Amy Murphy Carroll

‘If We Lose This Pool, We Will Never Get It Back’: Selectmen Weigh in on New Canaan Y’s Valles Pool

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New Canaan’s top elected officials are weighing in on a widely discussed community issue involving a venerable local nonprofit organization. The CEO of the New Canaan YMCA has said that the South Avenue facility’s 46-year-old Valles Pool must close by the end of this year due to required repairs. It faces one to two years of construction, she said, and the Y’s Board of Directors has established a committee to examine the problem and weigh the cost-benefit of restoring the pool versus reimagining the space to serve swimming as well as non-swimming needs. On Tuesday, Selectman Amy Murphy Carroll called for New Canaanites to “pay attention” to a “potential major change in the Y.”

“Their board has been reviewing their facilities and what to do, and there has been some discussion about taking the main diving pool and swim pool, the Valles Pool, offline permanently, potentially with perhaps needs for more dry land,” Murphy Carroll said during the Board of Selectmen’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. She continued: “It’s all proposal stage.

Board of Selectmen

Town To Replace Southwood Drive Sidewalks

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved a contract with a Rocky Hill-based company to replace the sidewalk on Southwood Drive. Together with Southwood, neighborhoods scheduled for new sidewalks include Heritage Hill, East Avenue and South Avenue, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “We’ll be looking for a grant on East Avenue,” Mann told the selectmen during their meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “That’s really where we’re dialing it in.”
The sidewalks will be fully concrete, apart from the downtown area, and won’t require granite curbing, he said. Selectman Amy Murphy Carroll said, “Sidewalks are expensive.

Amy Murphy Carroll

Selectman: Town Should Plant Screening Trees on Rights-of-Way at Weed and Elm

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One of New Canaan’s top elected officials said Tuesday that the town should prioritize the planting of trees at Weed and Elm Streets to screen the building project that emerges there. Last week, the Planning & Zoning Commission, following a state Superior Court judge’s order, approved a four-story, 102-unit affordable housing complex at 751 Weed St. The property’s owner, New Canaan developer Arnold Karp, has said he plans to begin construction in the fourth quarter. “One way, shape, or form there’s going to be something built at that place,” Selectman Amy Murphy Carroll said during the Board of Selectmen’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. She continued: “It could take a couple of years.

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.