Amy Murphy Carroll

Moynihan: Town Should Consider Creating Access Road through Woods Behind NCHS

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The town’s highest elected official said Tuesday that the town should consider paving an access road through the woods behind New Canaan High School to South Avenue. Doing so could “improve the traffic flow around the high school” and help buses “getting out of the property more than one way,” according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. 

“We had a rather interesting discussion with [Town Councilmen] John Engel and Steve Karl the other day … as to whether or not—and I talked about this to the superintendent last week—whether we ought to be building this road as another access out of the high school to South Avenue anyway, regardless of whether we did a police station there,” Moynihan told members of the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure during their regular meeting, held via videoconference. 

The comments came during a discussion of proposals to either renovate the existing police station at 174 South Ave. or build a new one somewhere else (a Saxe Middle School baseball field near the YMCA rose to “the top of the heap” among options for the latter, according to an architect hired by the town to study options). The wooded parcel between NCHS and Saxe—sometimes referred to as Waveny’s “panhandle,” as it includes walking trails that connect to the park—runs along South Avenue from the corner of Farm Road. 

Identified in the past by some as a good location for development—a proposal that faced strong opposition and was scuttled—the parcel is one of a handful that a team assembled by Moynihan had evaluated as a possible future police station site. Though Moynihan’s team said it prefers the Saxe ball field site, town officials have called for more details about the prospect of building a new NCPD on the parcel, along with the Locust Avenue Lot, Lumberyard Lot and mulch pile off of Lapham Road. 

Moynihan noted during the meeting that another access road that runs south of the high school, past the water tower and toward the Orchard Field in Waveny, has “helped the traffic situation at the high school.”

Referring to the possibility of building a police station between NCHS and Saxe, Committee member Amy Murphy Carroll said the new access road “could be a project regardless of whether we place something there.”

Moynihan said, “That’s what I just said.”

The existing access road between the high school and Waveny, dubbed “Tiger Trail” for the town’s Public Works director, is gated and its use is limited.

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Public Works: 3-Year Water Main Installation To Affect 106, Little Brook Road, Lakeview, Harrison and South Avenues

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The water company’s plan to expand a transmission line through New Canaan is on track to commence next year, officials say. The three-year expansion will see a line come into New Canaan from Wilton and run in front of East School in 2022, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. 

Little Brook Road can then be repaved next year in the aftermath of that work, Mann told members of Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure during their regular meeting, held Monday via videoconference. “And then in 2023 they are going to come into town on the eastern side, work their way through and then in 2024 finish,” Mann said. “The majority of the roads that will be affected as they come down 106, come down Little Brook, Lakeview, across the cemetery, get onto Harrison Avenue. Harrison Avenue to South Avenue.

Government

Public Works: Roads in Downtown New Canaan To Be Repaired Next Spring 

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Town officials say they plan next spring to repair downtown roads dug up this summer as part of long-planned infrastructure projects. The ongoing natural gas- and water-related work has affected roads throughout downtown New Canaan, Public Works Director Tiger Mann said Monday. “We’re hoping in the springtime to come through and start to take care of the majority of the roads in and around the downtown area, or specifically from along South Avenue, between South and Main or South and Park,” he said during a regular meeting of the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure, held via videoconference. “We are hoping to satisfy all that and get our roads back, [get] these roads back in shape.”

Mann added that the overall pavement condition index or “PCI” of New Canaan’s public roads—a formula used to measure the quality of roadways—is “excellent.”

“Even with these roads here, we are at about an 84 and change, which is phenomenal, better than anyone else around us in Fairfield County,” he said. “The fact that everyone comes into the downtown and the downtown is not in great shape makes us look like we are not holding [up] our end of the bargain.”

The comments came during an update on building- and infrastructure-related projects throughout New Canaan. 

Mann said that the town has given the utility company an additional year to improve roads dug up for work such as the natural gas installation since 2020 was lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Government

Downtown Disruption: Water Main, Natural Gas Work To Start This Week on Main and Elm

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The utility company has about one week left in its work at Forest Street and Locust Avenue downtown, feeding natural gas lines to a new development there, according to the town’s public works director. Once Eversource is done there, the water company will commence work on a water main downtown, Tiger Mann said Monday during a regular meeting of the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure. Aquarion will work on two fronts, finishing its work at Church and Main Streets on Tuesday night, “and then they are going to be putting in a new main on Elm Street from Park to Grove [Streets],” Mann said during the meeting, held via videoconference. “And then the main will come down Cherry and take a left onto Main Street and run on Main Street to Locust Avenue. That work will be all at night.

Government

First Selectman: Proposed Cell Tower in Northwestern New Canaan on Track for Approval by Year’s End

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The town’s highest elected official said Monday that the cell tower proposed for northwestern New Canaan could be built in the first half of 2022. Planned for a wooded hill at Ponus Ridge and Dan’s Highway, the proposed cell tower application likely will go through an “accelerated process” because the state agency that fields such applications hasn’t been busy, according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. “They are doing engineering work now and planning and then it will be packaged together to go to the Siting Council, my guess is by midsummer,” Moynihan said during a regular meeting of the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure, held via videoconference. “It took six months for Soundview Lane to get to the Siting Council but that was delayed because of the start of COVID, but I think probably a three-month process for the Siting Council. So I would hope we will have approval by by the end of the year and then construction in the first half of ’22.”

He spoke during a portion of the meeting dedicated to projects in New Canaan and in response to a question from committee member Stuart Sawabini regarding the status of the planned tower.