Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Police and wildlife officials helped free a fawn that had become trapped last week between the metal poles of a fence in a Ramhorne Road yard. The New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section at 10:29 a.m. on July 17 responded to a report that an injured fawn was stuck inside a pool area at a residence there. The young deer clearly had been injured in some way and its hair could be seen on the poles of the fence, between which it had squeezed through to enter the yard, according to Officer Allyson Halm. When a landscaping professional showed up and frightened the animal, it became stuck again trying to get out. The fawn likely had entered the yard when it was younger and smaller, and tried to get back in by habit.

Animal 411

‘Its Grip Kept Slipping’: Animal Control, ‘Embody’ Employees Rescue Distressed Raccoon from Storm Drain During Heavy Rainfall

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The head of New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section and workers from a downtown shop on Friday afternoon saw through the dramatic rescue of a raccoon that had become trapped in a storm drain downtown during heavy rainfall. At about 3 p.m., Officer Allyson Halm of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section was called to the one-way stretch of Forest Street on a report of the distressed animal. There, she saw the raccoon “attempting to maintain its gripe on the grate with water rushing beneath it,” Halm said. “The panicked look on the raccoon’s face is still in my head,” she told NewCanaanite.com. Halm sprang into action, calling for town workers to assist in lifting the grate though “I knew the raccoon didn’t have much time,” she said.

Business

Embody Fitness Gourmet Opens for Business on Forest Street

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As builders are putting the finishing touches on Heritage Square, the new mixed retail-residential building on Forest Street, the complex’s first street-level merchant has opened its doors. Embody Fitness Gourmet welcomed its first customers last Thursday, kicking off a soft-opening “pre-launch” campaign. The Forest Street outpost is Embody owner Gillen Bryan’s third location and also the biggest, featuring plenty of seating and space where clientele can stay and enjoy the cafe’s quick-service, health-oriented cuisine. “The buildout was phenomenal,” Bryan told NewCanaanite.com. “Working with our property developer Christopher Gatto was an awesome experience and we really worked together build out a fantastic space to really enhance the customer experience.

Business

Gower Road Ranch Demolished; Embody Fitness Gourmet Plans $125,000 Interior Fit-Out on Forest

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The New Canaan Building Department on Monday issued a demolition permit for the new owner of a 1949 ranch on Brooks Road to raze the house. The .28-acre lot was purchased for $850,000 in September by a limited partnership out of Greenwich. It isn’t clear what will replace the home that had stood there—the town has not yet received a building permit application for the parcel. The contractor on the $30,000 demo is AC&S Excavating Contractors out of Pound Ridge, N.Y.

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The developer of the mixed-use retail-and-residential complex ‘Heritage Square’ that’s going up on Forest Street on Tuesday put in for a $125,000 interior fit-out for the future home of Embody Fitness Gourmet. The healthy foods provider will occupy one of two retail spaces on street-level in the high-demand complex—Pet Valu will occupy the other.

Business

Pet Valu To Open on Forest Street

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Pet food, treats, toys and accessories provider Pet Valu is planning to open in the new retail-and-residential development ‘Heritage Square’ that’s taking shape on Forest Street, officials say. The business is the second of two retail shops, together with Embody, that will fill out the street-level at the development, and is slated for an opening in the late spring or early fall, according to Pet Valu Marketing Manager Ally Homa. (The two shops will share more than 30 parking spots between them.)

Pet Valu will become the second pet store to operate in New Canaan, together with Pet Pantry on Grove Street. We had a chance to put some questions to Homa about the company and its plans—see our full exchange below. Asked for her thought’s on Pet Valu’s imminent arrival in New Canaan, Laura Budd of the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce said she’s proud that New Canaan could attract a national business such as this.