0684-Radi0

0684-Radi0: The Future of The Playhouse

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In this week’s installment of our free weekly podcast, 0684-Radi0 (subscribe here in iTunes) we take a closer look at the Town Council’s decision last week to remove funding for a $225,000 roof replacement at The Playhouse. We interview Beth Jones, a fire commissioner and former selectman who sat on the town-appointed Playhouse Committee and also helped organize a League of Women Voters forum on the Elm Street building’s future four years ago, when public works officials let it be known that the structure had $2.5 million in capital needs. This week’s podcast is sponsored by STAR Inc., Lighting the Way, serving our neighbors in New Canaan and surrounding towns who have intellectual disabilities and their families since 1952. STAR invites the whole community to join them at their annual “Family Fun Day Walk and 5K Run” at Sherwood Island on Sunday, May 5. Sign up here.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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The gallery for this week’s “Did You Hear … ?” features interior photos from rental units at the newly built mixed-use building at 16 Cross St. in New Canaan, “The Crossing.”

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The Town Council on Wednesday night voted 12-0 in favor of an operating budget of $148,136,106 for fiscal year 2018. The overall figure and amount allocated to the Board of Education ($87,618,405) are the same as had been approved by the Board of Finance. The schools are seeing an approximately 1.6 percent year-over-year increase, while the overall operating budget is going up 2.6 percent.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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We hear New Canaan native Bruce Pauley, retired last year to Vermont, has been putting on a timber frame addition to his house in the “Green Mountain State” that uses oak trees felled during Hurricanes Irene and Sandy in New Canaan (see photos above). He’s also using mostly storm-related white pine trees for the house’s exterior and the new addition is being called “The Storm Room.”

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A demolition crew on Wednesday came for the long-vacant and neglected home at 39 Richmond Hill Road—facing complaints from neighbors and the prospect of a blight citation. ***

The committee charged with studying public and private options for restoring the town-owned New Canaan Playhouse at the “50-yard-line” of Elm Street on Wednesday finalized a document that will see interested parties propose ways to purchase or otherwise acquire, renovate and operate the 1923-built brick building. The New Canaan Playhouse Committee is seeking to make a decision about the future of the cherished, cupola-topped structure by Thanksgiving. Town leaders say New Canaan is not in danger of losing the iconic building, though its capital needs are extensive.

News

First Selectman: New Canaan Likely Will No Longer Own Playhouse in 18 Months

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With the movie theater’s operator and a group of locals interested in purchasing the building, New Canaan likely will not own the Playhouse on Elm Street 18 months from now, the town’s highest elected official said Wednesday. The town “would rather not be in the movie theater business, would rather not own that building,” First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said during an annual breakfast hosted by the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce, held this year at South End New Canaan. “There is interest from not only the group that runs the movie theater, Bow Tie Cinemas—they have talked to us. Local folks have talked to us. I think there is a really good possibility that that will not be in the town hands within the next year-and-a-half.

Government

‘There’s a Fine Line Between Charming and Outdated’: Playhouse Committee Convenes First Meeting

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Town residents should be polled on a range of options for future operations of the New Canaan Playhouse, where details such as costs to maintain or more substantially repair the aging structure are spelled out in detail, officials say. During their first meeting, members of the New Canaan Playhouse Committee on Tuesday said the town may opt to keep up the 1923-built structure as-is, mending it as needed, raising rent, cutting costs and operating at a loss, or else going to market to find a private owner interested in getting into the movie business, or even partnering with a newly created nonprofit organization that may run it as a more diversified entertainment venue. It’s important to find out just what those options would mean for New Canaan property owners, committee member Neil Budnick said during the meeting, held at Town Hall. “Our job is always to minimize debt and taxpayer cost,” he said. The best way to accomplish that may be through what committee members called a “white knight” scenario, whereby a generous supporter simply offers to give money to support the Playhouse.