, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. Typically, a construction company would allow some time between when the pipe is installed and the road is patched, and a full milling and repaving of the same road, Mann told the Board of Selectmen during its meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. (Usually, road projects are completed in two stages, where crews wait a season to a year before repaving in order to allow the road to settle, Mann said.)

Yet the company now said it plans to install the pipe this summer and immediately repave starting in September, he said.

Government

Town Approves Contract for Re-Paving of 15 Roads

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Town officials last week approved an approximately $2.8 million contract with a Norwalk-based company to pave 15 local roads this year. First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 during the May 5 Board of Selectmen meeting to approve the $2,771,497.25 contract with FGB Construction. “We listen to residential comments, complaints, and each one gets a visit,” Public Works Director Tiger Mann told the selectmen during their regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “So if they say that they had a problem on that road, each one gets a visit. The road gets visited, we take a look at it and see, and then we adjust our list accordingly.”

The roads to be paved are: 

Brookside Road
Brushy Ridge Road (from Garibaldi to Brushy Ridge)
Buttery Road
Carter Street
Comstock Hill Road
Dabney Road
Davenport Ridge Road
Grove Street (from Pine to Richmond Hill)
Hickok Road
Jelliff Mill Road (from Ponus Ridge to Springwater)
Nursery Road
Parade Hill Road (200 feet from Oenoke Ridge)
Ponus Ridge (from Winfield to Four Winds Lane)
Rosebrook Road
Silvermine Road

Mann said that FGB is holding its unit prices to last year’s level—a fact that Murphy Carroll said was surprising given “all the price shocks with oil.”

Mann responded that there aren’t many contracts out right now.

Government

Park Street, Playhouse Lots Repaved; Town Seeks To Slow Speeding Motorists

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With the successful repaving of the Park Street and Playhouse Lots finished, town officials say they’re now looking for a way to slow down motor vehicle traffic whizzing down the access road that runs down to Main Street. The town is “going to try to tackle some of the speed now because people are shooting through the boulevard quickly,” according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “We’re going to look to try to put some speed humps or speed bumps on the way just to calm them down a little bit as they come through Town Hall,” Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting, held Tuesday at Town Hall and via videoconference. The comments came during Mann’s general update on DPW projects to the Board. The long-awaited repaving projects have seen wider car stalls painted into the parking lots.

Government

Town Approves Contract for Graffiti Removal, Repainting at Talmadge Hill Train Station 

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The Board of Selectmen last week approved a $12,000 contract with a Stamford-based company to remove graffiti and repaint parts of the Talmadge Hill Train Station. Metro-North Railroad currently has a shutdown on weekends “so we want to try to take advantage of it,” Bill Oestmann, buildings superintendent in the Department of Public Works, told the selectmen during their regular meeting, held April 21 at Town Hall and via videoconference. He continued: “They [the Connecticut Department of Transportation and Metro-North] requested that we try to do some of this work during the weekends. So our first request is going to be with Talmadge Hill. There’s graffiti.