Business

PHOTOS: NCHS Senior Internship Program, through the Lens of Kayleigh Pace

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The Senior Internship Program (SIP) is opportunity for NCHS seniors to take what knowledge they’ve gained in four years outside of the classroom and into the real world for the last month of the school year. From May 18 to June 17, 80 seniors are dispersed throughout New Canaan and Fairfield County working in a variety of different fields such as medicine, retail, business, teaching and many others. The four-week program runs throughout the hours of the typical school day in which seniors work between 20 and 25 hours a week. Organized by NCHS College and Career Center Coordinator Susan Carroll, each of the students participating in the unpaid internship program are working at pre-approved worksites in fields that they are interested in partaking in the future. Kayleigh Pace, a senior intern for Jane Beiles Photography, took the pictures above (and Jane took a couple, too) to give a glimpse of what many interns are taking part in at their work sites.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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A building permit application has been filed for a new, 8,600-square-foot home planned for 386 Weed St.—part of a large-scale project for a combined 7-acre parcel that had drawn some criticism from neighbors and originally included a 15,000-square-foot manmade pond that since has been withdrawn from the plan. The new home will include 40 rooms and will cost about $2.4 million to build, according to a building permit application filed May 15. The contractor on the project is Westport-based Coastal Construction and architect is Christian Rae Studio LLC of Easton. ***

Animal Control officers fined a Weed Street woman $90 for allowing her dog to roam after they saw her let a golden retriever off leash at Irwin Park at about 12:19 p.m. on May 22. The officers were in an unmarked car and watched the woman waiting for them to leave, which they did and then looped around to the far side of the park where they assessed the ticket for allowing a dog to roam (which now includes an additional $46 fine).

Around Town

Q&A: Silver Hill Launches Outpatient Opioid Addiction Program

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Here’s a startling statistic from Dr. John Douglas, clinical director at New Canaan-based psychiatric hospital Silver Hill: Without professional treatment, the relapse rate people addicted to opioids is 90 percent. New Canaan, like every other community in the region, has seen a sharp rise in heroin use in recent years, including among youth. State officials report that opioid-related deaths increased from 490 in 2013 to 558 in 2014. As Douglas tells us in a back-and-forth that’s printed in full below, insurance companies are moving in the direction of not covering inpatient treatment for people who are addicted to heroin or pain pills. To meet the need, Silver Hill is launching a new Outpatient Opioid Addiction Program that will be covered by most insurance plans.

Around Town

New Canaan Nonprofits Participating in ‘Giving Day’

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On Thursday, some 18 New Canaan nonprofit organizations will participate in a 24-hour fundraising blitz known as Giving Day. Hosted by the Fairfield County Community Foundation under the slogan “Give Where You Live” and with a goal of raising $1 million on a single day, Giving Day invites donors to give at least $10 to as many charities as they can. The organization that has the most individual donations will win an extra $25,000, while the organization that raises the most money will get another $20,000 (more information on prizes is available here). We asked participating local nonprofits to send us a single sentence communicating to NewCanaanite.com readers why they’re a great candidate for a donation on this day. Here are the New Canaan nonprofits, according to the Giving Day website, with their responses (those agencies that have not yet responded can email me directly at editor@newcanaanite.com and I will update this story):

A Better Chance of New Canaan: “The mission of the ABC of New Canaan is to offer capable minority youth the opportunity to learn in a superior educational program while also preparing them to assume positions of responsibility and leadership in American society.”
Carriage Barn Arts Center/New Canaan Society for the Arts: “Please support the New Canaan Society for the Arts/Carriage Barn Arts Center on this Fairfield County Giving Day and help us fulfill our goal of providing exceptional art exhibitions, accessible children’s art education, and cultural programs.”
Filling in the Blanks: “Your support will allow FILLING IN THE BLANKS to provide over 300 hungry children with meals on the weekend.”
Future 5: “Now with over 100 active members, Future 5 is helping motivated, low income high school students stay on track and connect to their full potential.”
Getabout
Hungry Kidzz: “We provide weekend bags of food during the summer, a 4th of July ‘Freedom (barbecue) Box’ and 1000s of holiday stockings in December.”

Government

Cell Tower at Silver Hill Hospital to Go Live in Early 2015, Officials Estimate

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Cell service on the eastern side of New Canaan stands to improve in early 2015, officials say. The tower installed on Silver Hill Hospital’s campus likely will go live in the first quarter of next year, “at least according to AT&T,” Utilities Commission member Tom Tesluk said at the group’s meeting Monday night, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center. The timing at Silver Hill is important to the commission, in part, because the group is overseeing data collection through a “drive test” of town roads that has seen a specially outfitted vehicle record cell strength on a street-by-street basis, providing New Canaan with site-specific data that it’s never had before. That test is essentially finished and a draft map is in the works, Tesluk said, though there’s an open question about whether some areas—the south, southeast and perhaps northeast parts of town—ought to be re-tested once the tower at Silver Hill and a second planned tower, for the Norwalk Armory site, go live. Tesluk cautioned that it may take a while for the Armory tower to go up.