News

Police: Security Cameras at Waveny Working, But Not Helping in Current Investigation

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All security cameras at Waveny’s motor vehicle entrances are now functioning, police say, though images captured did not help with recent smash-and-grabs in the park. “The cameras at Waveny work—let’s just put that out there,” Deputy Chief John DiFederico told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting Tuesday, held in Town Hall. “They are working. They are cameras and they take pictures of a static location and they assist us, but they don’t solve every crime. So they are working.

Board of Selectmen

New Sidewalk Planned for Lakeview Avenue Between Millport and Main

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Town officials on Monday approved an approximately $30,000 contract with a Bridgeport-based engineering firm to prepare for the installation of a new sidewalk in New Canaan. The Board of Selectmen during a special meeting approved the contract with Cabezas DeAngelis for survey and design work on a proposed sidewalk on Lakeview Avenue between Millport Avenue and Main Street. The sidewalk likely will run along the northern side of the road, in part to connect directly with cul-de-sacs at Graystone Circle and Lakeview Lane, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. The town for years has received requests for a sidewalk along that stretch of Lakeview (there’s already one in place on the northern side of the street between Millport and Route 123), Mann told the selectmen at the meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. 

“Right now, it’s one stretch that’s not connected,” Mann said. “So right now we have the Millport housing area, we are redoing Canaan Parish, you have Avalon and then you have East School.

Anne Kelly-Lenz

Town Hires New CFO

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Weeks after losing its well-regarded CFO to one neighboring town, New Canaan is hiring away a successor from another. The Board of Selectmen during a special meeting Monday voted 3-0 to hire Anne Kelly-Lenz starting Jan. 18. The CFO of Wilton since 2015, she succeeds Lunda Asmani, who left New Canaan last month to work for Norwalk. “I highly recommend Anne,” New Canaan Human Resources Director Cheryl Pickering Jones said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.

Board of Selectmen

Town Hires Consultant To Help with Application for Affordable Housing Relief

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The Board of Selectmen last week approved the hiring of a consultant to help the town qualify for four years of relief from a widely discussed state affordable housing law. Under the Affordable Housing Appeals Act, known by its statute number “8-30g,” developers may skirt local zoning regulations in towns where less than 10% of all housing stock qualifies as affordable—a level that officials say New Canaan is not expected to achieve. Municipalities may qualify for relief from 8-30g if they can demonstrate creation of a certain number of affordable units, and the denser redevelopment in 2017 of the New Canaan Housing Authority’s apartments on Millport Avenue helped the town achieve such a “moratorium.” Officials had hoped to chain a second four years with the rebuilding of the Canaan Parish complex at Lakeview Avenue and Route 123, a long-planned project. But financing for that project was delayed by state budget difficulties and the pandemic, Housing Authority officials have said, and the town is now susceptible to 8-30g applications.

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‘This Is Serious Stuff’: Police Department’s Call for Security Cameras in New Canaan Unaddressed After Eight Months 

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Although New Canaan Police more than eight months ago advised First Selectman Kevin Moynihan that security cameras should be strategically installed at several locations in town in order to deter crime and help investigators, progress hasn’t been made, officials said Tuesday. Police Chief Leon Krolikowski in a March 29 memo to Moynihan said that “an analysis of police incidents in town shows a need for cameras” in locations that include Irwin Park’s entrance and parking lot, as well as five locations downtown (more details below). “On several occasions, nationally organized gangs and career criminals committed crimes (larcenies from vehicles and identity theft from vehicles) in Irwin Park,” Krolikowski said in the memo, obtained by NewCanaanite.com. “To gain entry, windows were broken in many of the vehicle break-ins.”

The chief added, “Other analysis shows a number of criminal incidents (armed bank robbery, organized retail theft, robbery of a jewelry store) in the center of town that calls for camera installation in the center of town.”

The Police Commission had reviewed and discussed the memo in executive session during its March 17 meeting, Krolikowski said, and then voted 3-0 in favor of sending the recommendations to Moynihan. Yet the memo “hasn’t really been addressed,” Krolikowski said during Tuesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.