Board of Selectmen

‘A Big Challenge, But I’m Looking Forward To It’: Town Appoints John Howe as Interim Parks & Rec Director

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Officials on Tuesday appointed the town’s longtime parks superintendent to serve as interim director of parks and recreation. 

John Howe has been with the town for about 24 years and is “one of many employees who worked very closely with Steve Benko over the last many years,” New Canaan Human Resources Director Cheryl Pickering Jones told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. 

“And what we are trying to do is fill Steve Benko’s shoes, which as everyone knows is not going to be an easy task,” Pickering Jones said. “What John is going to do is, as he becomes interim, is research the department. We are looking at how area towns are doing it and come up with some suggestions. So our first move is to make him interim and then we will hear from him as to other recommendations.”

Benko, a 50-year employee of the town who worked as recreation director sine 1979, died Feb. 12 following a brief battle with cancer.

Anne Kelly-Lenz

Town Hires New CFO

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Weeks after losing its well-regarded CFO to one neighboring town, New Canaan is hiring away a successor from another. The Board of Selectmen during a special meeting Monday voted 3-0 to hire Anne Kelly-Lenz starting Jan. 18. The CFO of Wilton since 2015, she succeeds Lunda Asmani, who left New Canaan last month to work for Norwalk. “I highly recommend Anne,” New Canaan Human Resources Director Cheryl Pickering Jones said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.

Government

New Canaan Employs Director of Health

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The Board of Selectmen last month voted unanimously to employ an established and well-regarded municipal worker as New Canaan’s director of health. 

Jennifer Eielson, whose past positions in the New Canaan Health Department include chief sanitarian and director of environmental health, moved into the new position following the selectmen’s 3-0 vote at its Sept. meeting. According to Cheryl Pickering-Jones, the town’s human resources director, municipal officials in April had met with the state and found that New Canaan is eligible to have a full-time health department because Eielson has a master’s degree. “We are meeting all of the credentials fo the state and they recommended that we take that step,” Pickering-Jones said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “It makes us more eligible for grants and it also keeps us away from possibly being put into a district.”

Though no funds for the promotion had been approved in the current fiscal year’s operating budget, there’s money in the chief building official’s budget to cover it, she said.

Government

PHOTOS: Parking Bureau’s ‘Pablo Snow-Casso’ Wins Inaugural Snowman Contest at Town Hall

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Building on the success of last December’s “ugly sweater” contest, Town Hall workers this holiday season launched a new competition that saw municipal departments vie for the title of “Best Snowman.”

With limitations on height and prohibitions on working on the snowmen on town time or putting more than $20 into them, agencies from the Police Department and Parking Bureau to the Town Clerk’s Office and combined Health-Building-P&Z-Inland Wetlands juggernaut put their entries on display Monday. They’ll remain prominently displayed for the rest of the week in the Town Hall lobby, according to Cheryl Pickering-Jones, New Canaan’s human resources director. “I think it went great,” she said of the contest. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan called the snowmen “fantastic,” saying he was “so impressed by the creativity and imagination of our town employees.”

“It’s going to be a very close call for Tucker Murphy to pick a winner,” Moynihan said. He referred to the executive director of the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce.

Government

Officials Actively Seeking New CFO, Town Planner

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Town officials say they’re actively seeking applicants for two of the most important positions in New Canaan’s municipal government: town planner and finance director. Though it had been suspended temporarily with the idea that a new first selectman should weigh in on the decision, the search for a new CFO very recently has been re-launched and interim Finance Director Sandra Dennies is among the candidates, according to New Canaan Human Resources Director Cheryl Pickering-Jones. The two candidates for first selectman—Democrat Kit Devereaux and Republican Kevin Moynihan—are sitting on the search committee “so that we can continue to move the process up,” Pickering-Jones told NewCanaanite.com. Dennies is overseeing things in finance in the meantime—Planning & Zoning is in a different situation. Former Town Planner Steve Palmer’s last day was last week after less than one year in the job.