Dionna Carlson

Election 2023: Republican Candidates for First Selectman Debate West School Cell Tower Plan [UPDATED]

By |

[Note: This article has been updated with a comment from St. Luke’s School.]

Bringing back a proposal to erect a cell tower behind West School when it was “roundly criticized by residents and parents” more than five years ago is “an unbelievably bad waste of time, money and effort,” according to one Republican candidate for New Canaan’s highest elected office. There are alternative technologies such as satellite and distributed antenna systems or “DAS,” and public safety has already been addressed because all elementary schools have antenna systems, Dionna Carlson said during a GOP debate last week. “So if there’s an emergency at West School or in the West School area, they can connect to our emergency service providers,” Carlson said at the Republican Town Committee’s July 18 debate, held at the Carriage Barn Arts Center. “I was on the Board of Education when those antennas were put up and redone,” she continued.

Dionna Carlson

Election 2023: Republican Candidates for First Selectman Debate Affordable Housing Strategies

By |

New Canaan missed out on a chance to find an additional four years of relief from a state affordable housing law because the town wasn’t prepared, according to one Republican seeking party backing for the municipality’s highest elected office. 

The town’s moratorium under the widely discussed law known by its statute number, 8-30g, “lapsed” because “frankly, I don’t think we were prepared to file that moratorium, which I’m really concerned about,” Kimberly Norton said during a debate with fellow GOP first selectman candidates Dionna Carlson and incumbent Kevin Moynihan last week. “It’s a very long process,” Norton continued at the July 18 debate, organized and moderated by the Republican Town Committee and held at Carriage Barn Arts Center. “It could have been ready to go. It could have been in the pipeline.”

Though the press was barred from attending the debate, a video of the first selectman debate was posted Thursday to YouTube. In addition to affordable housing, topics included dysfunction on the Board of Selectmen and improving cell service in New Canaan.

Opinion

Election 2023: Letters of Endorsement

By |

NewCanaanite.com received the following letter(s) ahead of the July 25 Republican caucus. Please send letters to editor@newcanaanite.com to have them published here. We will not publish caucus endorsements after July 11. 

***

Anyone who has participated in an organized setting understands the cliché “there is no ‘I’ in team.” Unfortunately, the current 1st Selectman is unaware that he is a part of a team that includes New Canaan residents. Instead, he often establishes a personal agenda that is unsupported by his constituents. The most glaring example of this is his thoughtless insistence on erecting large monopine cell towers on public property. 

Beginning in 2017, several public hearings were conducted to convince our residents these cell towers were needed at our schools and parks.

Government

‘People Are Really Upset About This’: Town Council Pushes Back on Snub of VFW’s Funding Request

By |

Members of the Town Council are pushing back on decisions made by other municipal bodies that deny a request from local veterans for funding through the American Rescue Plan Act. The Boards of Selectmen and Finance both voted in support of a $582,600 ARPA package for nonprofit organizations that left out a $15,000 request from the local VFW. During their own July 20 meeting, Town Councilmen tried to get answers as to why the snub occurred and to urge the selectmen and finance board to fill the funding request. “If it wasn’t for our veterans this town would not exist,” Councilman Kimberly Norton said during the meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. “So I think it’s of paramount importance that we take this seriously, and all of these people are volunteers that volunteered their service to our country, and then volunteered in our parade, and mapping the graves of the veterans in the cemetery.

Government

ARPA: Health and Human Services Commission Should Advise Town on Future Allocations, Members Say

By |

An appointed body that oversees New Canaan’s Health and Human Services departments should be doing more to help the town set priorities on spending what remains of $6 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding, its members say. The Town Council last month approved about $2 million in “ARPA” spending, including allocations for “premium pay” for school and town workers, greenlink sidewalks, year-round public bathrooms, a generator and marketing. Yet the Health and Human Services Commission “should be giving more assistance and support to our elected officials on priority funding,” Russ Barksdale Jr., a member of the Commission, said at its Jan. 6 meeting. “I did not see any priority funding given to our local or town Health Department, as an example,” Barksdale said at the meeting, held via videoconference.