Board of Selectmen

Town To Replace Baseball Field Netting, Pole Damaged in Storm

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Town officials last week approved an approximately $13,000 contract with a Middlesex, N.J.-based company to repair damage to one of New Canaan’s little league baseball fields at Mead Park. The Aug. 18 storm that brought so much flooding throughout town also damaged the netting and pole down the third-base line at Mellick Field, according to Superintendent of Parks Todd Deklyn. “It’s a double tiered net and the lower tier got ripped by the tree that fell on it and when it fell it took down the pole and bent it,” he told members of the Board of Selectmen at their Sept. 17 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.

Government

Town Approves $65,000 To Reconstruct Heavily Used Trail at Waveny

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The Board of Selectmen at its most recent meeting approved an approximately $65,000 contract to reconstruct a pedestrian trail at Waveny. The trail that runs near a southwestern corner of the park—from where the road that runs through Waveny meets Lapham Road, along the stone wall toward the Merritt Parkway— “doesn’t have the preferred surface that we have in certain areas,” according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. Instead, it has larger crushed stones and would serve the public better if it had the same surface as the pedestrian trails that run along the Waveny road on the South Avenue side of the park, officials said. “It’s what we’ve been utilizing on all the new trails in Waveny,” Mann told the selectmen during their Sept. 10 regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.

Board of Selectmen

Town Takes Step Toward Getting $2 Million in State Grant Funding for Playhouse Renovation

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday took an important step toward securing a $2 million state grant to help offset renovation costs at The Playhouse. The town’s application for a Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development grant follows an announcement last December regarding the state Bond Commission’s approval of the funds. According to town Grant Writer Greg Reilly, the selectmen’s support of the application—including authorization for First Selectman Dionna Carlson to gather and submit documents under the DECD’s Urban Action Grant program—is “one of the final steps in the long process of obtaining the $2 million that was awarded to the town last December, through the state Bond Commission and through the work of our legislative team.”

“One of the things that’s unusual about this case is that the money was granted after the project started,” Reilly told the selectmen at their regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

“So we are going back and playing catchup and doing everything that has to be done, including apply for the money,” he continued. “There’s all sorts of things that are required, and this is one of them. We have submitted an application.

Amy Murphy Carroll

‘I’ve Had Great People Around Me’: Mose Saccary To Retire After 44 Years with the DPW

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Mose Saccary, East Avenue-raised son of a Nova Scotian coal miner, graduated from New Canaan High School in 1978 after coming up through Center School and Saxe. He worked several jobs out of school, including for the architect Dinyar Wadia, at Grand Union and at Walter Stewart’s (“We actually lived on Seminary Street by then, so I could jump the wall,” Saccary recalled.)

“Before that, I worked for Joe’s Pizza when I was about 10,” he told NewCanaanite.com. On graduating NCHS, he learned that two buddies—Joey Lucas, a ‘78 classmate, and Walt Jaykus, one year below—had taken jobs with the town’s Department of Public Works. “I got interested in it and came on board and never looked back,” Saccary said. That was April 1980, and he started as a laborer.

Government

Town Attorney’s Firm Opens ‘Finance Department Complaint/Investigation’

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Town officials on Tuesday approved payment of a legal bill that includes an item listed as “Finance Department Complaint/Investigation.”

The town attorney’s firm has charged $4,335, at an hourly rate of $170, for more than 25 hours of work on the matter since July 1, according to a legal bill approved unanimously by the Board of Selectmen during its regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. It wasn’t immediately clear what the investigation involves, who’s at the center of it or who lodged a complaint. Asked about it after the meeting, First Selectman Dionna Carlson declined to comment because it’s an active matter involving town personnel. 

The work done by the town attorney’s firm includes communications with a union representative, “fact-finding,” conducting “witness” interviews and researching “paid medical leave,” according to line items listed in the bill (available here in full, see final pages) from Berchem Moses PC, as follows: 

“Update question outline for employee-respondent based on interviews conducted: draft investigatory interview summaries and notes; teleconference with union representative re: fact-finding changes; update fact-finding schedule and draft email to witnesses re: schedule change.” (July 1)
“Draft, update and revise interview summaries to date; revise and distribute updated fact-finding notices.” (July 3)
“Review and respond to various email correspondence with employee witnesses re: fact-finding interviews.” (July 9)
“Draft, review and respond to various email correspondence with union representatives and employee witnesses re: fact finding interviews; teleconference with union representative re: fact finding interviews; revise interview questions and outline.” (July 10)
“Review and revise questions for forthcoming investigation interviews on 7-18; prepare for investigation interviews.” (July 17)
“Prepare for and attend investigatory interviews; update interview notes.” (July 17)
“Review and update question outlines for forthcoming witness interviews; review and respond to email correspondence with union representative re: witness interviews.” (July 30)
“Prepare for and attend investigation interviews; organize interview notes.” (July 31)
“Conduct legal research re: paid medical leave.” (July 31)
“Prepare for and attend investigation interviews; organize interview notes.” (July 31)

The attorney handling the work for the law firm is listed as ‘CRH’ in the bill, an apparent reference to Christopher R. Henderson. According to the Berchem Moses website, he “is an Associate Attorney in the firm’s Labor and Employment Department.”

Other than the firm’s $8,500 monthly retainer, the complaint and investigation represent the second most-expensive single item in the overall $29,257 July bill (the highest being a five-year-old zoning appeal regarding Grace Farms, at $4,488.50). 

Members of the Board—Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll—made no comment on the bill in approving it at the meeting.