Board of Selectmen

Town Approves Contract for Schematic Designs of Renovated Police Station

By |

The Board of Selectmen at its most recent meeting approved a $12,000 lump sum payment for a New Britain-based architecture firm to come up with schematic designs for a renovated New Canaan Police Department building. 

The “renovate-as-new” NCPD project design from Kaestle Boos Associates Inc. at the existing South Avenue site “will include an overall site plan, floor plans, elevations for all facades, a 3D fly-around,” according to Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer in the New Canaan Department of Public Works. “They will also present these findings to the Police Department Building Committee,” Zagarenski told the selectmen at their regular meeting, held April 5 at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

“Prior to requesting final proposals for architectural services for the PD building, the Building Committee would like to have the opportunity to see what Kaestle Boos’s approach would be to the project,” Zagarenski said. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of the $12,000 contract. Moynihan, after pushing for an alternative site for years, conceded during a March 31 special meeting of the Building Committee that the future NCPD will remain at 174 South Ave., saying, “The town leaders have decided that there’s not an appetite to pursue an alternative location.”

Referring to a news item that appeared the same day on this site, Moynihan said during the April 5 meeting, “Michael Dinan referred to it as ‘conceding’ the point—but the fact of the matter is my preference all along has been to do a new building somewhere.”

“We have not been able to find a location somewhere for a new building,” he continued. “We essentially are going to build a new building within the structure on South Avenue.

Footer Featured Widget

Two EV Charging Stations Coming to Town Hall Parking Lot

By |

Nearly one year after an appointed municipal body made the recommendation, the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved a contract to install two more charging stations for electric vehicles at the Town Hall parking lot. The “dual pole level 2 charger” will be located in two spots alongside the former Outback Teen Center building on the south side (toward Elm Street), officials said during the selectmen’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

“This was in the works for some time and then there became a rebate available which will pay for basically half of this system, so we waited for that to come into play,” Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer with the New Canaan Department of Public Works, said at the meeting. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of a $15,960 contract with New Canaan-based Santella Electric. “This lot is free for visitors to Town Hall,” Moynihan said. “How are we going to get reimbursed for the cost?”

Zagarenski said there are a few ways to do that, including through a mobile app or by assigning numbers to the two spaces in question and directing motorists to pay at the nearby Playhouse Lot machine.

Government

Selectmen Approve $50,000 To Plan for ‘Salt Shed’ at Transfer Station

By |

Town officials on Tuesday approved a $50,000 contract with a Shelton-based engineering firm to prepare for creation of a salt shed at the Transfer Station. The new structure would hold about 3,000 tons of salt, according to Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer in the Department of Public Works. “We have had problems where procuring salt, even for this year there are issues of delivery of salt, not big ones, but we’d like to be able to store enough salt that we never have to worry about not being able to get it when there’s a year like this year,” Zagarenski told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting, held in Town Hall. 

First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of the contract with Tighe and Bond. Public Works has been pushing for a new salt shed for more than one year. (Some in town have advocated for creation of a “swap shop” at the incinerator building.)

Currently, the Highway Department stores salt in an old incinerator building that is “not the ideal size for the storage and it’s tough to navigate with the salt trucks and the plow trucks.”

“It is desired to construct a salt shed on top of the capped landfill,” Zagarenski said.

Government

Town Approves Contract for Electrical Work at NCHS Track

By |

The Board of Selectmen at its most recent meeting approved a $17,000 contract with a Darien-based company to install power outlets at the finish lines at the New Canaan High School track. As it is, a generator is rolled out onto the field to power up timing devices and scoreboards for track and field events at NCHS, according to Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer with the town Department of Public Works. Under a contract with Darien Electrical Contracting Inc., power will be installed in a shed near the Waveny water tower and will also come down to the finish lines at the track. The work would “get rid of the need for bringing a generator out to the track,” Zagarenski told the selectmen at their March 9 meeting, held via videoconference. 

“So needless to say, the high school Athletic Department is very supportive of this project,” he said. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of the contract. 

Williams said he was “a little befuddled as to why this wasn’t done when we redid the track in the first place, years ago.” (Williams served on the Fields Building Committee that oversaw the water tower turf field and track projects.)

Zagarenski said conduits had been put in place as part of the original project, but installation of bleachers and grandstand seating was higher priority.

Government

Town Approves Contract To Demolish Ca.-1900 Greenhouse at Nature Center

By |

The Board of Selectmen at its most recent meeting approved a contract to raze a ca.-1900 greenhouse that one year ago was at the center of a debate regarding public notice of its future demolition. Located on town-owned New Canaan Nature Center property, the greenhouse is located behind the director’s house and the organization “has plans to repurpose the stone foundation of the greenhouse to expand their community garden,” according to Department of Public Works Senior Engineer Joe Zagarenski. “The greenhouse has been vacant many years and is no longer safe to occupy,” he said at the selectmen’s March 9 meeting, held via videoconference. “Evergreen Environmental performed a pre-renovation inspection and identified asbestos-containing materials such as glazing compound and caulking. And the structure has lead paint.