News

Police: Jeep Reported Stolen from Thurton Drive Home

By |

Police say an SUV was reported stolen from the driveway of a New Canaan home before dawn Friday. The 2013 Jeep Cherokee stolen from a Thurton Drive home was unlocked with the keys inside, Police Chief Leon Krolikowski said in a press release. 

The theft was reported at 2:35 a.m., he said. “Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, criminal gangs are active throughout Fairfield County,” Krolikowski said in the release. He added that the criminals “don’t work from home.”

He referred to a practice now typical throughout New Canaan amid the coronavirus disease 2019 emergency, which has seen schools, parks and many businesses close in the past few weeks. Emergency Management Director Mike Handler said Saturday that New Canaan has 70 positive cases and has lost eight residents to the virus.

COVID-19 New Canaan

Full Disclosure: Is This for Real?

By |

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, I feel like the unwitting subject of a social experiment gone awry. Like, really awry. Within just a few weeks, my home has become a multitude of unfathomable things: a bunker, a school, an international banking operations hub, an around-the-clock restaurant (unworthy of any favorable Yelp reviews), a fitness center for shut-ins, a dust bunny sanctuary, and a gaming hotspot. It’s a wonderland of confusion and chaos. 

But at least we have each other, right kids? Hello?

Business

Local Businesses and COVID-19: Fresh Green Light

By |

For today’s Q&A with a local business seeking to navigate the COVID-19 emergency, we hear from Steve Mochel, owner of Fresh Green Light driving school on Cherry Street. The business marked one year this week. Here’s our exchange. 

New Canaanite: Steve you were in an uncertain situation with respect to whether or how you’d be able to operate. Give us an update on your situation. 

Steve Mochel: As a business that primarily deals with high school students, we were deeply affected by the state’s order to shut down schools to April 20, because that essentially shut down our business. And not only the classroom lessons but the in-car diving lessons, which we really deemed was too unsafe to do with the close proximity of the students and instructors.

Opinion

Letter: Local Leaders Are Failing in This ‘After-Corona World’

By |

However well New Canaan is doing in terms of health and welfare responses to COVID-19, we have a dire failure of leadership in preparing and planning for the future economically. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and his appointee, Board of Finance Chairman Todd Lavieri steadfastly refuse to face the grim reality that confronts not just New Canaan, but Connecticut and the entire tri-state area. We are now in an After-Corona world. What has happened before, even in major economic downturns such as 2008 are all BC: Before-Corona events. That world is gone.