Government

Decorative Lampposts, Hanging Baskets Extending to Locust Avenue Between Main and Cherry

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The decorative lampposts that adorn much of the “magic circle” downtown soon will grace both sides of Locust Avenue from Main to Cherry Street, following allocation of a state grant. The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved a $59,440 contract with Danbury-based F&M Electrical Supply Company to purchase 16 of the lampposts. The lampposts take 10 to 12 weeks for delivery, so town officials “need to jump on this now,” Tiger Mann, downtown captain and assistant director of the New Canaan Department of Public Works, said during the selectmen’s meeting, held at Town Hall. Funds for the project will be drawn from a $215,000 state grant—New Canaan is one of 14 Connecticut towns that received a grant in 2013 from the Main Street Investment Fund. The five lampposts installed on Morse Court last week by well-established local New Canaan business Santella Electric, and new stretch of connecting sidewalk along the south side of Heritage Hill Road, both had been funded by the grant.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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It’s Spirit Week at New Canaan High School, and Tuesday was “Costume Day.” The photos above were snapped at ABC House of New Canaan Tuesday morning (thanks, John). ABC House is set to hold its 42 annual fundraiser at the Country Club of New Canaan. The gala will include a live auction and raffle, and will be attended by ABC scholars, their families and host families. Here’s more information on the event and how to get tickets. ***

Boston, Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Tulsa, Detroit … New Canaan.

News

Letter: ‘Thank You’ from New Canaan Beautification League

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To the Editor:

Over 400 donors contributed to the New Canaan Beautification League’s Annual Appeal this year. Their generosity funds the many NCBL projects that beautify New Canaan. We want to thank them along with the League volunteers who assembled the 160 hanging baskets and 9 planters downtown, and who maintain 29 triangles at New Canaan intersections. Walt Jaykus and the Department of Public Works hung and regularly water and fertilize the hanging baskets. You all helped to make New Canaan beautiful!

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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We’re hearing that the wonderful New Canaan Beautification League hosted its second annual Mead Park Breakfast on a recent sunny morning, as a way to say ‘Thank You’ to town employees including many DPW crewmen for their support and partnership in making our village lovely throughout the year (see gallery above). The event was held in the colonnade at Mead Park (a popular spot that had been WPA-era children’s wading pool, originally). Recognized at a recent Town Council meeting for its effective local work, the nonprofit organization creates the hanging baskets downtown and manages many of the traffic triangles around New Canaan. “This non-profit organization of volunteers is open to all, whether for social, civic-minded or educational purposes,” league memberts tell us. “No green thumb is necessary.

Around Town

An Even More Beautiful New Canaan: 150 Hanging Baskets Go Up Downtown on Wednesday

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A cherished addition will grace the village center of New Canaan starting Wednesday, thanks to a partnership between the town and one of its most venerable nonprofit organizations. Members of the New Canaan Beautification League this week put together 160 hanging baskets that the Department of Public Works are scheduled to place on lampposts on Main, Elm and other streets in the downtown. “They do a fabulous job,” Libby Butterworth, a member of the NCBL for four years, said of the DPW workers. Of the Beautification League, she said: “It is a wonderful, very friendly and hands-on group, and everybody is welcome.”

The baskets themselves, which the DPW fertilizes and Walt Jaykus of the public works department waters in the mornings, include angel wing begonias, white wave petunias and blue petunias, Butterworth said. (The white wave petunias do very well in both shade and sun, she said, while the angel wing begonias, which are red, start out very small in June but by August take over the basket.)

The Beautification League itself was founded in 1939 and parts of its work in town also involves caring for the landscaping on traffic triangles throughout New Canaan.