Board of Selectmen

Glass House Consultant To Advise New Economic Development Committee

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A consultant who’s been working with a prominent local organization will help advise a new committee focused on boosting tourism and economic development in New Canaan, the town’s highest elected official said this week. An area resident who volunteers with the National Executive Service Corps and is “already up to speed on New Canaan” through work done recently with the Philip Johnson Glass House will advise the town’s Tourism and Economic Development Advisory Committee, or ‘TEDAC,’ First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said. 

“We will agree to pay them $6,000, which in the consulting world is really peanuts, to work for the first year with the group to facilitate their meetings, so we can make it easier on the Committee to focus on what they are trying to establish,” Moynihan said during the Board of Selectmen’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall. The Board voted 3-0 to form TEDAC as a 15-member Committee with members appointed for three years. Its mission is “to study and analyze New Canaan’s local economy and commercial and tourism businesses, and to advise and make recommendations and issue reports to the First Selectman, the Board of Selectman and other town officials, boards and commissions regarding measures the town or such bodies might undertake to promote and develop the local economy and the local business community, including tourism.”

Moyinhan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted in favor of establishing the Committee. Its members are to be appointed at the Board’s Jan.

Around Town

Letter: How Reduced Railroad Service to New Canaan Would Affect The Glass House

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Dear Editor,

The Glass House would like to provide you with some idea of the impact reduced Metro-North service to New Canaan would have on our operation, and also on other businesses in town. Our visitor survey reveals the following data:

25 percent of our visitors arrive by Metro North
50 percent of our visitors eat at restaurants in downtown New Canaan
25 percent of our visitors also shopped at New Canaan stores
10 percent of our visitors attended other in-town attractions such as Grace Farms, Waveny Park, Carriage Barn Arts Center, Gores Pavilion, and more. Our Annual Visitation ranges between 12,000 to 13,000 visitors per season (seasons run May 1 through Nov. 30 each year). Substantially all of our visitors travel to visit the Glass House during “off-peak” hours.

Around Town

‘This Is Part of Our Obligation’: Much-Needed Ceiling Replacement Underway at the Glass House

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For years, even during Philip Johnson’s life, the southwest corner of the plaster ceiling inside the Glass House has been sagging. It’s been getting progressively worse in recent years—to the point where three of the doors into the iconic structure (there’s one on each face of the house) could not be opened. About three years ago, those in charge of the National Trust for Historic Preservation site oversaw a temporary stabilization in the troubled corner, working with Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Evergreene Architectural Arts. “It sagged about three inches in that corner,” Brendan Tobin, senior buildings & grounds manager at The Glass House said Tuesday afternoon, standing near Johnson’s building on the Ponus Ridge site. “They stabilized it by putting some lag bolts and washers in place so it would not further sag, and they gave us basically three proposals to restore or preserve the ceiling.”

Glass House officials reviewed those proposals (more on them below) and settled on one so that work could start days after the 2017 season ended on Nov.

Around Town

‘A Huge Amount of Interest’: Philip Johnson Glass House Sees Record-High Visits in September

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Anchored by a popular, special installation, the Philip Johnson Glass House in September set a new high-water mark in visits for a single month since opening to the public in 2007. The National Trust for Historic Preservation site welcomed 2,595 visitors to its iconic 49-acre campus on Ponus Ridge last month (by way of shuttles from Elm Street), primarily through tours, according to the nonprofit organization. The figure marks a 111 percent year-over-year increase for visits in the month. It likely had to do with Yayoi Kusama’s “Dots Obsession” installation, which closed last week, while the artist’s “Narcissus Garden” and “Pumpkin” installations will run through Nov. 30, the season’s end, according to Christa Carr, communications director at The Glass House.

Government

‘A Big Loss’: Town Planner Steve Kleppin To Leave New Canaan for Norwalk Job

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Steve Kleppin recalled that when took the helm as town planner 11 years ago in New Canaan’s Land Use Department, after spending six months as assistant town planner, the agency’s perception in the community was poor. Some on staff at the time had faced criticism from the public and many relationships between the two had gone sour, he said. Yet “through the people that were here and the other people that came on board, we changed that, as a group,” Kleppin recalled Thursday, hours before the town announced that he had taken the role of town planner in neighboring Norwalk. “It’s a well-run area. Even though people might not always like the outcome or the decisions that are made, they’re treated appropriately, treated well and the decisions are thought-out.”

A steady, soft-spoken figure who is highly respected among colleagues, building professionals and property owners in New Canaan—often delivering unwanted news that touches on the largest single investment that residents will ever make—Kleppin will work his last day here on Oct.