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Former Parks & Rec Commissioner To Be Removed from ‘Volunteer Appreciation Reception’ Notice

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The organizers of an upcoming event recognizing those who recently served on municipal boards in New Canaan say a former Parks & Recreation Commission member who resigned this summer following a second domestic arrest will not attend. Jack Hawkins’s name is being removed from a notice of the Town of New Canaan Volunteer Appreciation Reception, scheduled for Sept. 15, according to Kathleen Corbet. An original list of 29 volunteers from various boards and commissions on the notice included Hawkins. 

Corbet said that the list is “being changed for various reasons” and will be re-sent. Asked for the reason it changed with respect to Hawkins specifically, Corbet said, “I don’t care to share it but just a number of names on that list are being changed for various reasons and I prefer to leave it at that, Michael.”

It’s unclear what the thought process was in including Hawkins on the invite initially. 

Corbet said only that more than 150 people who serve on town boards and commissions, including those whose terms finished in the last 18 months, were invited.

Around Town

‘Something That Slipped Through the Cracks’: Selectmen Vow To Support VFW’s $15,000 ARPA Request

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After New Canaan’s legislative body pushed back on an earlier snub, the Board of Selectmen has promised to support a local veterans group’s modest request for a share of federal funds. Members of VFW Post 653 last fall detailed their need for $15,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding after the pandemic forced them to cancel the main way the organization raises money each year to place flags and wreaths on the gravestones of veterans interred in New Canaan. 

Yet when the selectmen voted in favor of recommendations for ARPA funding for nonprofits, the VFW was left off—a snub that garnered no comment at the Board of Finance but strong pushback at the Town Council. During their Aug. 9 meeting, the selectmen revisited the issue while taking up a larger round ($715,000) of recommended ARPA allocations. 

First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said there’s been “a lot of press about this item.” He said that when the head of the New Canaan Community Foundation—an organization tapped by the town to vet applications for ARPA funding from nonprofits—explained its recommendations in June, “she indicated there were several applicants that were being returned to the town and several applicants that were being denied.”

“And I understood at the time that the VFW was in the denied category as being ‘not ARPA eligible’ ” Moynihan said. “If I had known that [they were], we would have discussed it on the [June] 28th or we would have agreed to have further discussion about it.” (In fact, Moynihan during the Town Council’s July 20 meeting appeared to assert—incorrectly—that the VFW did not have tax-exempt status as a nonprofit organization under the Internal Revenue Code.)

Moynihan added during the selectmen’s Aug.

Berchem Moses

Town Exceeds Legal Budget by 32%

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The town exceeded its budget for legal fees by 32% in the fiscal year that ended June 30, documents show. The total spent in legal fees—$395,947.42 against a budget of $300,000—does not include expenses incurred as part of the town’s purchase of an Elm Street building earlier this year, according to a legal bill approved July 26 by the Board of Selectmen. (Those fees, which the Board of Finance later “re-classified,” had already exceeded $43,000 by January, past bills show.)

During the Board’s meeting, Selectman Kathleen Corbet asked about the $8,000 monthly retainer that New Canaan pays to Berchem Moses PC, the town attorney’s firm. “Relative to the full amount of the budget, about 20%, is that similar to what other towns are?” Corbet asked during the meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. “Is that typically what we should expect in terms of the overall budget, the retainer cost?”

Referring to Town Attorney Ira Bloom, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan responded, “I don’t know exactly what other towns pay but I’m told by Ira that we are in the ballpark.

Board of Selectmen

Town Approves $65,000 Contract for More Improvements at Bristow [CORRECTED]   

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Town officials this week approved an approximately $65,000 contract with a New Canaan-based company to continue making improvements to a public bird sanctuary restored in recent years. The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday voted 3-0 in favor of the $$64,679.04 contract with Peter Lanni Inc. for improvemtenis at Bristow Bird Sanctuary ahead of its planned centennial. The work will include “additional trail installation and reconstruction, the installation of the hilltop destination and overlook, various fencing requirements and some related landscaping improvements,” Public Works Director Tiger Mann told the selectmen at their regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

The work also will include putting in footings for a future pavilion that should arrive in February, Mann said. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted in favor of the contract. 

Bristow is located between Mead Park and Route 106, with walkable entrances through the park as well as a pull-off by the main entrance on 106 (west of the intersection of Park and Bank Streets). The selectmen asked whether the funds for the work are in the fiscal year 2023 budget (yes).

Board of Selectmen

‘This Is Ridiculous’: Divided Board of Selectmen Postpones West School Cell Tower Discussion to September

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New Canaan’s highest elected official on Tuesday was outvoted by two fellow members of the Board of Selectmen on the timing of when the town should formally take up a divisive proposal to install a cell phone tower behind West School. Echoing the cell tower developer who addressed the Board last month, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said during Tuesday’s regular meeting that it was important to move forward now with decisions regarding the proposed 125-foot “monopine” tower. Despite concerns raised by parents and neighbors in June, Moynihan included this item on the selectmen’s agenda for its July 12 meeting: “West Cell Tower – Discussion regarding draft lease between Homeland Towers and the Town of New Canaan regarding a proposed telecommunications facility at 769 Ponus Ridge Road.”

Selectman Nick Williams pushed back, saying it made more sense to discuss whether or not to pursue a cell tower at West School at all than to delve into the details of a proposed lease. Williams said the selectmen should wait until after Labor Day, when families return from summer break, to have that larger discussion. 

“We’re talking about whether we put a cellphone tower up at West School or not. We don’t need to talk about the lease until we come to that decision,” Williams said at the meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. 

“I would say we should wait until at least after Labor Day, so that we can have a fulsome discussion when people are not in Nantucket or Maine or Vermont or whatever.