Amy Murphy Carroll

Selectmen Put Off Vote on Redo of ‘Bridegroom’s Room’ at Waveny

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Saying they need more information, members of the Board of Selectmen this week put off voting on contracts for a future “bridegroom’s room” at Waveny House. Building officials came to the Board at its regular meeting Tuesday seeking approval for two contracts that would see a chandelier installed in a former IT Department office that the town now wants to convert into the groom’s room for weddings at Waveny. The room also would be painted, but the selectmen said they first need to understand how many lower wall electrical outlets are in it, and also what color it will be. “I don’t think we’re ready,” First Selectman Dionna Carlson said of voting on the contracts, totaling about $15,000. “I don’t think we’re ready for this one.

Government

‘I Don’t Understand What It Takes’: Selectmen Push Back on Registrar’s Request for Higher Pay

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The Board of Selectmen following a strained discussion at its most recent meeting voted 2-1 to increase the compensation for each of New Canaan’s registrars of voters by 3%, to $41,200. 

The figure is far less than the $52,000 that one of the registrars, Joan McLaughlin, had been seeking. In addressing the selectmen at their Jan. 7 meeting, McLaughlin said her work doubled with the introduction of early voting in Connecticut last year, as well as a recent shakeup of state legislature districts that resulted in three more for New Canaan. McLaughlin, who serves two-year terms as the Republican registrar in New Canaan, said during the meeting that she worked an average of 32 hours per week last year (up from 20 to 22 hours per week in the past) and that the higher figure was due to 14 days of early voting. “I have 14 days of early voting that starts at 10 o’clock in the morning and ends at 6 o’clock at night,” McLaughlin said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.

Dionna Carlson

‘Leaving an Indelible Mark’: Dr. Harrison Pierce Steps Down from Health & Human Services Commission

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The town’s highest elected official last week honored a local physician and community leader during the COVID-19 pandemic known to generations of New Canaan families. First Selectman Dionna Carlson recalled during last week’s Health & Human Services Commission meeting that the appointed body’s chair, Dr. Harrison Pierce, dropped into her office following Carlson’s one year ago to say it may be time to step down from the role, she recalled. “And I said, ‘Please don’t leave me’ ” and “Please give me a year at least,’ ” Carlson recalled during the Commission’s Dec. 4 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “So he was gracious as he always is, in being willing to serve an additional year to help me get on my feet,” she continued.

Board of Selectmen

‘Family Fourth’ at Waveny To Be Held Friday, July 4; Selectmen OK Fireworks Contract

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The Board of Selectmen this week approved a $35,000 contract with a Douglassville, Pa.-based company to provide fireworks at this year’s Fourth of July celebration in Waveny. The Family Fourth will be held Friday, July 4 with a rain date of July 5 and a backup rain date of July 12, according to Tom Stadler, chair of the committee that long has organized the hugely popular family-friendly event. “This is our normal contract,” Stadler told the selectmen at their regular meeting, held Tuesday in Town Hall and via videoconference. “That’s the same amount as last year. It’s not gone up a dime, but the show will be just as good.”

First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of the contract.

Board of Finance

‘First Pitch Is April 1’: New ‘Coppo Field’ Baseball Facility at Waveny on Time, on Budget

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A widely anticipated project to create a new baseball facility at Coppo Field in Waveny—an area that appears to passersby as massive piles of dirt behind Lapham Community Center—is on time and on budget, officials said last week. 

The approximately $5 million job—$2 million of which is coming from the town, while the nonprofit New Canaan Athletic Foundation is paying the roughly $3 million balance—started in earnest last month following the approval by municipal funding bodies of a $4,977,685 contract with Canton, Mass.-based Atlantic Sports Group or “ASG.”

“It was actually a very, very tight bid and they [ASG] hit the ground running from day one from the time the selectmen approved it,” Public Works Director Tiger Mann told members of the Board of Finance at their regular meeting, held Nov. 12 at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

He continued: “If you’ve been out there, you can see that almost the entire footprint is starting to be leveled off. They’ve put in foundations for both dugouts, home and away. Poured those. The breaks started coming back from the concrete testing and they came back well.