Cristina A. Ross

West School Cell Tower: Town Council Calls for ‘Active’ Utilities Commission

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In a blow to the town’s highest elected official, New Canaan’s legislative body asserted last week that the town needs an active volunteer commission that advises on utilities. Weeks into his first term in 2017, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said that he wished to dissolve the Utilities Commission while tackling cell coverage in New Canaan himself. 

Since then, Moynihan has brought no one forward to populate the six-person commission, which is down to three members—not enough to qualify as a quorum—and hasn’t posted a meeting agenda in four years. 

This summer, after it became known that Moynihan was planning to erect a cell tower behind West School, fellow members of the Board of Selectmen pushed back. In October, when Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams called for the reinstitution of the Utilities Commission, Moynihan said he didn’t “see the need” for it. 

Even so, Corbet and Williams this month pushed again for a reactivated Utilities Commission. 

And last week, the Town Council voted unanimously during an informal straw poll that New Canaan needs an active Utilities Commission and that the Council will do whatever is necessary to flesh that out, including taking input from the Board of Selectmen. “Right now, as we have a very active first selectman—he is having the thought process and the meetings that are not public meetings,” Councilman Cristina A. Ross said during the elected body’s Dec. 14 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.

Betty Lovastik

Town Committee to Private Group: We Can’t Change a Town Ordinance Allowing You To Place Ads in Waveny Ice Rink

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A committee of New Canaan’s legislative body at its most recent meeting decided against a recommendation to amend a local ordinance in order to allow a private group to have advertising in a makeshift ice rink planned for a public park. Though certain members of the Town Council Bylaws & Ordinances Committee argued in favor of allowing New Canaan Ice Inc. to run 10 to 15 paid “dasher board” ads along the walls of a rink planned for Waveny, others cautioned that making such an exception to a clearly written ordinance would set a bad precedent. Tom Butterworth, a Committee co-chair, noted that there appears to be a lack of enforcement with respect to the Section 42-8(G) of the Town Code, which reads: “No person shall distribute any handbills or circulars or post any bills, notices or advertising matter of any kind and nature in any park.”

Yet “we want a pristine Waveny,” Butterworth said at the Nov. 22 meeting, held via videoconference. 

“We want to have a rule that basically tells the world that Waveny gives you this pristine experience with nature,” he said. “And that’s a laudable goal.

Cristina A. Ross

Town Council Seeks Change in How New Canaan Approves ARPA Allocations

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Multiple members of New Canaan’s legislative body last week said that they want to change the way proposed American Rescue Plan Act or “ARPA” allocations are approved after feeling pressured to vote in favor of more than $2 million in the federal funds as a block last month. The Town Council on Dec. 15 voted 11-1 to approve $2.05 million in ARPA funds for eight items in a single vote. During the elected body’s Jan. 19 meeting, Councilman Maria Naughton asked whether the Town Council “should consider doing line-item approvals when we get these ARPA requests coming in” since “there were some questions on some” of the items.

“I don’t think there’s that many that it would be burdensome,” Naughton said at the meeting, held via videoconference.

Cristina A. Ross

Town on Pace To Exceed Budget for Legal Fees for Second Straight Year

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The Board of Selectmen this week approved a legal bill that brings the town’s total spending in legal fees to about $200,000 halfway through this fiscal year, against a budgeted amount of $300,000 for all of fiscal year 2022. The spending in legal fees follows a year that saw New Canaan exceed its legal fees budget by more than $50,000, records show. Though the Board approved the most recent legal bill with no comment during its regular meeting Tuesday, Selectman Kathleen Corbet has voiced concerns in the past about the spending. 

She noted the high amount of taxpayer funds spent on legal fees last fiscal year during the Board’s June 15 meeting, and voiced concerns again at the Oct. 19 meeting. There, she noted that the town already had spent more than $90,000 on legal fees during the first quarter of fiscal year 2022.

Town Council Approves $2 Million in ARPA Spending

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The New Canaan Town Council at its most recent meeting voted 11-1 to approve a round of American Rescue Plan Act or “ARPA”-funded expenditures totaling $2.05 million. The package of one-time expenditures includes $725,050 for bonuses for town and school employees, in recognition of their work on the “front lines” during the pandemic, and another $1.33 million for various town projects, according to information shared at the Town Council’s Dec. 15 meeting at Town Hall. The Board of Selectmen had approved the expenditures earlier this month, the Board of Finance the night prior to the Town Council meeting. The suite of initiatives is part of $6 million in total ARPA funds that the town expects to receive from the federal government, to be distributed in multiple rounds.