Around Town

Revised Natural Gas Proposal: 3 Schools Next Summer, Downtown within 5 Years

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A new agreement between New Canaan and Yankee Gas likely would see natural gas come to the area of South Avenue at Farm Road next summer, with a requirement that the utility bring its cost-saving service downtown within five years, officials say. After stirring interest among some businesses and residents, Yankee Gas was unable to lay out an implementation plan or to provide specifics on potential cost-savings to residents, and ultimately couldn’t make good on its vow to have natural gas in New Canaan this year. Yankee Gas’ ineptitude prompted town officials to consider starting negotiations anew with that utility as well as competitor CNG. Yet taxpayers stand to gain cost-savings if Yankee Gas runs a line from Stamford into New Canaan to serve three schools—South, Saxe and the high school (as well as two private organizations, the New Canaan YMCA and Waveny Care Center), First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said. “If that’s the way we go—and I’m pretty sure we’re going to go that way—we’re going to make that utility commit to bringing gas down South Avenue within a 5-year period,” Mallozzi said.

Around Town

Branches, Trees (and Some Power) Down in New Canaan after Thunderstorm

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About 123 New Canaan homes were without power at 4 p.m. Friday as the town bounced back from overnight thunderstorms that saw downed branches and in some cases, trees, throughout town. Areas that include Lapham and Silvermine Roads saw downed trees, though no serious injuries or road closures were reported, said First Selectman Rob Mallozzi, who did a drive-around New Canaan in the thunderstorm’s aftermath on Friday morning. Christa Carr who lives at Silvermine and Rilling Ridge Roads had a harrowing experience. She and her family were out getting pizza when the storm hit around 8 p.m., she said. “We came home to find our driveway blocked by the tree and parked in our neighbor’s driveway and jumped the stone wall and got in from the back garden all in the middle of thunder and lightning,” she said.

Government

New Canaan Close to Joining Clean Energy Program C-PACE

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New Canaan is close to opting into a program that would allow commercial property owners to access very low-interest financing for energy efficiency upgrades to their buildings. Through the Connecticut Property Assessed Clean Energy program, building owners finance qualified improvements through a voluntary assessment on their property tax bills. Selectman Beth Jones said Tuesday that for-profit businesses as well as nonprofit organizations. “It is virtually a no-interest loan that you pay back, and it’s guaranteed through your property tax but it’s paid back with the savings you get from energy,” Jones said during the Board of Selectmen meeting, held in the training room at the New Canaan Police Department. “They [C-PACE], if they can prove there are energy savings, they will back it with a no-interest loan as part of Connecticut’s effort to have clean energy and to conserve energy, and from looking at it, there is nothing to lose,” she added.

Around Town

New Canaan Train Station To Get Energy-Efficient Lighting

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With an eye on energy efficiency, New Canaan is planning to put $35,585 into new exterior lights of the train station’s platform and building downtown, officials said this week. Electricity at the station nearly maxes out on each breaker, so New Canaan will replace the lights there with energy-efficient LED models, said Bill Oestmann, superintendent of buildings and fleet with the Department of Public Works. The work hopefully will be done in August, Oestmann said during the June 17 meeting of the Board of Selectmen. “And then that reduces the load tremendously and hopefully the breakers should not be an issue after that,” he said during the meeting, held in the training room at the New Canaan Police Department. “We are also looking at an anticipated return on investment of 9 percent.

Dr. Bryan Luizzi

New Canaan High School Class of 2014 Graduates [VIDEO]

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Recently graduated from the University of Chicago, carrying a degree in English and philosophy and grand ideas of what lay ahead, a 22-year-old Robert Darken took a position in the mid-1990s with an international relief agency operating an emergency winter food distribution program halfway around the world, in Azerbaijan. Eager to travel and write though with little thought given to what skills he actually possessed, Darken in his romantic vision for what this experience would be played a major, central role in solving enormous problems of want and hunger. Yet as his plane descended into the Azerbaijani capital, a thought—uncomfortably clear in its truth—occurred to the young man. “We emerged from cloud cover, and suddenly a million yellow lights spread out below,” Darken recalled early Tuesday evening as he addressed the 2014 graduating class of New Canaan High School and their hundreds of families and friends as commencement speaker at Dunning Field. “What had been nothing more to me than a blank spot on a map was being filled in beneath my feet.