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Town Officials Call for Improved Pedestrian Crosswalks with Uniform Countdown Timers, Audible Signals

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Officials say they’re looking to install new pedestrian signals at crosswalks in New Canaan that will include a “countdown” timer for those seeking to cross the street as well as an audible signal for the visually impaired. There’s little consistency in how the crosswalk signals in town function, according to New Canaan Police Department Community Impact Officer Nicole Vartuli, who focuses on the downtown in her role. 

Vartuli told members of the Police Commission at their Sept. 21 meeting that she received a complaint from a blind resident regarding the crossing signals at Cherry Street and East Avenue, and that prompted her to look at other areas. “I noticed they were not uniform and they looked different—some had audible, some did not,” Vartuli said at the meeting, held at police headquarters and via videoconference. 

Pedestrian fatalities are rising each year and have doubled since 2013, Vartuli said, due to quieter electric vehicles and increased distracted driving. 

Vartuli said she connected with Public Works Director Tiger Mann and then put together a proposal for the Commission regarding the crosswalks. It calls for the town to look at eight downtown locations, Mann said, six of which are state-owned and two of which are owned by the town (at Park and Elm Streets, and at Park and Pine Streets).

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New Canaan Police Help Elderly Resident Recover $145,000 Stolen in Scam

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Two New Canaan police officers recently helped an elderly resident who been scammed out of $145,000 recover the money, officials said. Police Chief Leon Krolikowski during last week’s Police Commission meeting spotlighted a letter of appreciation regarding the work that Officers Joseph Schinella and Owen Ochs did on what the chief called a “pretty exceptional” case. “It’s a constant battle,” Krolikowski told members of the Police Commission during their Sept. 21 meeting, referring to scams that often target older residents. Sgt.

Government

ARPA: New Canaan Police To Request $110,000 for Enhanced School Security

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In the wake of the May 24 school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, New Canaan Police are requesting $110,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds in order to increase the presence of officers in public and private schools in New Canaan. Dedicated school resource officers or “SROs” already are assigned to Saxe Middle School and New Canaan High School, and NCPD has “liaison” officers at all schools in town and trainings for officers within schools, Police Chief Leon Krolikowski told members of the Police Commission at their June 15 regular meeting. 

Yet the elementary and private schools in New Canaan “do not get a whole lot of police presence,” Krolikowksi said at the meeting, held at NCPD headquarters and via videoconference. 

The chief said that given the school shooting in Uvalde, where 19 students and two teachers were fatally shot, he re-wrote a request for ARPA funds for the Police Department—originally a request for public education and enforcement for stolen vehicles and thefts from vehicles, a portable finger-printing device and secure cabinets—to hire an officer to check on each school every day. The program would start in August when the new academic year begins and run through the 2022-23 school year, Krolikowski said. It likely would be an assignment covered by multiple officers and ideally would yield 16 additional school checks daily, he said. The $110,000 allocation “would allow us to fund that and hire an officer dedicated just to patrolling and checking through all of the schools and that would be their sole focus,” he said.

News

State To Install Centerline ‘Rumble Strips’ on Upper Route 123

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Town officials last week approved a request from the state to install “rumble strips” along the northernmost 2.4-mile stretch of Route 123 in New Canaan. The Police Commission voted 3-0 in favor of the Connecticut Department of Transportation’s traffic safety measure at the appointed body’s May 18 meeting. The DOT recently finished a two-year study of rumble strips and “they found that 57% reduction in sideswipe crashes and off-the-road crashes,” according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “The criteria is a roadway that has 2,000 or more vehicles per day, speed limit of 35 mph or more, residential density very low, within 100 get of the roadway and the travel lane has to be at least 14 feet wide from centerline to edge of road,” Mann said at the Commission’s meeting, held at the New Canaan Police Department and via videoconference. “So they’re coming in to pave 123 this year, and it’s a perfect time to put in centerline rumble strips if we so choose,” he added. 

“We can either say yes or no, we just have to give them an answer,” Mann said.

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Police Triple ‘Location Checks’ in New Canaan

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New Canaan police officers through the first quarter of 2022 more than tripled their targeted checks of locations such as public parks and downtown areas as part of a wider effort to fight rising crime. The number of “location checks” increased from 167 the first three months of 2021 to 544 this year, Police Chief Leon Krolikowski told members of the Police Commission during their April 20 regular meeting. “The bulk of that increase is related to checking our parks and other locations,” Krolikowski said during the Commission’s meeting, held at New Canaan Police Department headquarters and via videoconference. 

“Intensive patrols to try and prevent people who are coming into town and committing crimes from doing that,” he said. “So that’s good work by our officers, certainly.”

Krolikowski said earlier this year that police have been “very concerned about” rises in crimes such as stolen vehicles and thefts from cars—including smash-and-grabs at public parks, where criminals wait for visitors to park their cars and leave for a walk—as well as residential burglaries and organized thefts from retail establishments. He noted at the Commission’s meeting that burglaries through the first three months of 2022 were up to four compared to zero for the year-ago period. 

“Our investigators are working on those cases and it’s a Fairfield County group that is committing the majority of those and we are hopeful at some point that we will be able to make some arrests and catch those people,” Krolikowski said.