Around Town

Police Commission Approves Use of Former ‘Pop Up Park’ for June 4 ‘Art in the Windows’ Kickoff

By |

The appointed municipal body that oversees road closures in New Canaan this month voted unanimously to approve use of the former “Pop Up Park” area at Elm Street and South Avenue for an all-day art celebration in June. The Police Commission voted 3-0 to approve use of the Pop Up Park from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 4 as a kickoff for the annual Art in the Windows event (rain date June 11). Presented by the Carriage Barn Arts Center and organized in partnership with the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce, the annual exhibit sees dozens of pieces of art work displayed in the windows of downtown stores. 

“It’s just a fabulous event for the town,” Commissioner Shekaiba Bennett said at the group’s March 16 meeting, held via videoconference. 

Bennett, Commission Chair Paul Foley and Secretary Jim McLaughlin voted in favor of the road closure. The event will run through 4 p.m., and will require about one hour for cleanup, according to the organization’s executive director, Hilary Wittmann. Art in the Windows is the Carriage Barn Arts Center’s one big event that’s not at the organization’s headquarters in Waveny “that we do downtown,” Wittmann said.

Carriage Barn Arts Center

A Spooky Soireé for the Arts

By |

A Party Is Brewing…
Join us for an Evening of Spirits & Drama to support the Arts in New Canaan

Saturday, October 23

Haunted Cocktail Soirée @ The Carriage Barn / 6pm
Performance of The Turn of the Screw @ The Powerhouse Theater / 8pm

$75 Includes admission to cocktail soiree and play
$200 Includes admission to cocktail soiree, reserved theater seating, and a one year membership to the Carriage Barn Arts Center.

Bill Oestmann

‘It Was Unforeseen’: Town Approves Additional $50,000 for Carriage Barn Project

By |

Town officials this month increased a contract for renovation work at the Carriage Barn in Waveny by more than $50,000, in part to meet the price of more expensive materials amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

One of the change-orders for the project was “basically due to COVID, the timing from when we bid the project to when we awarded the project, material prices skyrocketed,” Tiger Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen at their Oct. 5 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

The selectmen approved funding for a revised total project of $289,588.46, compared to an original project of $238,700, Mann said. Now underway and with a hopeful completion date next month, the work addresses water-related problems that had been threatening the structure for some 50 years, unbeknownst to the town. Specifically, officials opening up the walls on the inside of the Carriage Barn found “all the water was draining through the outside of the walls and then coming inside and saturating the walls” so that parts of the structure had to be removed, Mann said. “Once we noticed that, we had to go on the outside and dig down and place additional concrete there to stop that migration of water,” Mann said. 

The town now is placing concrete on the outside to address the water migration problem, Mann said.