Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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The Greenwich Free Press is reporting that an arrest warrant has been issued for Heidi Lueders, a former town resident and head of a pit bull rescue organization who has been identified as the subject of an animal cruelty case in Fairfield. 

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New Canaan Police through the department’s Instagram account has issued safety tips for residents making online purchases in order to avoid becoming a victim of package theft. They include signing up for delivery alerts, ensuring someone is ready to collect the package, requiring a signature when possible and having packages sent to a workplace if feasible. ***

Asked about the Tourism and Economic Development Commission he plans to create, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said locals have expressed strong interest in joining and that, after candidates are approved by local town political committees, the group will see about 15 total members. ***

The town on Wednesday issued an after-the-fact building permit for a $10,000 job at a Putnam Road home. A new bathroom with a shower had been installed in the basement of the home by New Canaan-based Hoffman Contracting LLC, the permit said.

Alex Stewart

Nominations for New Canaan’s ‘Volunteer Recognition Awards’ Open Through Friday

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Representatives for an annual awards ceremony that recognizes New Canaan’s generous volunteers is accepting nominees through 8 p.m. Friday. Individuals can visit this page, linked to through the New Canaan Community Foundation website, to nominate people for various categories of the 2018 Volunteer Recognition Awards, recognizing those who give of their time to benefit others. The people who volunteer in New Canaan are “100 percent and totally committed,” Tracey Karl, a member of the committee that helps organize the awards and ceremony, told NewCanaanite.com. 

“That’s why I love this event,” she said. “I find out about people who I know who volunteer and do things and don’t say anything, they just do it.”

Launched 20 years ago, the Volunteer Recognition Awards since 2015 have been sponsored and overseen by the New Canaan Community Foundation. The awards are specifically designed to spotlight people who have not been recognized for their efforts. 

It’s important to do that, Karl said.

Around Town

2nd Annual Overdose Awareness Vigil Draws Hundreds to Downtown New Canaan

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Nearly 500 people gathered at the corner of South Avenue and Elm Street on Thursday evening to attend New Canaan’s second annual Overdose Awareness Vigil, hosted by the New Canaan Parent Support Group and the New Canaan Community Foundation. Residents of New Canaan and neighboring towns, state and local officials, professionals in recovery treatment, clergy and those in recovery and with loved ones who have encountered the pain, heartache, hardships and struggles addiction brings formed the crowd. The founder of the New Canaan Parent Support Group, Paul Reinhardt, whose son Evan’s passing in July 2015 from a drug overdose inspired him to create the group, said shared stories will keep the conversation about addiction and recovery going and, hopefully, encourage others to open up and share their struggles as well. “I think one of the most important things is having the four people from the community share their story of addiction being in their family—both all the pain that went with it and the recovery that takes place after it,” Reinhardt told NewCanaanite.com. “Even someone like me who lost his son, the chance that I’ve had to channel Evan’s memory through the New Canaan Parent Support group and an event like tonight’s is a positive story.

Government

First Selectman: Plans Underway To Rent Out Irwin House to Nonprofit Organizations

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Irwin House, the 1963-built brick structure that sits on a hilltop in a public Weed Street park of the same name, is to be renovated and rented out to a handful of nonprofit organizations seeking new homes, the town’s highest elected official says. Vacant since the municipal offices that had occupied it during the renovation and expansion of Town Hall moved out three years ago, Irwin House would see its first floor used as a “nonprofit center,” according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. The organizations expected to move in and pay a below-market rent so that the town covers its maintenance and utility costs would include Staying Put in New Canaan, New Canaan Community Foundation, New Canaan Land Trust and New Canaan CARES, Moynihan told reporters during a press briefing held Aug. 23 in his office. 

“The idea would be that they would have the synergy of being not-for-profits together rather than isolated in little offices,” he said. “They’d share conference space, they’d share a lunchroom.

Around Town

New Canaan Community Foundation Awards $650,000 in Grants

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The New Canaan Community Foundation celebrated its annual Grant Awards Ceremony Thursday morning, where the agency divided $650,000 among 80 local nonprofit organizations. NCCF Board Chair Sharon Stevenson said the ceremony provided a chance to “come together to celebrate and look forward to our shared work going forward.”

“This patchwork of investments is touching a broad range of needs in our community,” Stevenson said during the hourlong event, attended by more than 150 people and held in the Lamb Room at New Canaan Library. With its other grant programs, NCCF will invest more than $1 million dollars in grant aid this year. John Knight, the organization’s Distributions Committee chair, said the grant investments “depend primarily on the generosity of local donors.”

The 2017 Fundraising Appeal Committee, co-chaired by Sara and Spencer Schubert and Linda and Jay Twombly, led efforts to raise the donated funds. This year’s 92 grant requests totaled nearly $1.3 million.