Around Town

New Committee To Develop Formal Purchasing Policy for the Town

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A newly formed committee will develop a formal purchasing policy to help guide the town’s process of awarding bids to contractors, New Canaan’s highest elected official said last week. The Audit Committee identified the need for such a written policy, and it will be developed soon by the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure, according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. “Right we have a policy out of [the] Finance [Department] which is not very clear to me,” Moynihan said during a regular Board of Selectmen meeting, held Dec. 17 at Town Hall. 

“This committee is going to recommend purchasing policy—a written purchasing policy that is more clear—but also a committee like this can review with [Public Works Director] Tiger [Mann] and [Buildings Superintendent] Bill [Oestmann] the lay of land we have with contractors and how realistic it is to put things to bid when we don’t want to get the lowest bigger out of Bridgeport with unreliable work and that kind of thing.”

The committee will put together a purchasing policy that the selectmen can review in February or March, Moynihan said. The matter arose as the selectmen discussed whether to approve an approximately $13,000 contract with a with a Shelton-based heating and air conditioning company to install A/C units at Lapham Community Center.

Government

New Canaan Budget Director Lunda Asmani Appointed Town CFO

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday voted unanimously to appoint Budget Director Lunda Asmani as CFO for the town. Hired in June 2018, Asmani will succeed Sandra Dennies in the role starting next week, and will continue to work as budget director, as well, officials said. “We are very sorry to see her [Dennies] go but are bittersweet to have a new CFO taking over on Friday,” First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said at the meeting, held at Town Hall. Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of the appointment. Prior to coming to New Canaan, Asmani had served for two years as director of management and budgets for Norwalk, according to his resume.

Board of Selectmen

Six Appointed to Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday voted unanimously to appoint six members to a newly conceived committee that will advise the executive branch of local government on building and infrastructure projects. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan will serve as chairman of the committee, which is to meet monthly and “provide expertise and financial oversight on an ongoing basis for major decisions and plans such as town-owned buildings and infrastructure projects including but not limited to major capital projects that are part of the Five-Year Capital Plan,” according to a draft resolution read out at the Board’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall. “Right now I am the oversight over Public Works, and some other towns have standing commissions,” Moynihan said. “I have discovered that I sometimes do not have the bandwidth to be on top of all projects and this is an opportunity for us to have people on Board of Finance who have a continuing interest, making sure that projects are on budget, so a sort of standing building committee in that regard, and also it gives us the opportunity to better coordinate with the Board of Education on their projects, like solar.”

The appointees to the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure include Moynihan, George Blauvelt (a Board of Finance member), Neil Budnick (Board of Finance), Penny Young (Town Council), Penny Rashin (Board of Education) and Stuart Sawabini, former Police Commission chair. Moynihan said he’s still looking for a seventh member to nominate, a “contractor type.”

Under the resolution, committee members will serve two-year terms.

Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted 3-0 to make the appointments. 

The first selectman introduced the concept of the committee two weeks ago, saying it would include specialists such as contractors and architects and would advise the Board on projects such as major roadway renovation, bridges, school roofs and solar installations.

Board of Selectmen

Officials: Trash Collector Charging New Canaan 30% More Than Neighboring Wilton

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New Canaan since July 1 has been working without a contract with a Stamford-based garbage and recycling collection company that’s charging the town about 30% more than neighboring Wilton for a similar service, officials said last week. The town had put its contract for pickup and disposal out to bid and City Carting was the only company that responded “and the prices went up from last time,” according to Department of Public Works Assistant Superintendent of Solid Waste Don Smith. “They are charging us $85 [per ton] right now, Wilton is being charged $65,” Smith told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting, held Nov. 19 at Town Hall. “The other towns have long-term [contracts] for different reasons so their prices may be better, or probably are better than ours.

Board of Selectmen

Selectmen Push for All-Way Stop at Weed and Elm

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Though police have said installing additional stop signs at Weed and Elm Streets would be dangerous, unnecessary and otherwise problematic, the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved $6,000 for a study to determine the feasibility of doing so. In voicing support for installation of stop signs for northbound and southbound Weed Street motorists, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said the intersection has seen “a great deal of additional traffic” from pedestrians using a sidewalk that went in two springs ago connecting the top of Elm to Irwin Park and a “greenlink” footpath beyond the park that opened last summer. State Traffic Administration regulations developed under Connecticut law require that a proposed stop sign must be justified by a traffic engineering study in order to be installed a major street, and that stop signs never be used for speed control, among other provisions. Moynihan said that even if New Canaan weren’t required to commission such a study, “to me it is an obvious location for stop signs, not so much safety but regulating traffic because people don’t have the opportunity to alternate turns.”

“I’m not sure I know another intersection in town that is like this right now,” he said during the selectmen meeting, held at Town Hall. Moynihan added that Public Works Director Tiger Mann had relayed to him prior to the meeting that, under the federal document that informs state statute—the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices—municipalities must have a stop sign warranter’s or engineering study performed in order to put in a stop sign.