Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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New Canaan Fire Company #1 recognized members of the volunteer company as well as career staff for excellence in service to their community at the 135th Annual Dinner, held Friday night at Waveny House. Scroll through the gallery above for photos of award recipients, and other photos, in this week’s DYH gallery. ***

In opinions published this week in the Connecticut Law Journal, the state Supreme Court reinstated a second-degree breach of peace charge against Teri Buhl, a New Canaan woman who had been convicted of the misdemeanor offense (as well as a second-degree harassment charge), and later had it overturned in a state appellate court. Briefly, police arrested Buhl after determining that she had harassed a New Canaan teen—the daughter of a man she was dating at the time—in part through use of a fake Facebook account. An Appellate Court in initially overturning the breach of peace conviction “concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support her breach of the peace conviction because the state had not proven that the Facebook posts were publicly exhibited.” Yet the state Supreme Court disagreed with that assessment. Its opinion states: “We further conclude that the breach of the peace conviction must be reinstated because the trial court reasonably could have found that the state had met its burden of proving the other elements of the crime at trial, namely, that: (1) the defendant was the person who posted M’s diary entries on Facebook; and (2) the defendant intended to ‘inconvenience, [annoy] or alarm’ [the teenage girl] by posting her diary entries on Facebook.” See PDF below for the court’s full decision.

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Tractor-Trailer Snags Overhead Wires at Weed and Elm; Traffic Detoured Around Intersection

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Update 8 a.m. on Wednesday, June 8

Crews are working on the power lines Wednesday morning, police said, and could have the intersection reopened at 10 or 11 a.m.

Original Article

Officials closed Weed Street between Frogtown and Wahackme Roads early Tuesday afternoon after a tractor-trailer snagged low-hanging overhead wires. Elm Street also was closed to traffic east of Hatfield Mews, as police and firefighters waited for the power company to arrive, officials at the scene said. Though no Eversource customers in New Canaan appeared to have lost power because of the incident, “I would tend to think that when they get here, they will have to shut down power in the area” in order to get the wires back up, Fire Chief Jack Hennessey said. Emergency responders responded to the incident at a bout 12:23 p.m. No one was hurt and no other vehicles were involved. “When it is really hot, the wires tend to droop because they get hot,” Hennessey said at members of the New Canaan Police Department set up barriers to traffic along Weed and Elm Streets.

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‘A Part of His Life Now’: New Canaan Firefighters Honor NCHS Student Jack Major

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Though many residents may only associate firefighters with sirens and smoke during major crises, the work that takes place behind the scenes—such as cleaning, maintenance and housekeeping—is absolutely essential, officials say. For the past year, New Canaan High School junior Jack Major has contributed to this vital aspect of the New Canaan Fire Department’s operation. “He helps us clean up, takes care of weeds, wipes down the trucks,” Fire Capt. Mike Socci said of the teen. Socci and more than one dozen fire and school officials joined family and friends at the firehouse on Main Street on Wednesday for a celebratory lunch in honor ofMajor’s contributions. Socci and Fire Chief Jack Hennessey presented Major with a monogrammed plaque recognizing his enthusiasm and dedication to the job.

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Minor Injuries After Collision, Rollover on Silvermine Road

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One person was transported to Norwalk Hospital with minor injuries following a two-car accident Saturday at the intersection of Silvermine Road and Carter Street. At about 6:12 p.m., firefighters, police and EMTs responded to the scene of an accident that included a rollover onto the corner out front of 4 Carter Street. It wasn’t clear what caused the accident—spokespeople for the fire and police departments were not immediately available—though the intersection there with its limited sightlines has been on the radar of local traffic officials for years. Officials with a work group that addresses traffic-calming matters have sought to increase the “skew angles” of the two town roads, so that instead of shooting straight across Silvermine Road, motorists coming from Carter would make a right onto 106 and then queue up to make a left onto Canoe Hill. Though state officials have said they support the plan (Route 106 is a state road), they also have called for a traffic engineering study to ensure that the change would create no traffic problems.

Last month, during a discussion of the intersection within the Traffic Calming Work Group, officials said that the state had talked about putting off installation of traffic flashing-light beacons there until a study gets done.

News

Brush Fire Ignites on Parish Road South on Wednesday; Fire Chief: No Fire Pits, Outdoor Burning

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Officials are urging town residents to hold off on using fire pits or doing any other outdoor burning, following a Parish Road brush fire on Wednesday afternoon—the second in two days. Firefighters at about 2 p.m. responded to a report of a brush fire at 149 Parish Road South—a fire that consumed an Entire woodpile and approximately 20-by-30-foot landscaped area that had mulch, according to New Canaan Fire Chief Jack Hennessey. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the fire, he said, though extremely dry conditions have elevated the likelihood and danger of brush fires. “We put a lot of water down and the ground was considerably drier than we thought when we left—it just absorbed all the water, kind of surprising,” Hennessey said. New Canaan, together with the rest of Fairfield County and surrounding areas, remains under a “red flag warning” from the National Weather Service, meaning fires are expected to spread rapidly following ignition.