News

No Idling: NCHS Friends of the Earth Club Works for Cleaner Air and a Better New Canaan

By |

Idling cars are a major pet peeve for New Canaan High School sophomore Will Santora. The 15-year-old is aware that it’s illegal in Connecticut to idle a motor vehicle for more than three minutes, yet he estimates that up to 80 percent of the cars that back up at the NCHS lot when school lets out are idling. “You waste gas, you waste money, you are polluting—and all for no reason,” Santora said from Room 115 at the high school on a recent afternoon, surrounded by a half-dozen likeminded sophomores and juniors. “You don’t need to leave your car running at all. And people sometimes just forget to turn off their car or they don’t realize it’s going, so that is a big issue because it does pollute a lot and if you idle for more than 10 seconds, you are already starting to waste gas.”

In the next month or so, Santora and this group of high school teens—together they are the Friends of the Earth Club, an extracurricular group—will purchase and install a “no idling” sign on school grounds.

Around Town

Town Tradition Fading: Six Years Since New Canaan Had Ice Skating on Mead or Mill Pond

By |

It was Dec. 31, 1993, and this thought came to Cam Hutchins as he—3-month-old daughter in his arms, bundled up in a snuggie—followed the sound of a slapshot toward Mead Pond, where dozens of ice skaters wobbled or glided over a frozen sheet of ice, illuminated by parking lot lights and set that New Year’s Eve against a backdrop of Christmas lights: “As she gets older, we can do this.”

“This” being a cherished New Canaan tradition: Ice skating on Mead or Mill Pond. Hutchins, a 1977 New Canaan High School graduate, recalls the fires burning in the Lions Den at Mill Pond during his Center School days. “All winter long, it seemed like we were always going to Mill Pond,” he recalled. “Skating there on the weekends was a big deal.

News

Senior Night: State Tournament-Bound NCHS Soccer Team Plays Final Regular Season Game

By |

Lisa O’Rourke’s son Jack, a senior captain of last year’s New Canaan High School varsity soccer team, had been on the side that won states as a freshman. This year, her son Ted is a tri-captain on the same team, and what a bookend it would be to see the state tournament-qualifying squad win that title again this season. If the Rams have a secret weapon headed into the CIAC tourney, it may be their chemistry: Most of the 17 seniors on the team have been playing soccer together with the New Canaan Soccer Association since their youth travel days. “They’re together in school and on the field and they really don’t need to look where they are,” O’Rourke said Wednesday from the stands at Dunning Field on Senior Night, moments before the Rams squared off for their final regular season game against Stamford High School. “They know where they are with respect to passing.

Government

New Canaan Conservation Officials Push for Town Commitment to Clean, Renewable Energy

By |

Conservation officials are recommending that New Canaan commit itself to clean, renewable energy through a state program that could see the town qualify for grant money toward new systems.

Wilton already is a “Clean Energy Community” and most every town in lower Fairfield County (except New Canaan and Darien) have taken what’s called the “Clean Energy Communities Municipal Pledge”—a contract-free statement with no financial obligations to save energy in municipal buildings and voluntarily purchase renewable energy. (The program is overseen by Energize Connecticut, an effort backed by the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund, Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority, state, and local electric and gas utilities.)

The New Canaan Conservation Commission at its most recent meeting voted unanimously to recommend that the Board of Selectmen authorize First Selectman Rob Mallozzi to sign the pledge. “I want to note that New Canaan had 94 points as of April and once you hit 100—and we may already have done that—that’s $10,000 toward an energy efficiency project,” Commissioner Mark Robbins said during the meeting, held in part inside the Lapham Community Center’s art room. Commission Chair Cam Hutchins said that if just six additional New Canaan residents had undergone energy audits since April, the town likely would qualify for the $10,000 in Bright Idea Grants. Robbins said that the funds could go toward projects such as electric vehicle charging, fuel conversion and solar insulation.

Government

Town Officials Gather Info on Single-Stream Recycling

By |

Town officials are trying to figure out whether and just how New Canaan could benefit by incorporating single-stream recycling into its solid waste collection system. Right now, residents sign on with private haulers to collect trash and (many) bring their own recyclables to the Transfer Station to sort them. In single-stream recycling, a contracted company could send a collection truck to pick up from a designated, distributed bin commingled paper, plastic, glass and other recyclable materials. The matter of single-stream recycling—for which New Canaanites voiced support in a recent Conservation Commission survey—arose at the most recent Board of Selectmen meeting. There, the selectmen approved a $31,000 one-year contract with City Carting to haul and dispose commingled recyclables from the Transfer Station (New Canaan through that contract gets an annual rebate of more than $27,000).