Government

‘We Don’t Reward Stupidity’: Parking Commission Sets Three-Mistake Limit for Wrong Space Entries on App

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Prompted by a local man’s honest though repeated mistake in punching in the wrong space number on his smartphone in paying for parking, town officials last week developed a new policy that applies only to use of a mobile app. Because the app generates proof of payment even when a user enters the wrong number, members of the Parking Commission decided by a 3-2 vote on Thursday that someone who makes that mistake with it may be given a pass three times per year as opposed to one, as is the case—with a receipt and at enforcement officers’ discretion—with those who pay for parking with cash. “You don’t want people throwing numbers down without even trying to get right number,” Chairman Keith Richey said at the meeting, by way of explaining why he opposed unlimited free passes for subpar typists. The commission’s discussion revolved around the case of Joe Bussichella, who appeared at the meeting to request that his $20 ticket for an unpaid space in the Railroad Lot in November be voided. Bussichella explained to the commission that the violation occurred in the dark of 6:20 a.m. and “there is a little groove in the pavement there, so I couldn’t tell” what the correct space was.

Business

Icon and Inspiration: Lydia Franco O’Neil, At the Store and Behind the Mousse Cake

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[This is the third installment in a four-part series “Matriarchs of Main & Elm,” profiling the women behind New Canaan’s great business families.]

Thomas George Franco II—‘Tom,’ as he’s known today on Elm Street, site of the family’s eponymous wine and liquor shop, a fixture of downtown New Canaan for nearly a century—recalls the challenge he faced as a young man in 1975, trying to acclimate back to civilian life upon being discharged from the Army following a three-year tour during the Vietnam War. Fortunately for the newly made U.S. Army veteran, Tom was one of 11 Franco siblings—all students of St. Aloysius School and graduates of New Canaan Public Schools—who knew a remarkable woman named Lydia Franco O’Neil as ‘Aunt Lee.’

At the time, Aunt Lee had a condominium in Florida with her husband, longtime local U.S. Postal Service worker Bill O’Neil, and the plan was for Tom to drive her down to the Sunshine State so that she could have a car there, and he would fly back. “That was the perfect reintroduction back into civilian life,” Tom recalled on a recent evening. “We talked all the way down—about Uncle Bill, the family, what I was going to do now, and just things in general.

Business

An Old Traffic Plan Persists: Elm Street Reversal

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For more than 75 years, Elm Street has been the epicenter of downtown New Canaan. Once called “Railroad Avenue” due to its proximity to the train station, Elm Street is arguably the most identifiable road in town, providing New Canaan with a Rockwellian charm with a mix of independent businesses and upscale chains that draw local and out-of-town shoppers alike. “Everything needs a spine, it is what makes the train go,” Rick Franco—owner of Franco’s Wine Merchants— told NewCanaanite.com. Franco’s is one of the oldest businesses in New Canaan and one of the first to set up shop on Elm Street, originally as a grocery store during Prohibition. “There’s a certain amount of comfort that is generated here by the one-way street and shops.

Around Town

Ticket Upheld: No Relief for Woman Who Parks Illegally on Main Street To Run into the Bank

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Officials on Thursday upheld a $30 ticket issued to a woman who had pulled into a no-parking area when faced with construction traffic downtown in order to run into a bank. The woman appealed her ticket in person before the Parking Commission during a special meeting in the Town Meeting Room. At 1:44 p.m. on Sept. 2, the woman said during her appeal hearing, she came to a stop while traveling west on Main Street, opposite New Canaan Library. Three construction laborers working around the corner on Cherry Street had walked into the road, holding up traffic and preventing the woman from turning right onto Cherry and into the parking lot of Wells Fargo Bank—her destination, she said.

Government

Hopeful Post Office Developer: Roughly Half of Now-27 Parking Spaces To Serve USPS Customers

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About half of the 27 parking spaces at the proposed new Post Office on Locust Avenue will be designated for USPS customers, and after-hours they likely will be open for customers of restaurants in town, the site’s developer said Thursday night. A second-floor commercial tenant on the proposed 8,220-square-foot building would use an estimated 10 spaces at 18-26 Locust Ave., while the Post Office requires three or four spaces for workers at the new branch, leaving about 13 or 14 spaces for customers, according to New Canaan’s Richard Carratu. “The postal trucks will not park on-site, which is important for the town—they will only come in four times a day to deliver mail from Stamford to New Canaan and load it and then leave, so there will be no permanent trucks on-site,” Carratu told the Parking Commission during its regular monthly meeting, held in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. Carratu said he’s agreed on business terms with the Post Office and that as of Thursday, the USPS district that includes New Canaan had signed off on the proposed building. Plans call for a two-story brick, cupola-topped, Federal-style structure at a combined lot that would include 18 and 26 Locust Ave.