Government
New Canaan Mom: Town Has ‘Huge Underage Drinking Problem’
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New Canaan parents last week called for finance officials to support town youth by restoring modest funding levels to the Outback Teen Center and investing in technology infrastructure. During the March 4 Board of Finance meeting, Outback board member Claudia Pagazani said that the widely discussed underage drinking at an event last fall provided an opportunity to address the problem with her daughter “head-on, about the risks that she faces by making the wrong choices.” “There is a huge underage drinking problem in New Canaan,” she said during the meeting, held at the New Canaan Nature Center. “Maybe we attack that at an early age and we do that at the Outback by teaching kids to make the right choices.”
Advocates are seeking to raise taxpayer support for the teen center from $17,500 (the figure approved by the Board of Selectmen) to $20,000 (the current fiscal year’s funding level). Though the finance board will not approve and pass along a fiscal year 2015 budget to the Town Council until this week, members thanked Pagazani and other speakers—including Pagazani’s own young son—for their input and indicated that they would support the $2,500 of additional funding for the Outback. “I would propose this because the amount is a modest change,” said First Selectman Rob Mallozzi, the board’s chairman.