NewCanaanite.com (https://newcanaanite.com/tag/new-canaan-cleaners)
For today’s Q&A, we interviewed David Mandel of New Canaan Cleaners, a local business that marked 30 years in February. Located on East Maple Street and offering pickup and delivery service, the cleaners is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Here’s our exchange. New Canaanite: How are you all doing at New Canaan Cleaners? David Mandel: Well we have some people we have had to lay off.
The owners of New Canaan Cleaners are seeking to open a drive-thru pick-up service at an existing bank building on Elm Street.
While keeping its main location on East Maple Street, the business would use a single lane closest to what is now a Bank of America drive-thru building at 278 Elm St., according to an application filed with Planning & Zoning. Bank of America would continue to use the far lane for ATM drive-thru purposes, while the middle lane would not be used, according to a site permit application narrative from New Canaan Cleaners co-owner David Mandel. “As a considerably smaller business than Bank of America the traffic driven by the business would be on a significantly smaller scale,” Mandel said in the application.
“We believe by offering this convenience to our customers it will be a great thing for the community as a whole. This will also not change the intensity of use or parking requirements at the site and in fact will actually be less than that of Bank of America.”
Under the New Canaan Zoning Regulations, any non-office use is permitted in the Retail B zone with site plan approval (see page 78 here). The bank building’s landlord, Acme, operates next door in the former Food Emporium space.
Though regular phone calls to 9-1-1 remain the best and fastest way to contact emergency services, all New Canaan Police Department officers who operate the emergency call center there have been trained in the state’s new 9-1-1 texting feature, according to Police Chief Leon Krolikowski. Anyone texting the numbers ‘911’ as a recipient on a mobile device may send a brief written message that includes the location of the emergency and what services are needed—police, fire or ambulance. The technology “is useful for the hearing impaired, during a domestic violence incident or active threat incident, and during medical emergencies that render a person incapable of speech,” Krolikowski said in a press release. More information is available here. ***
The lead sponsor of the 2018 “Chamber Cup” golf event—to be held Oct.
New Canaan Cleaners on Monday moved from its longtime home on Pine Street over to a newly updated space at 12 East Maple St.—a change that it’s owner said was prompted by emerging difficulties with customer parking on Pine, rising rent and the likelihood that the building will be demolished within two years. David Mandel, a partner in New Canaan Cleaners with his father Irwin since early 1990, said that after extensive remediation on the site, a new structure is planned with retail on the ground floor and apartments above. “So I had to find an intermediate place or a permanent place and we found a permanent place, and my concern was my customers because the parking was getting to be an issue with the deli right there and coffee right there and us,” Mandel said. “It was beginning to get a little crazy, the rent got very expensive and I thought it was time for a change.”
The structure at 71 Pine St. has housed a dry cleaning outfit since 1958, according to Mandel.