News

Code Violation Prompts First-Grade Classroom Shift in Delayed South School Windows Project

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The delayed $2.6 million windows replacement project at South School has seen a first-grade class displaced from its planned room because of an architectural design flaw, officials said Tuesday. The project— removing part of the original 1955 glass block, long porous and out-of-code, with caulk that has PCBs—originally was to have been completed prior to the first day of school. But physically obtaining the glass and frames needed, an industry-wide problem, pushed back the work this past summer, and New Canaan’s fire marshal in September flagged a code violation where a first-grade classroom “had an egress window as required by code that was missed by the design documents,” according to Gene Torone, president of SLAM Construction Services and owner’s representative on the project. The plan now is to remove a windowpane and replace it with a frame and new egress window, though those in charge of the work are “dealing with a window company that is very uncooperative,” Torone told the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday during an update on the project. “We are negotiating the change order now and there could be some remedy on the side of the architect to help support some of that cost,” Torone said during the selectmen’s regular meeting, held in a board room at Town Hall.

Around Town

‘He Is Like Sunshine’: At a Time of Need, New Canaanites Rally Around Popular Crossing Guard

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When Carolyn Vermeer Ditlevsen walks to South School to pick up her son, a second-grader there, she—like scores of others—often finds herself chatting with Terry Darden, the smiling crossing guard at South Avenue and Gower Road who has earned the respect and affection of New Canaanites for the way he carries himself, treats others and goes about his job. Last week, Ditlevsen noticed that Darden’s usual car wasn’t the one parked off to the side of Gower near his post, and she asked him about it. “He told me that his car broke down and he’d taken it to the mechanic but didn’t have an estimate yet,” Ditlevsen recalled. So when she saw Darden again on Monday and asked about the car situation—and learned that it was a major job that could have far-reaching personal consequences for this man she holds in high regard—Ditlevsen decided to start an online fundraising campaign. Launched around 3 p.m. on GoFundMe, the campaign saw some 70 well-wishing New Canaanites contribute to the cause, approaching an initial goal of $3,000 before the day was out.

News

Leaving New Canaan after 20 Years

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I write this poem (at right) because we are leaving home. The only home I’ve really ever known. It wasn’t my first home, but after 20 years of living on Park Street, the Sauerhoffs are leaving New Canaan. But the history of the Sauerhoffs in New Canaan extends much beyond 20 years. In fact, us moving in 2015 makes this the 49th year that a Sauerhoff has lived in New Canaan.

News

Old Studio Road at 106: ‘The Crosswalks That Lead to Nowhere’

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Prompted by a request for a crossing guard that would help get kids cross Route 106/Old Stamford Road from the area of Old Studio Road, toward South, Saxe and the high school, town officials are trying to answer a bigger question about how whether there’s a way to create a safe pedestrian walkway along that stretch of Route 106 itself. The difficulty is that, although there are crosswalks there—for example, at the southern end of the Old Studio Road horseshoe—there’s no safe route for pedestrians once they’ve landed on the eastern side of the state road. “They are kind of crosswalks that lead to nowhere,” New Canaan Police Capt. John DiFederico said Tuesday during a meeting of the Traffic Calming Work Group. Composed of police, fire, CERT/emergency preparedness and DPW officials, the work group fields requests for traffic calming measures. At least one parent from the west side of Route 106 there (Old Studio Road, Richards Lane) and South School officials had inquired about the possibility of putting in a crossing guard at the crosswalks, DiFederico said.

News

South School Windows Project On Time, Budget

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The first phase of the closely watched $2.75 million windows project at South School—removing part of the original 1955 glass block, long porous and out-of-code, with caulk that has PCBs—has been completed on time and budget, district officials say. The work wrapped up Aug. 8, leaving the gym, “café-torium” and some inner courtyard spaces such as the library for the second phase (to be completed next summer), according to Nancy Harris, interim secretary of the South School Building Committee and interim director of finance and operations for New Canaan Public Schools. “At this point in time, I have to tell you that from a personal perspective, as you look at where the glass block was, it’s covered in plywood, covered by Tyvek, covered by a rubber membrane and boards so that it’s weather-tight, it actually looks neater and less jarring than the original glass block, and now you can see the comparison between the gymnasium and the Tyvek covered space so it was really a success,” Harris said at Monday’s Board of Education meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. The glass block system and original windows at the school need to be replaced, and building expansion joints and caulking and trim in the windows repaired, Shelton-based engineering and environmental consulting firm Tighe & Bond and SLAM Construction Services of Glastonbury have found.