Government

Town: ‘New’ Natural Gas Route from Eversource Uses State Road; Re-Paving Back On for Spring Water Lane Neighborhood

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Sidelined last month because the asphalt was to be ripped up to install natural gas lines, the repaving of a set of town roads now is back in play, town officials say, as the utility company unexpectedly is taking a different route into New Canaan. Residents of Spring Water Lane, Adams Lane and Hillcrest Road have waited years to have their roads repaved because they live along a gas line route that Eversource had proposed in the past, First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said. Yet “it now appears that Eversource is going to be coming up state Route 106 and avoiding local roads coming into town” from Stamford, Mallozzi told NewCanaanite.com. “So, unfortunately, we had to pull back on a promised area of paving in town,” he said. The Board of Selectmen last month shifted the would-be project for Spring Water-Adams-Hillcrest to three stretches of Ponus Ridge—a plan that was “met with an incredible amount of disappointment and consternation by the neighbors because, quite frankly, they had been waiting all that time to have their streets paved,” Mallozzi said.

Government

‘A Very Positive First Step’: Utility Co. Reopens Natural Gas Talks with Town, Officials Say

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Town officials said Monday night that the utility company has restarted conversations about bringing natural gas to New Canaan—a three-year-old effort that stalled and finally broke down last summer in a finger-pointing squabble between the parties. Yet Eversource has returned to the town “and said that they would like to present a new proposal and have a new discussion about bringing natural gas into New Canaan,” according to Utilities Commission Chairman Tom Tesluk. “They are very conscious that a lot of discussion took place and went nowhere last time,” Tesluk said at the commission’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall. “I think they’re sincere in bringing a proposal to the town, so we’ll just have to wait and see what they come up with. But there are some obvious advantages to being able to have natural gas in New Canaan and I think it’s safe to say that most of us would welcome it if it can be done efficiently.”

Tesluk said members of the commission and Board of Selectmen met with Eversource officials recently.

Government

Town, Utility Company At Odds About Why Natural Gas Talks Broke Down

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Town and utility company officials are at odds about just why talks broke down regarding a long-discussed proposal to bring natural gas into New Canaan. While members of the Utilities Commission and others in New Canaan have long maintained that Eversource failed to deliver on a commitment to bring natural gas here—the upshot of which includes a plan now in place to heat public schools with propane—officials with the Berlin, Conn.-based company said it was town’s decision to abandon plans. “It’s unfortunate that New Canaan town leaders have a different recollection of what happened during our talks to bring natural gas to town,” Tricia Taskey Modifica, Eversource Energy’s media relations manager for Connecticut, told NewCanaanite.com in an email. “We made an offer to First Selectman Rob Mallozzi and the Utilities Commission last year that would have brought natural gas to the schools, YMCA, and Waveny Care Center. Once that was complete, we would have extended the system to bring gas downtown and through the residential neighborhoods nearby.

News

Eversource: We’re ‘Disappointed’ That New Canaan Is Abandoning Natural Gas Plans for Community

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Like many residents, we were disappointed to learn that the Town of New Canaan decided to abandon plans to switch to natural gas for the entire community, and instead pursue a propane system for only town and school buildings. That decision effectively eliminates natural gas as a viable economic option for residents and businesses. For more than two years, we at Eversource (previously Yankee Gas) have been working with New Canaan officials on plans to bring natural gas to homes, businesses, and municipal buildings in town. In fact, we’ve been collaborating with cities and towns across the state to expand natural gas to Connecticut residents under the state’s Comprehensive Energy Strategy. Our Two-Fold Responsibility

We’re proud to deliver a clean, affordable energy option to new communities and we take that responsibility seriously.

Government

Money-Saving Propane Heating Coming To Schools; Natural Gas Expansion in New Canaan Off the Table

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New Canaan is poised to save money under a plan that will see the current heating oil supplier for the town and schools introduce a “dual fuel” system in which propane gas becomes available, officials said Monday night. By burying propane tanks and using the infrastructure already in place for fuel oil heating, the district will be able to switch back-and-forth between the energy sources based on market prices, members of the Utilities Commission said during their regular meeting, held at Town Hall. “The bad news is that it means that there will be no natural gas expansion in New Canaan,” Commissioner Scott LaShelle said. “The schools are clearly an anchor tenant for any utility, and as we know from sitting here on this commission working with Yankee Gas [now Eversource] for a solid four years—and the first selectman would say we have been working with Yankee for longer, they have shown an inability to deliver that product to us.”

“Without those anchor tenants, we are not going to get natural gas downtown, we are not going to replace the propane tanks that are downtown, we are not going to bring natural gas to restaurants, we are not going to bring natural gas to residents to save them money, because Yankee will never com here for residential homeowners.”

The development puts to bed frustrating, go-nowhere efforts dating back several years to work with the utility and make natural gas available in downtown New Canaan. Longer-term plans to see Eversource offer it to residences in phases never materialized.