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Moynihan on COVID-19 Rate: ‘New Canaan Is Living in a Bubble’

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New Canaan’s highest elected official said Tuesday night that the town “is living in a bubble” with respect to its low COVID-19 virus infection rate. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan during an update to the Board of Finance said the town is seeing “one college-age person a week that is getting tested away at college and they get reported back to their hometown as their permanent address.”

“There are some hotspots in various other places around the state,” he said during the meeting, held via videoconference. “But our numbers are scarily low here. Which is good. We are worried about whether some of these college kids might be coming home instead of saying on campus.

Alicia Meyer

‘His Conduct Caused It’: Moynihan Points to Complaints, Issue of ‘Respect’ in Emergency Management Director’s Ouster

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First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said Thursday that he had received complaints regarding Emergency Management Director Mike Handler’s conduct prior to seeking his resignation. Asked during a press briefing what was the issue that led to Handler’s ouster, Moynihan said, “Respect.”

“Respect for co-employees,” he said during the briefing, held via videoconference. 

Health officials “among others” had lodged complaints, Moynihan said. Asked what were the nature of the complaints, he said, “You can’t crush other people and expect them to work as colleagues.”

The sudden news of Handler’s resignation, made Wednesday at Moynihan’s request, traveled quickly through the community and drew strong reactions. On social media, many have voiced concerns about the dismissal of a volunteer who has been in regular communication with residents on town-wide outcalls during the COVID-19 public health emergency. 

Asked during the briefing about feedback saying Handler’s resignation is regrettable given how much he has done for the town, Moynihan replied, “It’s regrettable that his conduct caused it, so you have to put the blame where it belongs.”

Yet it remains unclear just what Handler did, how his conduct merited pushing him out of an Emergency Operations Center that he himself helped steer during the ice storm of December 2008 or whether complaints about him amounted to a pretext for his dismissal. In a statement issued late Wednesday, Moynihan said Handler’s job was to “coordinate and communicate as the ‘voice’ of the EOC, but not as the ultimate decision maker,” adding, “Throughout any crisis, and especially during this pandemic emergency, decisions must be made after thoughtful and respectful discussion and debate.”

Asked during the briefing what decisions Handler had made or attempted to make that weren’t in his purview as emergency management director, Moynihan said he never asserted such. 

In an email sent to EOC members Wednesday morning that was obtained by NewCanaanite.com, Moynihan said that he asked Handler to step down “due to a disagreement over his handling of the Covid testing and his treatment of staff and other personnel.”

Moynihan opened Thursday’s briefing by complaining about an article breaking news of Handler’s ouster based on that email.

Around Town

Health Director: Debut ‘Drive-Thru’ New Canaan Farmers Market a Success; Town To Consider Proposed Walk-Thru Model 

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After a smooth New Canaan Farmers Market “drive-thru” model debut last weekend, town officials say they’ve green-lighted a larger pickup-only event for Saturday and will consider a restricted walk-thru system after May 20. Conceived as a way to hold the popular Farmers Market while observing guidelines to limit transmission of the COVID-19 virus, the 300-patron drive-thru model used an advanced registration system and “was very well-organized,” according to New Canaan Health Director Jennifer Eielson. 

“There were no issues, we did not have a single issue,” Eielson told NewCanaanite.com. 

“There were no traffic problems, either,” she added. 

The 300 slots for those seeking to order in advance and pick up locally grown fruits, vegetables, flowers, honey and other items from select vendors filled up quickly, and the approximately 530 slots approved for this coming Saturday’s second drive-thru also have been taken, officials said. Eielson said a proposed walk-thru model is to be approved by the Board of Selectmen and leaders in the New Canaan Emergency Operations Center. Asked what types of restrictions could be part of it, Eielson said a one-way flow of pedestrian traffic, standing markers on distancing so attendees know specifically where they can be in approaching vendors’ tables, hand-washing stations, masks and limitations on how many people could move through it simultaneously. 

Patricia Spugani, a New Canaan resident and longtime Farmers Market attendee who has volunteered this year to help steer those who organize the event through municipal approvals, said the proposed walk-thru model “will implement all social distancing guidelines that the state has required.”

“The state considers the Farmers Market to be an essential business and we consider it to be an open air grocery store,” she said. Customers visiting the vendors’ tables would maintain six feet of distance between themselves and those selling, and would not handle any of the goods, she said.

Business

New Canaan Farmers Market To Open May 9 Under New Drive-Thru Pickup Model

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The New Canaan Farmers Market will open May 9 under a new “drive-thru” model that requires those seeking fresh local food to register in advance for pickup, officials say. Launched around this time each spring, the popular Farmers Market will see shoppers purchasing produce and other items from a limited number of vendors in advance, and then scheduling their pickup times at the Center School Lot in preset intervals in order to avoid traffic congestion, according to New Canaan Director of Health Jennifer Eielson. No money will be exchanged at the market itself, she said. “This is an indicator that we are planning ahead for a reopening plan, and as part of that, you have to do incremental baby steps,” Eielson told NewCanaanite.com. “Part of getting back to normal this time year is the Farmers Market.

Business

‘It’s Starting To Run More Rampant’: Town Officials Seek To Control Proliferating Food Trucks

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New Canaan is seeing an increasing number of food trucks pulling into town parks, alongside the new athletic fields by the Waveny water towers and elsewhere, to the point where it’s affecting local businesses, officials say, and creating a need for a formal policy with teeth. Though town officials have dealt with eager food truck vendors for years—at times running them out of public parks (where they’re not allowed), pointing them toward a “Peddlers” or “Itinerant Vendors” license that’s outlined in the Town Code, or even inventing rules about how licensed trucks can only go to construction sites—there’s no ordinance on the books that limits when and where those vendors can go, and no fine or enforcement agency to back up a formal policy in any case. 

“We are getting kind of overrun with food trucks and we don’t really have something specifically in place,” New Canaan Director of Health Jen Eielson told members of the Town Council’s Bylaws and Ordinances Committee at its meeting last week. “It’s starting to run more rampant and then they [food truck vendors] want to have more trucks, and we are trying to limit it because we are getting flack from the businesses in town that pay a lot of money in rent, so I understand their plight and it’s not really fair to them.”

Nearby towns that are similar to New Canaan have rules in their Charters or zoning regulations that are enforced by police or other agencies in the municipality, Eielson said. 

While New Canaan for specific events, such as the Family Fourth at Waveny or the Sidewalk Sales downtown, has food trucks come in as caterers—complete with license checks and health inspections, as well as agreed-upon terms of hours and location—open questions remain about what types of trucks the town may want and what sorts of checks should be required of the businesspeople that operate them. 

Councilman Steve Karl, a committee co-chair, said there’s “definitely a need” for either a beefed-up “Itinerant Vendors” ordinance or new one. 

“Any time we have something like this where you see it’s growing, it’s up to us in the town to control it,” he said. Karl added: “You look at all of the good work that Baskin Robbins does in terms of charity and volunteering and all of the stuff that goes into having a business, and they pay rent to be there, and to have somebody pull up in a truck and take some business away from someone like that, that is a pretty big deal. And I think all of New Canaan and all of the taxpayers they would side on Baskin Robbins’ side.”

Ultimately, the Committee called on Eielson, with help from Administrative Officer Tom Stadler, who also deals with food trucks, to propose some language that the group could bring to the full Town Council.