Government

Parks Superintendent: Town Playing Fields ‘Better Conditioned Now Using Less Pesticides and More Organics’

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Officials last week approved more than $100,000 for the purchase and application of grass treatment products at New Canaan’s athletic fields, both on school grounds and in parks. A figure that has come down as some grass fields are converted to artificial turf, the approximately $109,000 approved by the Board of Selectmen will be divided between two contracts: $90,911 for the purchase of products from Burlington, Mass.-based Tom Irwin Inc. and $18,200 for Harwinton-based Championship Turf Services to apply them. “It has been working great separating the products from the company that is applying them,” John Howe, parks superintendent with the New Canaan Department of Public Works, told the selectmen at their Aug. 22 meeting, held in Town Hall. “We own the products and we know how much we are supposed to apply and make sure that we get that applied.

Government

Selectmen Approve Contract To Replace Guiderails on Nursery Road

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Officials last week approved funds to improve the guiderails along the sides of a town road that the state had deemed “poor” and in need of “corrective action.”

The new, Merritt Parkway-style guiderails for Nursery Road will replace the existing cable ones, following a unanimous vote by the Board of Selectmen for a $58,750 contract with a Plainville-based company to do the work. “The [Connecticut Department of Transportation] rated this guiderail as ‘poor’ so it needs corrective action,” Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer with the New Canaan Department of Public Works, told the selectmen at their regular meeting, held Aug. 22 in Town Hall. “They say it’s a high priority of corrective action. It’s a residential area so we are going with a Merritt Parkway-style rail and the funds are available in the guiderail account.”

The contractor is Eagle Fence & Guardrail.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station found a West Nile Virus-infected mosquito in New Canaan, state officials said Thursday, in what’s called the ‘Hoyt Swamp.’ That’s located up against the Merritt Parkway near Exit 38 (here). No human cases of the virus have been reported in the state this season. Officials say using mosquito repellant and covering up when the insects are most active (dawn and dusk) are simple, effective prevention measures. ***

Pet Pantry Warehouse on Grove Street—host of the annual Dog Days New Canaan—is hiring management and entry-level personnel for its store here in town. ***

The Board of Selectmen this week voted 3-0 to approve the hiring of Nathan Vass Jr. as a welder equipment operator in the Department of Public Works.

Government

Town Approves $32,780 Contract for Masonry Repairs at Schoolhouse Apartments; Senior Living Facility To Secure Funding for Work

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Officials this week approved a $32,780 contract for a Darien-based company to do masonry repairs to the town-owned Schoolhouse Apartments building on South Avenue. The funds will come from the senior living facility itself, through HUD, according to Bill Oestmann, superintendent of buildings with the New Canaan Department of Public Works. “[Schoolhouse officials] had went out and got some quotes to do repairs on the buildings and sidewalks and they were confused because the numbers were so crazy—all the quotes were something different—so explained to them at that time that these policies had been implemented there, that the town owns all that property, we are liable for all that stuff, so we will mange the project, they are going to give us all the funds through HUD,” Oestmann said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “They had no problem with that.”

He added: “And at the end of the day, the town owns the building and so we want the work done properly so it will last.”

The 1931-built Schoolhouse Apartments originally had been constructed as New Canaan’s first junior high school, and it was built in a style—brick, with a cupola—that complemented the original New Canaan High School (now the New Canaan Police Department), which opened in 1927 (the same year Karl Chevrolet was founded). Oestmann said DPW officials met with contractors and after the project went out to bid it garnered estimates that varied widely—some $20,000 between them.

Government

New Canaan To Upgrade To Chip Readers for Credit Card Processing; $1.7 Million in Sales Last Fiscal Year

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New Canaan in the fiscal year just ended did about $1.7 million in credit card sales, among registration online for Recreation Department programs, Waveny Pool passes, Transfer Station fees and Lapham Community Center offerings, officials said Tuesday. For credit card processing in-house, the town used “old cheap magnetic stripe readers,” according to Assistant Recreation Director Bill Kapp. “Quite frankly, this is something that we should have upgraded one year ago when the [payment card] industry said, ‘Go to the new chip and readers,’ ” Kapp said during a Board of Selectmen meeting, held at Town Hall. “We have been patiently waiting for our software provider to provide us with coded devices. Well, that failed.