Business

Gofer Ice Cream To Open Wednesday in Downtown New Canaan

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Following months of anticipation and an extensive interior renovation, Gofer Ice Cream is to open Wednesday in the Main Street commercial space formerly occupied by Baskin-Robbins, according to the business’s owner. For today’s Q&A with a local business, we talk to franchisee Jordan Savitt, who owns the Gofer at 103 Main St. with his wife, Dina. 

It will be open 12:30 to 9:30 p.m. seven days per week (12 p.m. on Saturdays). 

As we learn from Savitt, customers as per health officials can are not yet allowed inside the ice cream shop, but can get their sweet treats through a safe kiosk at the door, or else phone in an order (203-594-1342) or have it delivered through Uber Eats or GrubHub. Here’s our interview. New Canaanite: How are you feeling on the eve of your opening in New Canaan?

Around Town

Quiet Heroes of New Canaan: JoAnn Shaughnessy

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[Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of a new “Quiet Heroes” series. We’re accepting nominations for it, see guidelines here.]

Robin Bates-Mason, who gives of her time for the town’s Volunteer Shopping Program, visited Walter Stewart’s Market as usual one day last week. 

Picking up groceries for “her” designated senior, New Canaan’s Margaret Cooper, Bates-Mason found herself in JoAnn Shaughnessy’s lane. A cashier at Stewart’s for about two years, Shaughnessy recognized Cooper’s name. “She said, ‘Oh, hold on a sec, I just want to write her a message’ and ran over to get a marker,” Bates-Mason recalled. 

Shaughnessy wrote: “Hi Margaret. Hope you’re well.

Business

Moynihan Urges Visitors to Downtown New Canaan To Wear Masks Outside As Well As Inside Businesses 

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As New Canaan prepares to see some businesses start to reopen later this week, and for restaurants to start offering restricted outdoor dining in addition to take-out and pickup, the town’s highest elected official is urging anyone visiting the downtown to wear protective masks at all times. The business district “is a necessarily congested area, so we really have to have the rule,” according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. 

“That when you are downtown, on any street downtown—that’s Pine Street, Forest Street—you should be wearing a mask. And I say ‘should’ not because it’s not optional but but because we expect you to. And the respectful thing for your fellow citizens is to protect them as they are protecting you. And unfortunately the expectation is we are going to wear masks through the summer and perhaps into the fall, especially to avoid a recurrence.”

The comments came during the “Annual First Selectman’s Report To The Business Community,” organized and hosted by the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce.

Around Town

Local Organizations and COVID-19: LiveGirl

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For today’s Q&A with a local organization, we talk to New Canaan’s Sheri West, CEO and founder of LiveGirl. West shares with us some of the key spring and summer dates for LiveGirl, which also plans to mail more than 500 copies of its “Camp LiveGirl” activity book this summer. 

Here’s our interview. 

New Canaanite: You have a staff at LiveGirl. One of the things that we are hearing from nonprofits is that part of what is really hard right now is their revenue streams are eroding or disappearing altogether, at least for the spring. How are you all faring at LiveGirl? Sheri West: We have two full-time employees and we were fortunate to qualify for a payroll protection loan, though Bankwell, so we are very fortunate.

COVID-19 New Canaan

Police Commission Votes 3-0 in Favor of New Sidewalk, Parking Plan for Downtown 

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The Police Commission voted unanimously Friday in favor of a reconfigured parking and sidewalk plan for downtown New Canaan that could remain in place through mid-October. 

Designed by town officials and citizen volunteers, the plan is designed to create additional outdoor dining areas for local restaurants. To take effect some time after May 20, it calls for “bump-outs” onto parts of the sidewalks along Elm, Forest and Main Streets and creation of new pedestrian walkways around them, in what had been on-street parallel parking spaces, to be marked and protected by objects such as water-filled barriers and planters. Specifically, the plan calls for bump-outs in two areas along the north side of Elm Street, one in front of Rosie and another from Elm restaurant through Solé; a bump-out in front of Spiga restaurant on Main Street; and one more on the west side of Forest Street from Cava through the New Canaan Diner, with one-way motor vehicle traffic to flow along the eastern side of the street, currently used for parallel parking. The angled parking along the south side of Elm Street will not change, Public Works Director Tiger Mann told the Commission during a special meeting, held Friday via videoconference. Nor will the parallel parking on both sides of Forest Street beyond the diner change, Mann said. 

“Therefore, the residents that live in the new condo complex can just access their homes and residences as they have normally done,” he said.