Government

Police Commission Votes 2-0 To Extend On-Street Parking on Main and Elm to Two Hours

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Municipal officials on Wednesday night voted unanimously to extend on-street parking limits in the center of downtown New Canaan to two hours. Changing to two-hour limits both the one-way stretch of Elm Street and a central piece of Main—both 90 minutes now—will not only give motorists more time to shop and dine, but also create more consistent parking times overall by bringing them in line with areas just beyond the “magic circle,” officials said during the Police Commission’s regular meeting. “I would go for it,” Commissioner Paul Foley said of the change, recommended last week by the Parking Commission. Foley and fellow Police Commissioner Sperry DeCew voted 2-0 to make the change. Chairman Stuart Sawabini was absent.

Government

New Canaan Police Pursue Extensive Renovation of Department Headquarters

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A proposal to renovate the New Canaan Police Headquarters building may be executed in the near future, officials say. A renovation has been listed on New Canaan’s 5-year capital plan for years—right now a $2 million item is earmarked for fiscal year 2021 (see page 62 here)—but never launched. “We may be close to getting a good plan in place and working toward renovation,” Police Chief Leon Krolikowski said at the July 25 meeting of the Police Commission, held at the headquarters building. The first and second floors of the building have not received any serious upgrades since 1981, according to the chief. “It is sorely in need of a renovation,” Krolikowski said.

Business

Officials Wary of Proposal for Nonprofit, Community Organizations To Use ‘Pop Up Park’ for Sales

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Town officials on Tuesday night voiced objections to a proposal that nonprofit and community organizations be allowed to sell fundraiser tickets or items such as Girl Scout cookies in the Pop Up Park downtown, saying the popular pedestrian area should remain entirely solicitation-free. When the cordoned-off park launched five years ago, New Canaan’s traffic authority specified that nothing be sold there “mostly because we did not want to have in any way reactions by the merchants that the Pop Up Park would compete with them,” according to Police Commission member Sperry DeCew. “I am not particularly happy about this [idea],” DeCew said at the group’s regular meeting, held at the New Canaan Police Department. “I do not particularly want people in there being solicited by anybody to do anything—Lobsterfest or Girl Scout cookies. I think it’s inappropriate and there should be no solicitation whatsoever.”

DeCew and fellow Commissioner Paul Foley—together with Chairman Stuart Sawabini, who participated in the meeting on speakerphone—referred to a draft set of “sales guidelines” from the volunteer committee that organizes the Pop Up Park.

News

Newest New Canaan Police Officer Sworn In; Tam Receives ‘Officer of the Year Award’; 8 Officers, 3 Civilians Honored

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The New Canaan Police Department on Tuesday recognized eight officers and three civilians for outstanding service to the community during a ceremony that also saw the agency’s newest member sworn in by the town clerk. In addressing Nicole Vartuli, a Stamford native and Westhill High School graduate who is poised for training at the Connecticut Police Academy this year with an expectation that she will undergo field training with NCPD through the early part of 2018, Chief Leon Krolikowski said that “badge you were just issued represents public trust.”

“The public willingly puts this work in your hands and trusts that you will take care of them in the proper manner,” Krolikowski said moments after Vartuli had been sworn in by Town Clerk Claudia Weber. “They do not want this responsibility for themselves. My charge to you today is to do just that: Get it right. We have all heard about the stories of officers who have gotten it wrong.

Business

‘This Is Ridiculous’: Town Officials Urge Auto Shop Owner To Be Reasonable in Parking Vehicles Along Main Street

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Members of the volunteer group that oversees on-street parking in New Canaan are urging the owner of a downtown business to work with them or risk exacerbating an emotionally charged dispute and potentially dangerous situation. The Police Commission already has spent more time on traffic and safety concerns near AC Auto Body than it has on hiring issues, according to commissioner Paul Foley. “This is ridiculous and it is still not solved,” Foley said at the start of the commission’s regular meeting, held Wednesday in the training room at the New Canaan Police Department. “It would be resolved if this individual would perform in a neighborhood way.”

Turning to members of NCPD that are working with both AC Auto Body owner Anthony Ceraso and neighbors who say the way he parks customers and shop vehicles blocks sight lines, Foley added: “You want to convey that to [Ceraso]? That we are concerned again about this action that he continues to do and if there isn’t any cleanup, especially now that snow coming and all the other stuff, that we will go to [Planning & Zoning].