Government

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

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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.

Dan Bennett

Republicans Back New Slate of Board of Ed Candidates for November Election; Complete Caucus Results

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In a dramatic vote Tuesday night, New Canaan Republicans endorsed a new slate of Board of Education candidates who are seeking to reset the priorities of the influential elected body and how it interacts with district administrators. The incumbent chair and secretary of the Board of Ed both fell short of securing party backing at the GOP caucus, held at New Canaan High School. The high vote-getter among school board candidates, Dan Bennett, said during the 2.5-hour caucus that the campaign he, Hugo Alves, Philip Hogan and Julie Toal ran has been “focused on improved transparency, a more accessible Board, accountability to the community and parents and better communication to the community and engaged oversight.”

“Our platform has had a few things—kids come first, and that means in everything,” Bennett said. “In academic excellence, in school start times implementation, in block scheduling, in trying to keep schools open full-time for kids heading into next year and certainly trying to get masks off kids so that they can have the most normal learning experience possible in this great school system. Secondly, it is transparency, accessibility, accountability and oversight.

Election 2021

Election 2021 Republican Caucus: Town Council Candidate Kimberly Norton

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New Canaan resident Kimberly Norton is seeking the endorsement of the Republican Party for a seat on the elected Town Council. We put some questions to Norton about her candidacy. Our exchange follows. New Canaanite: Tell us about yourself—how long have you lived in New Canaan, what have you been involved with here in town and what has led you to seek elected office? Kimberly Norton: My husband, Bill, and I moved to New Canaan from New York City 12 years ago.

Library Attorney: Decision on Fate of 1913 Building Must Come During P&Z Process

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Though a clause inserted last week into a draft agreement between the town and New Canaan Library would appear to forestall a decision on whether to demolish the original 1913 library building for at least two years during construction, the fate of that structure must be decided far sooner, an attorney said Tuesday. While it’s true that the library will operate out of its existing building until the new one is completed and ready for move-in, the Planning & Zoning Commission must approve the library’s full plan for the site even before construction starts, including for the century-old structure overlooking Main and Cherry Streets, according to Ted O’Hanlan, a longtime partner at Stamford-based Robinson + Cole who was nominated last week as a state Superior Court judge (the class of nominees awaits confirmation by the General Assembly). P&Z “has to approve a plan before we can start anything, so this will be resolved by then,”” O’Hanlan told members of the Board of Selectmen during their regular meeting, held via videoconference. “I don’t believe it can be an open issue,” O’Hanlan added, where construction can commence without a final plan for the 1913 library. “The library plans to put forward a very articulated reason why it’s not proposing to save the 1913 building,” he said.

Government

Library: Rebuilding Project on Track for Spring As Parking Plan, Schematic Design Get Finalized 

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The timetable for municipal approvals of the widely anticipated New Canaan Library rebuilding project has been pushed back a bit pending details around parking and specifics of financials, the town’s highest elected official said this week. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said Tuesday that he had anticipated the library coming to the Board of Finance this week “with further financial information, but they are waiting for pricing estimates on their project.”

“The Board of Finance has made clear that they want much more specific numbers before they can move forward,” Moynihan said during a regular meeting of the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure, held via videoconference. “The Town Council has made clear that they want to see what is going to Planning & Zoning, which now has slipped a bit to the end of November, apparently.”

The $36 million rebuilding of New Canaan Library is still expected to commence next spring and construction will continue for about two years, the library’s executive director, Lisa Oldham, confirmed when asked about the project. Under a draft Memorandum of Understanding or ‘MOU’ with the town that’s been under negotiation since early this year, the town is to contribute $10 million toward the project while the library bears the balance of the cost through its own fundraising and a $15 million commercial construction loan from Bankwell, documents show. Moynihan said that parking is among the key pieces of the MOU.