Bill Oestmann

‘It Was Unforeseen’: Town Approves Additional $50,000 for Carriage Barn Project

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Town officials this month increased a contract for renovation work at the Carriage Barn in Waveny by more than $50,000, in part to meet the price of more expensive materials amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

One of the change-orders for the project was “basically due to COVID, the timing from when we bid the project to when we awarded the project, material prices skyrocketed,” Tiger Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen at their Oct. 5 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

The selectmen approved funding for a revised total project of $289,588.46, compared to an original project of $238,700, Mann said. Now underway and with a hopeful completion date next month, the work addresses water-related problems that had been threatening the structure for some 50 years, unbeknownst to the town. Specifically, officials opening up the walls on the inside of the Carriage Barn found “all the water was draining through the outside of the walls and then coming inside and saturating the walls” so that parts of the structure had to be removed, Mann said. “Once we noticed that, we had to go on the outside and dig down and place additional concrete there to stop that migration of water,” Mann said. 

The town now is placing concrete on the outside to address the water migration problem, Mann said.

Government

Selectman Corbet Calls for Town’s ‘Traffic Calming’ Group To Reconvene Public Meetings

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Citing an ongoing need for traffic improvements at Route 106 and Carter Street, Selectman Kathleen Corbet this month called for a group of public works, safety and parking officials to reconvene their regular meetings. 

The ‘Traffic Calming Work Group,’ whose members in the past have included the public works director, police deputy chief, fire chief and representatives from emergency response and parking, and “been in place for a number of years” before discontinuing its public meetings in the summer of 2020, Corbet said during the Board of Selectmen’s most recent regular meeting. “I think over COVID that sort of work has still been going on, but sort of the formal meetings that we’ve had on a monthly or every-other-month meeting, I’d like to recommend that we reinstitute so that there is more public participation,” Corbet said during the Oct. 5 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. She referred to a work group that last met July 13. During that meeting, as it intermittently for a number of years, the group discussed problems at the intersection where Canoe Hill Road and Carter Street come into Silvermine Road, which doubles at that stretch as state Route 106. 

New Canaan has petitioned the state in the past for a stop light or four-way intersection there three or four times, and those requests have been denied, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. 

Corbet flagged the problem at a selectmen meeting last month, and since then the intersection has seen two more crashes, she said.

Amy Murphy Carroll

ARPA Funds: Town Weighs $500,000 in ‘Premium Pay’ Stipends to ‘Essential Workers’ During COVID

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Town officials say they could direct $500,000-plus of an approximately $6 million windfall in federal funds for New Canaan to municipal employees who have worked long hours due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Board of Finance “has been talking about a premium pay element for some employees after COVID and that will probably be for a half-million dollars or more,” according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. 

“One of the purposes of these funds are to give premium pay to employees who, because of COVID, may have worked extra hard,” Moynihan said during the Oct. 5 meeting of the Board of Selectmen. “That is something that has been discussed and I think the Board of Finance will talk about that,” Moynihan said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

The comments came during a general discussion of how the town should spend the first tranche of about $6 million granted to New Canaan through the American Rescue Plan Act. 

Town officials disclosed the windfall mid-summer, and since then elected and appointed bodies including the selectmen, Board of Finance and Town Council have weighed in on how to spend the money, including outlining a process for such decisions. The town has until 2024 to spend the money.

Board of Selectmen

Williams: Superintendent, NCAF Chair Do Not Support New Police Station on Saxe Ball Field

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Contrary to what First Selectman Kevin Moynihan suggested at a public meeting last week, the superintendent of schools and head of the New Canaan Athletic Foundation are not in favor building a new police station where a Saxe Middle School baseball diamond now sits, according to Selectman Nick Williams.

During a regular Board of Selectmen meeting Tuesday that grew heated at times and included what appeared to be unwanted physical contact, Williams said that Moynihan had “intimated” at a joint public meeting “that both [Superintendent of Schools Dr.] Bryan Luizzi and [NCAF Chair] Mike Benevento are in favor of this proposal.”

“I have spoken to both of them individually and they are not in favor this proposal,” Williams said during the selectmen meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. 

To Moynihan’s assertion that Luizzi and Benevento responded positively to the idea of turfing some Saxe fields as a way to make up for athletic grounds that would be lost to the proposed new station and parking lot that would surround it, Williams said, “They are not in favor of the general proposal. Bryan specifically said look, I haven’t even considered that. That is Board of Ed decision. And that is another negating factor with respect to this project. These guys need a new police department.

Animal Control

Selectmen Approve Animal Shelter Agreement with Local Vet

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Town officials last week approved a lease with a local veterinarian for the temporary housing animals that are lost, abandoned or otherwise come into possession of the Animal Control section of the New Canaan Police Department. The Board of Selectmen voted 3-0 at its Sept. 21 meeting to approve the lease between the town and DBL-P, LLC, more commonly known as New Canaan Veterinary Hospital on Vitti Street. The three-page lease allows police to house animals at the vet at $50 per day per animal. “It’s kind of like a Plan B for us, right now,” Police Chief Leon Krolikowski told the selectmen at their meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. 

“The shelter is adequate, but if a condition comes up where we believe it is not adequate due to the weather or some other circumstance, like when the water line broke several months ago, then we would be able to use this facility for our animals.