Around Town

Memorial Day Parade: Town to Forego Tricolor Road Paint; New Fire Truck to Debut

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With rain in the forecast and work still needed to make sure New Canaan kids can play safely on our town fields, officials decided this week to forego painting Main Street red, white and blue for the hugely popular Memorial Day parade. First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said he’s asked the Department of Public Works to focus on readying the fields instead. “Last year those guys did a great job, but it got washed away,” Mallozzi told NewCanaanite.com. “In order to get it right, we’d have to devote a large part of the crew to block off the road with sawhorses and set up barriers on either side, and there’s so much concern about the fields, that I decided to focus on that instead.”

He added that Parks Superintendent John Howe was eager to get the street-painting done, but has been asked to hold off. “The flags are beautiful on Main Street and we’ll have the parade whether those lines are red, white and blue or not,” Mallozzi said.

Government

Officials: $18 Million New Canaan Town Hall Renovation on Time, Budget

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The widely anticipated renovation of Town Hall is on pace to wrap up next spring and officials said Monday that even after earmarking about three-quarters of what’s been budgeted for contingencies, the project is on track to come in at its estimated $18 million. According to the Joseph Zagarenski of Bridgeport-based firm The McLoud Group, which is overseeing the project as construction manager, the project is within two days of schedule and with the installation of steel by the end of June, “We will be 100 percent on schedule.”

“The foundation is 95 percent of the way complete,” Zagarenski said during a meeting of Town Hall Building Committee III, held in the Adrian Lamb room at New Canaan Library. “The frame will go up in the next two to three weeks. It will be a huge difference in what you see.”

A project expected to improve dramatically New Canaan’s main municipal building and services, the Town Hall renovation since its inception has been guided by principles of creating a modern facility (adding ADA accessibility and built-in technology to ease public use, for example) while retaining the historic character of the original 1909 structure (it was designed by celebrated architect Edgar Alonzo Josseyln after he’d won a competition for the right to do so, historians say—by then he’d already designed what’s now called the “Old Town Hall” of Stamford). The following renderings of the renovated New Canaan Town Hall are from White Plains, NY-based KSQ Architects and have been included in multiple presentations to town officials over the past two years.

News

Town on Soggy, Unplayable Sports Fields: ‘We’re Doing Our Best’

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With a lingering, frosty winter that quickly turned into a very wet spring, New Canaan’s playing fields are unusually soggy and about three weeks behind where they usually are, causing some frustration among youth sports parents and coaches, officials say. Parks Department crews are working diligently to get soccer, baseball and other fields into shape, despite a late clay delivery and hold-ups getting sand that New Canaan had ordered back in February/March, according to First Selectman Rob Mallozzi. “The weather has been tough on my yard, tough on your yard, tough on our fields,” Mallozzi said. “We’re doing our best. We have people getting frustrated with conditions on our fields and our department guys are frustrated, too.

Government

New Canaan’s AAA Credit Rating Reaffirmed

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New Canaan’s highest elected official on Wednesday reported that Moody’s Investor Services has reaffirmed the town’s AAA credit rating, the highest possible rating. First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said in a press release that New Canaan’s affluent tax base, manageable debt position, strong financial management and modest pension and OPEB liabilities contributed to the rating. “I am delighted that Moody’s has once again recognized the strong financial management myself and our finance team has dedicated ourselves to and has reaffirmed its highest rating on New Canaan’s debt.”

Moody’s outlook “stems from the expectation that the Town Hall will continue to exhibit superior credit characteristics consistent with the current rating category.”

The agency also noted that “positive operations mark the fifth surplus in the last six fiscal years and were driven by conservative budgeting practices, as well as unbudgeted FEMA revenues and special education excess costs grants from the state.”

Mallozzi said that as the town goes next week into its $15.3 million offering, “we are reassured that this will allow the Town to be the beneficiary of strong demand and lower interest rates.”

News

New Canaan Preservation Alliance Recognizes Homes, Property Owners at Awards Ceremony

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Silver Hill Hospital, itself a collection of architecturally important buildings, bought River House—the structure closest to the road, seen first on the right for motorists traveling north on Valley Road—in 1945. For years, it served as the residence for the psychiatric hospital’s president. In the mid-1980s, Silver Hill started using it as a house for patients, and about two years ago, staff members realized that a reconfiguration was needed, according to Liz Moore, the hospital’s COO. “But we wanted to maintain the architectural integrity of the house because it’s just so beautiful,” Moore said form the ballroom at the Country Club of New Canaan on Sunday evening as dozens of residents and town leaders gathered for an event recognizing that preservation-minded mentality. “We are using the architect, Richard Turlington, that we’ve used for a number of our projects and the same construction team that we’ve also used on a number of our projects,” Moore told NewCananaite.com.