Board of Selectmen

Cell Tower Developer: ‘There Is Some Urgency’ with West School Proposal

By |

A representative from the company that’s been working with the town on a plan to install a cell tower behind West School said Tuesday that a carrier has been waiting for several months for a lease to be signed there so that the project can move forward. Ray Vergati, a regional manager with Homeland Towers, told the three members of the Board of Selectmen during their regular meeting that “there is some urgency” with the recently disclosed plans for 769 Ponus Ridge, the 47.4-acre town-owned property where West School is located. 

“Urgency in the sense that we have been waiting patiently for seven years and we have a carrier that’s funded,” Vergati said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “We don’t want to lose the funding with the carrier. So that’s our sense of urgency, in the sense that we want to keep this moving forward. But this is not an overnight process.”

He added: “Maybe ‘urgency’ is my personal word I’m using.

Government

‘Maybe There Is a Better Area’: Neighbors Voice Concerns about Prospect of Cell Towers at Irwin Park, West School

By |

Kevin Clark, a resident of Wahackme Road, built his house 20 years ago, past the footpath that loops around the back of a 36-acre parcel known to New Canaanites today as Irwin Park. When locals debated the acquisition of that parcel as public land, Clark recalled, he sided with those in favor of the purchase “because [former First Selectman] Judy Neville and the Town Council assured us that it would be set aside as beautiful parkland and preserve the integrity of the landscape and preserve the integrity of the quiet residential community that has existed there for 100 years.”

Faced now with the prospect of a 110-foot cell tower near the park’s southwest corner—a draft plan whose development has been overseen by the New Canaan Utilities Commission—Clark said he is concerned that those assurances had been hollow. “I do not think any of you would want an 11-story tower in your backyard,” Clark told members of the Utilities Commission during their regular meeting, held at Town Hall. “Where it is sited right now, I will open my shade in the morning when I wake up in my bedroom and I will see the tower. It is just not the way a town like New Canaan should act—in a responsible way for its citizens.

News

Letter: Full Saxe Building Project—Do It Once, Right and Now

By |

To the Board of Selectmen, Town Council and Board of Finance:

What has made our school district so successful is that our community has supported the education of the whole child. It was an understanding that our children find their own paths to personal growth by excelling in academics, sports, theater, art, music, foreign language, STEM programming, etc. This concept of the whole child is especially important in the middle school years, which tend to be challenging. All these efforts have allowed New Canaan Public Schools to be recognized as shining examples of best practices. Families continue to move to New Canaan because of the excellent schools and our wonderful community.