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.

Amy Murphy Carroll

Selectmen Push Back on Town Clerk’s Request for Part-Time Help

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The Board of Selectmen, following a pointed discussion, voted during a recent meeting to approve three months of pay for two part-time workers in the Town Clerk’s office. The quarterly approval is less than the full year of pay that Town Clerk Claudia Weber asked the selectmen for during their regular meeting, held July 22 at Town Hall and via videoconference. As Assistant Town Clerk Janet Donohue recently retired, Weber was seeking the additional help for an extended period because she “needs more hands,”she said. The requested hirings were of John Amarilios and Debra Lyon at up to 19 hours each through next June. “Historically, we’ve had a group of people that we can call upon on an as-needed basis,” Weber said.

Government

Town Approves Funds To Repaint the Historic ‘Gores Pavilion’ at Irwin

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Town officials this month approved funds to power-wash and repaint the exterior of a historic structure in Irwin Park. The Gores Pavilion—designed by Harvard Five architect Landis Gores as a winter lodge and summer pool house—was dedicated in 1960 at a grand surprise party arranged by Philip Johnson in honor of Gores himself. During their June 3 meeting, members of the Board of Selectmen approved an $8,690 contract with a Stamford company to power-wash, scrape, prepare and paint the building’s exterior. 

The building was painted about eight years ago, according to Bill Oestmann, superintendent of buildings in the New Canaan Department of Public Works. “It requires overall maintenance on the painting end because of the type of materials that are on that building,” Oestmann said during the Board’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “And it’s historic in nature, so we have to keep up with the maintenance on it.