Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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We hear New Canaan native Bruce Pauley, retired last year to Vermont, has been putting on a timber frame addition to his house in the “Green Mountain State” that uses oak trees felled during Hurricanes Irene and Sandy in New Canaan (see photos above). He’s also using mostly storm-related white pine trees for the house’s exterior and the new addition is being called “The Storm Room.”

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A demolition crew on Wednesday came for the long-vacant and neglected home at 39 Richmond Hill Road—facing complaints from neighbors and the prospect of a blight citation. ***

The committee charged with studying public and private options for restoring the town-owned New Canaan Playhouse at the “50-yard-line” of Elm Street on Wednesday finalized a document that will see interested parties propose ways to purchase or otherwise acquire, renovate and operate the 1923-built brick building. The New Canaan Playhouse Committee is seeking to make a decision about the future of the cherished, cupola-topped structure by Thanksgiving. Town leaders say New Canaan is not in danger of losing the iconic building, though its capital needs are extensive.

News

‘It’s Beyond Our Control’: No Ready Solution To Morning Traffic Back-Up from NCHS Parking Lot

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Town officials, after receiving a resident’s complaint about traffic backed up on Old Stamford Road at Farm Road in the mornings, reached this conclusion: There’s no feasible solution to the problem, short of an expensive New Canaan High School parking lot redesign for which no one has an appetite. Police sent a shift out to investigate the complaint and what the officers discovered is that “it’s not a timing of the light issue,” Capt. John DiFederico said during the Police Commission’s Nov. 18 meeting. “What the issue is, is that there is a very short period of time—maybe 15 minutes—when there is so much volume going into the high school that it backs up all the way down Farm Road so there are cars that cannot turn from Old Stamford Road onto Farm,” DiFederico said at the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “It has nothing really to do with the light and it has nothing to do with us—it’s just a poorly designed high school parking lot which makes ingress of vehicles so difficult for those 15 minutes.”

A big part of the problem, Police Capt. Vincent DeMaio said, is that the lot is designed so that kids park at the far side—to the right of the access road as you come in—so that they then must cross the road in order to get to the building, which holds up traffic.

Government

More ‘No Parking’ Signs Coming To Church Street

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Saying motorists are veering into the oncoming lane to avoid cars parked along a bend in the road, officials are installing two ‘No Parking’ signs on Church Street. The Police Commission voted 3-0 at its Nov. 18 meeting to install the signs on the north side of Church Street around where Green Avenue comes into it. Police Capt. John DiFederico said that on the straight sections of Church Street, parked cars are “not much of a problem, but on that curve it’s a real hazard.”

“[The commission] voted last year to designate ‘no parking’ on the south side of Church Street because there’s a curve there and what was happening was that cars were parked along the curve and cars going around them would go across the center line,” DiFederico said at the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “Now they’re parked right on the apex of that curve but on the north side and there are vehicles there all day—I think there is a house under construction, so there are constantly vehicles parked right on the curve.”

Motorists still will be allowed to park on the north side of the street along the straight sections of the road.

News

PHOTOS: New Canaan Police Welcome Two New Officers

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On Wednesday morning, at Lapham Community Center, Kelly Coughlin and William Sheehan were officially welcomed as new officers in the New Canaan Police Department, following a swearing-in by the Town Clerk. They were two of 140 applicants to be selected by NCPD. They were given badges numbered 168 and 169, respectively, by Police Chief Krolikowski. Coughlin is the first woman officer the department has hired in about eight to 10 years, officials have said. After this week, they will both go to the CT Police Academy for about six months of training.

Government

Residents Ask Town Officials To Slow Drivers on Parade Hill Road, East Avenue

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Concerned after she saw an accident two weeks ago very close to a bus stop on Parade Hill Road, a New Canaan woman is asking town officials to consider repainting the road at its eastern intersection with Rural Drive. Mary Maechling, a mother of three young boys, told officials with the Traffic Calming Work Group at their June 25 meeting that a “choker affect’ could be created by painting a curb white or with reflective paint so that motorists—especially those traveling southbound—pay more attention to a curve in the road and slow down instead of crossing momentarily into an oncoming traffic lane in order to maintain their speed. “People are coming fast on Parade Hill Road, up and down, they speed up speed and it’s a straight shot up the hill,” Maechling said at the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “Because of the natural curve of the road, it forces southbound cars to really cross over a line, but there is no line there because of the intersection,” Maechline told the group, which includes members of the police, fire, public works and emergency management departments. “So when cars are coming southbound they naturally go over the center line because they think it’s the road, then they correct themselves.