Government

Town Adding ParkMobile, Passport to Mobile Parking App Options

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Town officials last week approved contracts with two companies that have popular mobile parking apps. The decision to offer motorists ParkMobile and Passport in addition to the town’s current mobile app for parking, PayByPhone, comes as the town prepares to change over to paid parking on the one-way stretch of Elm Street and sections of South Avenue downtown. 

The town hopes to have the changeover completed by the end of this month, according to Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg. Under the town’s plan, which is designed to free up coveted spaces for shoppers and diners, the Park Street Lot will switch to free parking. Bringing in two more mobile apps to pay for parking “gives the consumer a choice,” Miltenberg told the Board of Selectmen during its regular meeting, held Sept. 16 at Town Hall and via videoconference.

Government

‘I Love the Community’: New Canaan’s Parking Manager To Retire After 22 Years with the Town

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Stacy Miltenberg’s first job in New Canaan was as a police officer. She joined the New Canaan Police Department in 2003, after working as a cop in New York City for 20 years. 

Seeking a schedule that worked better for her, Miltenberg took a position in 2005 as an administrative assistant in the New Canaan Parking Bureau. “I love the community, I always have” Miltenberg told NewCanaanite.com on Wednesday afternoon, speaking through the Parking Bureau window at Town Hall where she interacts with town residents and visitors all day. “When I used to commute from my job in Queens, in the Bronx, I’d always come through New Canaan. My youngest son went to the Y when we first moved up here [to northern Westchester] for childcare, so I’ve known New Canaan very well.

Around Town

‘Let’s Never Forget the Ones We Lost’: Town Marks 9/11 at Ceremony

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Fire Chief Albe Bassett remembers waking up on Sept. 11, 2001. It “started out as a routine day,” Bassett recalled from the front steps of Town Hall on Thursday morning, addressing a crowd that gathered for the community’s annual 9/11 ceremony. “Not even taking a minute to enjoy the weather, which is probably the same as it is this morning,” Bassett said. “An hour or so later, the tragedy started and the events that we’ll never forget took place.”

New Canaan lost three residents on 9/11—Joe Coppo, Eamon McEneaney and Bradley Fetchet.

Government

Town Approves Contract for Dumpsters at Six Locations in New Canaan

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The Board of Selectmen during its most recent meeting approved an approximately $11,000 contract with a Middletown-based company to provide dumpsters at six locations in town. Those are the Fire Department, Police Department/Emergency Medical Services, New Canaan High School track and tennis courts, and Waveny field bathroom and west parking lot, according to Parks & Recreation Director John Howe. “Those are dumpsters we are using for the public, whether they’re disposing stuff after athletic things or [dog] poop bags or what have you,” Howe told the selectmen during their Aug. 19 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of the $10,932 contract with Murphy Road.

Government

Motorists To Pay for EV Charger Use at Morse Court

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The Board of Selectmen last week voted in favor of a $15,500 contract with a local electrician to replace an EV charger in a municipal lot downtown with a new model that can charge motorists for its use. New Canaan-based Santella Electric will install the new EV charger in Morse Court so that it operates the same way as the two chargers in the Town Hall Lot. The town originally thought that Eversource, the power company, was eating the electricity bill generated from the Morse Court charger “but they weren’t,” First Selectman Dionna Carlson said during the elected body’s regular meeting, held Aug. 19 at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

She added: “So ee had that disengage and then we found out that we couldn’t with the existing EV charger charge, like we do here at the [Town Hall] Annex. And so this is the request to have a charger that we can actually charge residents or whoever wants to use them to use the electricity.”

Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of the contract, presented by Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer in the Department of Public Works.