Amy Murphy Carroll

‘It Frightens Me’: Selectmen Consider ‘Elevated’ Crosswalk Near Saxe Middle School

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The New Canaanite 2024 Summer Internship Program is sponsored by Karp Associates. Citing children’s safety concerns, town officials said last week that they’re thinking of creating a “bump” for motorists at a pedestrian crossing to Saxe Middle School. Many Saxe students use the crosswalk near Farm Road and Village Drive to get to and from school. Yet, despite signage and striping in the roadway, drivers regularly blow through the pedestrian crosswalk, Director of Public Works Tiger Mann said during the Board of Selectmen meeting last Tuesday. “We’ve put in flags and they have a monitor that is actually bent in the middle of the road and cars have still passed,” Mann said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.

Board of Selectmen

First Selectman Pushes for ‘Zero-Based Budgeting’ [Correction]

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The New Canaanite 2024 Summer Internship Program is sponsored by Karp Associates. New Canaan’s highest elected official this week called for the town to be even more fiscally conservative in its approach to contractors and vendors hired by the municipality. 

First Selectman Dionna Carlson said Tuesday that the town should move toward “zero-based budgeting” versus “carry-forward budgeting.”

“We’ll continue to get better at this process, but the way it should be done is we go out to our vendors and get an estimate for the year based on what we’ve made and what we buy,” Carlson said during a regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. The comments came during a discussion of a blanket purchase order request from Public Works Director Tiger Mann regarding the town’s Water Pollution Control Facility. The purchase order includes 18 items totaling $532,667.50. 

Selectman Amy Murphy Carroll asked Mann whether the listed prices were “working off of last year.”

“Are you doing any inflation adjustments on this stuff?” Murphy Carroll asked. Mann said no, that DPW is “working strictly off of last year’s number.”

“We’re not making an adjustment per se,” Mann said.

Dionna Carlson

Affordable Housing: State Denies New Canaan’s Application for ‘Moratorium’

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The town has failed in its latest bid to secure four years of relief from a widely discussed affordable housing law. State officials in a May 21 letter to First Selectman Dionna Carlson said that Connecticut Department of Housing staff reviewed the town’s application for a moratorium “and has determined that the Town of New Canaan’s application does not meet the requirements for the issuance of a Certificate of Affordable Housing Project Completion as submitted.”

The letter from DOH Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno said that the town fell just 2.5 housing unit equivalent or “HUE” points to be eligible. The state attached a “memorandum detailing the methodology used to calculate the eligible HUE points” (that document is available here), Mosquera-Bruno said in her letter, obtained by NewCanaanite.com. 

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and the Town of New Canaan for continuing to address the affordable housing needs in your community,” she said. Asked for the town’s response, the first selectman’s office issued a press release. In it, Carlson said she was “disappointed” and blamed the state for not communicating a recent change in the value that DOH assigns to certain types of housing units in its moratorium formula.

Around Town

New Canaanites Gather at Lakeview Cemetery To Honor Veterans 

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Dozens of New Canaanites gathered at Lakeview Cemetery on Saturday to plant more than 1,500 flags honoring every locally interred veteran who has served the United States in both combat and non-combat positions. Organized on behalf of VFW Post 653 by New Canaanites Chris and Frances Wilson, the community event saw residents come together on a beautiful May morning to honor our veterans. “This is one of the greatest events the town puts on,” Post 653 Commander Mike McGlinn said. “There are about 200 people and 20 community groups who come together to help out the VFW… It’s a tremendous thing for a small town like New Canaan to have this done.”

The New Canaan Fire Department, New Canaan Police Department, Boy Scout troops 45, 31 and 70, Cub Scout packs 70, 45 and 7, Girl Scouts of New Canaan, SLOBs, Democratic and Republican Town Committees, New Canaan YMCA, New Canaan Chapter of the National Charity League, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and Hannah Benedict Carter Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The gravestones with flags is the setting in which the annual Memorial Day observance ceremony is held.

Government

‘It’s a Complicated Building’: Water Is Infiltrating Waveny House’s Walls

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Municipal officials are calling for a study of Waveny House after it was discovered that the iconic town-owned building is suffering from water infiltration in its walls. Town residents should “know the scope of the seriousness of this,” according to Selectman Amy Murphy Carroll. “I don’t think people realize, it’s a complicated building,” Murphy Carroll said at the May 1 Board of Selectmen meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “The ADA stuff’s complicated. It’s old.