News

Board of Ed Voices Support for Proposed Emergency Communications Antenna at West School

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Board of Education members on Monday night voiced support for a proposal from the New Canaan Police Department to install an approximately 10-foot radio communications antenna on a 5-foot “monopole” atop the roof of the West School gymnasium. Assured that the pole poses no health hazards—in fact, there are two existing, similar set-ups already at West School, used by the bus company and district itself, according to Police Capt. John DiFederico—Board of Ed members stopped short of a formal vote. The new one would serve public safety needs, he said. School board member Sheri West said: “It seems very straightforward to me that we would be supporting” the installation. DiFederico described the proposed antenna as an initial step toward improving portable radio communications for police, fire and public works officials as well as EMTs and members of the Community Emergency Response Team or ‘CERT.’

“The problem is that portable radios in the western side of town have a real difficult time reaching our base so that is what a receive-only antenna does—it captures the radio signals in the air and sends them back to the police department or the fire house or the public works facilities,” DiFederico said at the meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School.

News

Chief: New Canaan Police Increase Distracted Driving Enforcement on Downtown, Major Roads

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New Canaan Police are boosting distracted driving enforcement this summer, concentrating on roads that see a high number of accidents and complaints, officials said. Those include South Avenue, Oenoke Ridge Road, Route 123 and Silvermine Road but center mainly on downtown New Canaan, “where we are concerned about people being distracted where pedestrians are crossing the road,” according to Police Chief Leon Krolikowski. Asked about the prevalence of distracted driving in New Canaan, Krolikowski said “it’s gotten better over a few years, but it’s nowhere near where it should be.”

On Thursday morning, police in a short period of time stopped nearly 20 distracted motorists using cellphones and smartphones, many of whom received infraction summonses, he said. The comments come after a recent Police Commission meeting where Capt. John DiFederico reported that police could dedicate scores of officers to distracted driving enforcement and “do it all day long, it’s sad but they would have more violations than they could stop.”

DiFederico said he planned to study whether distracted driving enforcement has an impact on accidents, with an aim of achieving voluntary compliance at the same rate—91 percent—that New Canaan sees in seatbelt use. Krolikowski has referred to distracted driving as the number one, major motor vehicle threat facing New Canaan.

News

Newest New Canaan Police Officer Sworn In; Tam Receives ‘Officer of the Year Award’; 8 Officers, 3 Civilians Honored

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The New Canaan Police Department on Tuesday recognized eight officers and three civilians for outstanding service to the community during a ceremony that also saw the agency’s newest member sworn in by the town clerk. In addressing Nicole Vartuli, a Stamford native and Westhill High School graduate who is poised for training at the Connecticut Police Academy this year with an expectation that she will undergo field training with NCPD through the early part of 2018, Chief Leon Krolikowski said that “badge you were just issued represents public trust.”

“The public willingly puts this work in your hands and trusts that you will take care of them in the proper manner,” Krolikowski said moments after Vartuli had been sworn in by Town Clerk Claudia Weber. “They do not want this responsibility for themselves. My charge to you today is to do just that: Get it right. We have all heard about the stories of officers who have gotten it wrong.

News

Officials Reject Proposed Rotary at Farm and White Oak Shade

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Calling it a complicated solution to a problem that doesn’t exist, town officials rejected one resident’s proposed rotary for the difficult intersection of Farm and White Oak Shade Roads. Police Capt. John DiFederico called New Canaan resident Jeff Holland’s rendering of a rotary at the offset intersection that also includes Main Street and Old Norwalk Road an “excellent sketch” that’s “very good” in execution. However, if New Canaan is to invest heavily in a solution for the intersection, it must address the most pressing problem facing traffic officials—namely, how to get pedestrians safely across it, according to DiFederico. “I think probably an easier solution and more cost-effective solution would just be to put a crosswalk on White Oak Shade” and install a new sidewalk on the south side of Farm Road DiFederico said at the most recent meeting of the Traffic Calming Work Group. As it is now, a painted east-west crosswalk with a warning sign in the middle connects the southern end of Main Street with the western end of Old Norwalk Road, the start of a sidewalk that runs down toward Kiwanis Park.

Government

‘Taking Your Life Into Your Hands’: Residents Seek Signage To Alert Motorists to Hidden Driveway on Heritage Hill Road

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Traffic officials are weighing a new request to install signage on Heritage Hill Road from a resident who has difficulty pulling out of a shared driveway there. Motorists are traveling faster than ever before on the road—a popular cut-through between Main Street and Route 123—and they pick up speed coming out of a downhill curve approaching Forest Street, according to Juliana McKenna of 175 Heritage Hill Road. “When you come down the hill on your way down toward 123 everybody is going really fast and I guess they pick up speed on the straightaway and then they come around the corner, so when I am coming into my driveway, because when I put my right light blinker on, everybody thinks I’m taking a right onto Forest,” McKenna told members of the Traffic Calming Work Group at their most recent meeting. “So I have to put my emergency lights on to try to get them not to hit me so that I can pull into the driveway and one of our residents, four or five years ago was coming out and got T-boned, and she requested the sign then and was declined,” McKenna said at the group’s meeting, held Oct. 18 in the New Canaan Police Department.