Government

Corbet, Williams: Full Board of Selectmen Should Be Approving Part-Time Hires

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Saying the town should be consistent, Selectman Kathleen Corbet this week called for the Board of Selectmen to approve the hiring of part-time employees just as it does for full-timers. During Tuesday’s selectmen meeting, Corbet noted that First Selectman Kevin Moynihan mentioned the hiring of a part-time “wedding coordinator” at Waveny during a recent Town Council meeting. This exchange followed:
Moynihan: We don’t bring part-time employees to the Board of Selectmen. Corbet: We have in the past. Have you changed the process?

Government

Selectmen Williams, Corbet Call for Reinstitution of New Canaan Utilities Commission

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Nearly five years after New Canaan’s highest elected official did away with the municipal Utilities Commission by declining to appoint new members, some town officials are calling for its reinstitution. 

In December 2017, one month after winning the first selectman race by 33 votes, Kevin Moynihan said that he wished to dissolve the Utilities Commission while redistributing some of its responsibilities—such as cell coverage, natural gas and solar energy. 

Tom Tesluk, then-chair of the Utilities Commission, had resigned the day after Moynihan narrowly defeated Kit Devereaux. And though Devereaux, who went on to serve as a selectman, argued in favor of preserving the Commission, the volunteer body’s last meeting agenda was posted in December 2018. 

During the Board of Selectmen’s Sept. 20 meeting, Selectman Nick Williams said, “We had talked about repurposing or getting back to a Utilities Commission at some point and I bring that up in the context of the cell phone towers because I think that’s an issue that a robust Utilities Commission could tackle and Lord knows in this town we’ve got experts all over the place that could help out with something like that.”

His comments came during a portion the meeting dedicated to general matters before the town. Moynihan responded that he had attended all meetings of the Utilities Commission for four years while serving on the Town Council “to bird dog cell service.”

This exchange followed:
Moynihan: And Tom Tesluk resigned the day after the election. Williams: So we just gave up?

News

‘There Are a Lot of Questions’: Selectman Williams Pushes Back on West School Cell Tower Plan

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Though New Canaan’s highest-elected official has charted a course for approving a cell tower behind West School, it’s unclear whether his colleagues on the Board of Selectmen will approve a lease to make the new infrastructure possible. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan at the Board’s Sept. 6 meeting called for the Planning & Zoning Commission to decide between a tower 1,000 feet behind the Ponus Ridge school and another, taller one further out. Yet at the Board’s Sept. 20 meeting, Selectmen Nick Williams and Kathleen Corbet did not commit—and in some cases, raised questions about—the prospect of approving a lease with the cellular infrastructure firm proposing a 125-foot “monopine” tower for West School. 

“Why would we be pushing stuff to Planning and Zoning and to the Town Council and other public bodies when we as a group have not gone on record as for or against?” Williams said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

He added, “To be clear: There is going to be no cell phone tower put up anywhere unless we approve it as a Board of Selectmen.”

The discussion came during a section of the meeting where the selectmen weigh in on general matters before the town.

Board of Selectmen

‘I Don’t Want To Do This Half-Assed’: Town Creates Grant Writer Job

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Saying the new position would pay for itself, municipal officials on Tuesday approved a job for a grant writer for the town. Connecticut municipalities such as Stamford, Stratford, Bristol, Norwalk, Westport, Berlin and Fairfield already have grant writers on staff, according to New Canaan Human Resources Director Cheryl Pickering Jones. 

“We had received information for different towns that are receiving state grants and we have many communities that are getting grants that we are not receiving,” Pickering Jones told the Board of Selectmen during its regular meeting, held atTown Hall and via videoconference. 

“We do not have the staff on board to apply for a lot of these grants, whether it be public works, first responders, health and human services, and I think the town would do well to have a full-time grant writer.”

First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted in favor of creating the new position. 

Pickering Jones said the town has drafted a job description. 

Williams said, “This position should pay for itself and then some if we are doing this right.”

Moynihan said some towns have more than one grant writer. 

Corbet noted that the town recently received notification that other towns had received a Small Town Economic Assistance Program or “STEAP” grant from the state, though New Canaan did not. “I wonder if we would maybe consider starting with a part-time position rather than a full-time position, and then possibly going to two part-time positions,” Corbet said. “I think that enables you to sort of start up the grant writing process and then once it’s underway you can have two people working and it also saves benefits. Just something to consider.”

This exchange followed:
Moynihan: I think we can always back off if we don’t see candidates for full-time that are desirable.

Government

Wetland Boardwalk Proposed for Irwin Park

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Town officials on Tuesday approved a $13,300 contract with a local firm to do survey work at Irwin Park for a proposed wetland boardwalk. The Board of Selectmen voted 3-0 in favor of the contract with RKW Land Surveying during its regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

The planned board was approved during the last budget season, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “We had the area flagged for wetlands by William Kenny Associates,” he told the selectmen. “And we need to pick the flagging up and do some additional survey work and topographic work, things of that nature, of the area in concern.”

RKW had done the base mapping and original survey at the time New Canaan purchased the Irwin property, Mann said. 

“We’d like to engage them to do this work and then update that mapping,” he said. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted in favor of the contract. 

The selectmen asked whether the project had been considered for American Rescue Plan Act funding (no), why not (not sure), what is the total cost of the project when land surveying is included (the budget was about $175,000 but some is coming from DPW operating) and where the proposed wetlands boardwalk would go exactly (in the southwest corner of Irwin, mann said, “As you head up the hillside where the Flexi-pave trail is, you go past where the goats were and head up the hill, that area is wetlands in back”).