Claudia Weber

Podcast: Claudia Weber and Miki Porta on Voting in Election 2020

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This week on 0684-Radi0, our free podcast (subscribe here in the iTunes Store), we talk to New Canaan Town Clerk Claudia Weber and League of Women Voters of New Canaan President Miki Porta about the upcoming election. Anyone with a question about voting in 2020 can click here to submit it to the League. Here’s information from Weber on the absentee ballot process and a link to download an application for an absentee ballot, here’s a step-by-step walkthrough of voting via absentee ballot, and additional absentee ballot information can be found here on the Secretary of the State website. Here are recent episodes of 0684-Radi0:

Election Day 2019

Podcast: Miki Porta of the League of Women Voters of New Canaan

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This week on 0684-Radi0, our free weekly podcast (subscribe here in the iTunes Store), we talk to Miki Porta, president of the League of Women Voters of New Canaan, about the nonpartisan organization and its efforts to educate local residents ahead of Election Day (Nov. 5). Here are some of the “Democracy Discount Day” specials for Nov. 5:

Ally Bally Bee: 10% off original artwork
Apple Cart at Mead Park: Free small coffee
AT & T: Device diagnostics and plan evaluation
Baskin Robbins: participating but don’t know what yet
Benefit: 10% off any service and additional 10% if you purchase a product
Club Pilates of NC: Drop-in class for $20, reg. $39.

News

Letter: ‘Rich and Unique’ Lecture at New Canaan Library

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Dear Editor,

What a rich and unique Stoddard lecture was held at New Canaan Library this week. This year’s speaker was artist and architect Mohamed Hafez, whose talk and work dealt with “home.” 

Born in Syria, Hafez spent the first half of his presentation contextualizing his artwork. He talked about life in the culturally diverse world of pre-war Damascus; about traveling to Disney as a kid and enjoying its culture shock; about following his siblings to study at the University of Iowa; about the warmth of family, rooted in endless conversation over coffee in traditionally appointed Syrian rooms. All these stories were important to hear as they made the second half of his presentation crackle with meaning. 

We then saw Hafez’s sculptures come alive on the screen in a way that felt as three-dimensional as the pieces themselves (currently on view at the Brooklyn Museum, Bruce Museum, and Quick Center in Fairfield). He makes breathtakingly detailed miniatures of the rooms and buildings that tell his stories, both before and after the war and resultant refugee crisis. In that hour and half, Hafez showed that as much as war and traumatic displacement shape his life, his stories of home are human, universal.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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According to a separation agreement obtained this week by NewCanaanite.com through a Freedom of Information Act request, a former assistant to the New Canaan High School athletic director had been overpaid $30,000 by the Board of Education during the 2015-16 academic year. Anne Tomaselli paid the school district back that money, under the agreement, and the Board of Ed accepted her resignation “in lieu of any proceedings” concerning the termination of her employment. The agreement also specified that she would not seek future employment with the schools. Many in town knew Tomaselli as ticket sales supervisor at Dunning Stadium. Asked how she came to be overpaid by $30,000, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said in an email: “When the district moved payroll in-house, a stipend that was given 3 [times] a year for additional facility support in athletics at NCHS was miscoded as a recurring payment.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Urged by local leaders, dozens of New Canaanites attended Tuesday night’s ConnDOT hearing in Stamford on proposed service cuts to the New Canaan branch of Metro-North Railroad—reductions that government and business officials both have called potentially devastating. Scroll through the gallery above for photos and a transcription of First Selectman Kevin Moynihan’s comments at the hearing. ***

South School failed the most recent surprise health inspection of its cafeteria kitchen, and East School and New Canaan High School, as well as St. Luke’s School, also failed recent inspections. Food items in a 2-door Hobart at South were discarded after the cooler was found to be at 63.7 degrees—far higher than required—during a May 2, 2017 inspection.