Government

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

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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.

Government

Public Works Seeks To Start West Road Bridge Replacement This Winter

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Saying it will save money and hassle, Public Works officials on Monday spoke in favor of starting a long-planned bridge replacement on West Road this winter so it’s spaced out from a separate major road project across town. 

The contractor for the West Road job has a gap in their schedule and has agreed to absorb significant winter costs such as heating concrete in order to start prep work in mid-December, according to Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer in the New Canaan Department of Public Works. That would see the work wrap up some time in June, Zagarenski said, around the time the replacement of a bridge on Route 123 that will close traffic in both directions hopefully would start. “It would be nice if we did not have two detours in town at the same time, even though they may overlap a little bit,” he told members of the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure, held via videoconference. The headwall of a bridge on West Road north of Turtle Back Road failed two summers ago. Officials have estimated in the past that New Canaan is expected to pay about $921,000 toward the total $1.8 million cost to replace the bridge.

Board of Selectmen

Town To Replace Fence at Jelliff Mill Bridge That Neighbors Don’t Like 

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Saying neighbors don’t like the fence installed at the redone Jelliff Mill Bridge, town officials this week approved a $7,450 contract with a New Canaan-based design-build firm to replace it. When the bridge project was finished, the structure got a state standard railing on either side “and the condo association really did not like that,” Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer in the Department of Public Works, told members of the Board of Selectmen at their June 2 meeting, held via videoconference. 

“Nor did I or anyone in Public Works, so we wanted to match the condo association, their white vinyl picket fence, and bring it over to the bridge, so it would look seamless,” he said. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of the contract with Gardiner & Larson Homes. The state paid for 80% of the bridge replacement project, which officials have said cost $3.2 million. It was completed two years ago (and last year got a sign that misspelled ‘Noroton River’ as ‘Norton’).

Government

UPDATE: Jelliff Mill Bridge Open Thursday

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Update 6:45 p.m. Wednesday

The Jelliff Mill Bridge will not be closed Thursday, as originally planned, according to the town. The contractor has put off the pouring of concrete to another day, according to the Department of Public Works. Original Story

Jelliff Mill Bridge will be closed from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday as workers pour the concrete deck of the replacement structure there, officials said. Only buses and emergency vehicles will be allowed to pass during that time, according to Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer with the New Canaan Department of Public Works. Begun in March 2017, the bridge project is expected to be completed July 8, Zagarenski told NewCanaanite.com.

News

‘Sky Blue Poles Seen Against the Sky’: Public Safety Antennas Proposed for West School, St. Luke’s

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Town officials have received applications to affix radio antennas to existing structures at West and St. Luke’s Schools, part of a wider effort to improve communications for New Canaan’s first responders. The proposed 20.8-foot antenna at West School would be located atop of a building toward the rear of the campus, on a roof whose peak is about 28 feet from the ground, according to an application submitted to Planning & Zoning. The proposed 20-foot antenna at St. Luke’s would be affixed atop a brick chimney at a building alongside the football field, according to the school’s application.