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.

Government

Town To Impose Fee for EV Charging Station Use in Town Hall Lot

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Town officials last week approved a fee of 53 cents per kilowatt hour for the electric vehicle or ‘EV’ charging stations in the Town Hall parking lot. The figure is expected to cover the cost of electricity for the town at the stations, according to Public Works Senior Engineer Joe Zagarenski. The Board of Selectmen during their regular meeting also approved what Zagarenski called a “parking fee equivalent” of $1.25 per hour. “I say ‘equivalent’ because it’s calculated based on a charge rate of 7.2 kilowatts per hour divided by $1.25 an hour,” he said during the Board’s regular meeting, held Nov. 4 at Town Hall and via videoconference.

Amy Murphy Carroll

Selectmen Approve Contract for New ‘Bumpout,’ Expanded Brick Sidewalk in front of Playhouse

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Town officials this week approved an approximately $38,000 contract with a New Canaan-based company to create a new sidewalk “bumpout” in front of The Playhouse. The contract with Peter Lanni Inc. will also see bricks installed in the area in front of the movie theater where there’s a patchwork of asphalt and concrete at present, officials said during Tuesday’s regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen. “What this will do is continue the granite curb past The Playhouse, and then it’ll come back into our existing curb in between The Playhouse and Solé,” Public Works Director Tiger Mann said at the meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. He continued: “And then we’ll have brick sidewalk leading all the way from the platform out, at that point in time, to the granite curbing and a new pedestrian ramp associated with it. So it’ll give a nice, big, large platform area similar to what we have down the street.”

First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of the $38,450 contract. 

Lanni, who did the original sidewalk work in front of the movie theater, has held his brickwork pricing since 2020, Mann said.