Bill Walbert

Town To Unveil Potential Locations for New Police Station July 8

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Officials say a group that’s been meeting out of the public eye to identify sites around New Canaan where a new Police Department could go will unveil its findings next month. Assigned to the task by First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, the group of municipal employees, including representatives from the Department of Public Works, is expected to present to the town-appointed Police Department Building Committee on July 8. While Moynihan’s staff group has studied possible new sites, the Committee has been working on a possible renovation of the existing Police Department building on South Avenue. 

Committee member Jim Beall asked during the Committee’s regular meeting Thursday whether the Moynihan group might share its findings even before the next scheduled meeting on July 8. “Does it even have to wait until July?” Beall said during the meeting, held via videoconference. “Stuart, what is our expectation?

Government

Williams: Current Police Department Location ‘A Pretty Darn Good Spot’

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In a break from an opinion voiced recently by New Canaan’s highest elected official, Selectmen Nick Williams said Tuesday that the best location for a future police station likely is its current one. Williams said during a regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen, “can’t think of a better location for a Police Department than where it is today.”

“You are literally seconds from downtown, you are a minute from three of our schools, and you are close to the Merritt Parkway where a lot of activity takes place,” Williams said of 174 South Ave. said during the meeting, held via videoconference. “It’s not to say that I’m not open to another location. I just think that where it is is a pretty darn good spot.”

The comments came as Williams, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectman Kathleen Corbet voted 3-0 to appoint Town Councilman Mike Mauro to the Police Department Building Committee. 

The volunteer group last month heard from two architectural firms seeking to win the contract for the job.

Brian Humes

Architects on Preserving Facade of Existing Police Station in Rebuilding Project: ’There Would Be a Cost’

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Though preserving the street-facing facade of the New Canaan Police Department as part of a rebuilding project is possible, doing so likely would cost more than razing the South Avenue structure and starting anew, according to two architects that town officials are considering for the job. It’s “realistic” to preserve the brick-and-columns facade of what opened in 1927 as the original New Canaan High School, though “it would be at a cost that would be at or exceed new construction,” Brian Humes of Berlin-based Jacunski Humes Architects, LLC told members of the New Canaan Police Department Building Committee during their regular meeting Thursday. “It can be done,” Humes said during the meeting, held via videoconference. “It’s not something that we can’t do. There would be a cost to doing it, though.”

Deciding whether it makes the most sense to renovate the existing police headquarters or build anew—and, if new construction is the best route, whether to build on the current site, expand behind the existing building or do it somewhere else—are the major questions now facing the newly appointed seven-member Committee. 

Members heard from Humes and Chuck Boos of New Britain-based Kaestle Boos Associates, Inc, who made cases for why they should be selected for the project, talked about their work and fielded questions from the Committee.

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Committee Raises Question of Whether Renovating Police Station or Building Anew Is Best

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The appointed body charged with planning for a new police station will start by researching whether it’s more prudent to renovate or build anew on-site or elsewhere in town, members said Thursday. At their first meeting, members of the Police Department Building Committee noted that occupying a structure while it’s being renovated presents practical problems, and that it costs $1 million or more to move a large part of a police force into a separate facility temporarily during construction. Stuart Sawabini, a former Police Commission chair who is advising the Committee as director of New Canaan’s Community Emergency Response Team, said that if a suitable location could be found, “my personal choice would be to build new.”

“The efficiency of the building is far greater when you have spaces that are purpose-specific,” Sawabini said during the meeting, held via videoconference. “So building a new building means you are designing it with only the items you really want in it. As compared to renovating a building where there’s bound to be spaces that are allocated to a prior use which the Police Department may not be able to utilize.

Government

Emergency Boiler Replacement at Police Station; Committee Formed To Determine Future Home of NCPD

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First Selectman Kevin Moynihan has approved an emergency order for a Danbury-based company to fix a failing boiler at New Canaan Police headquarters, officials say. The boiler was leaking and emitting carbon monoxide into the South Avenue structure, according to Bill Oestmann, superintendent of buildings with the New Canaan Department of Public Works. It’s one of two boilers at the police station, which originally was the first New Canaan High School when it opened in 1927. “The one boiler is carrying the building for the moment,” Oestmann told members of the Board of Selectmen during their regular meeting, held Tuesday via videoconference. “We’d like to make this repair to reseal it before it gets too cold.