Amy Murphy Carroll

‘If We Lose This Pool, We Will Never Get It Back’: Selectmen Weigh in on New Canaan Y’s Valles Pool

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New Canaan’s top elected officials are weighing in on a widely discussed community issue involving a venerable local nonprofit organization. The CEO of the New Canaan YMCA has said that the South Avenue facility’s 46-year-old Valles Pool must close by the end of this year due to required repairs. It faces one to two years of construction, she said, and the Y’s Board of Directors has established a committee to examine the problem and weigh the cost-benefit of restoring the pool versus reimagining the space to serve swimming as well as non-swimming needs. On Tuesday, Selectman Amy Murphy Carroll called for New Canaanites to “pay attention” to a “potential major change in the Y.”

“Their board has been reviewing their facilities and what to do, and there has been some discussion about taking the main diving pool and swim pool, the Valles Pool, offline permanently, potentially with perhaps needs for more dry land,” Murphy Carroll said during the Board of Selectmen’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. She continued: “It’s all proposal stage.

Amy Murphy Carroll

Selectman: Town Should Plant Screening Trees on Rights-of-Way at Weed and Elm

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One of New Canaan’s top elected officials said Tuesday that the town should prioritize the planting of trees at Weed and Elm Streets to screen the building project that emerges there. Last week, the Planning & Zoning Commission, following a state Superior Court judge’s order, approved a four-story, 102-unit affordable housing complex at 751 Weed St. The property’s owner, New Canaan developer Arnold Karp, has said he plans to begin construction in the fourth quarter. “One way, shape, or form there’s going to be something built at that place,” Selectman Amy Murphy Carroll said during the Board of Selectmen’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. She continued: “It could take a couple of years.

Government

Park Street, Playhouse Lots Repaved; Town Seeks To Slow Speeding Motorists

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With the successful repaving of the Park Street and Playhouse Lots finished, town officials say they’re now looking for a way to slow down motor vehicle traffic whizzing down the access road that runs down to Main Street. The town is “going to try to tackle some of the speed now because people are shooting through the boulevard quickly,” according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “We’re going to look to try to put some speed humps or speed bumps on the way just to calm them down a little bit as they come through Town Hall,” Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting, held Tuesday at Town Hall and via videoconference. The comments came during Mann’s general update on DPW projects to the Board. The long-awaited repaving projects have seen wider car stalls painted into the parking lots.

Board of Selectmen

Town Approves $485,000 Contract To Replace Sidewalks on Butler, Danvers and Whiffle Tree Lanes

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Town officials on Tuesday approved an approximately $485,000 contract with a Shelton-based company to replace aging sidewalks on Butler, Danvers and Whiffle Tree Lanes. The old asphalt sidewalks in the “South of the Y” neighborhood are at least 30 years old, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “There’s no new installation, just the replacement of existing sidewalks,” Mann told the Board of Selectmen at its regular meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. 

“It’s basically phase two of the project of the behind the Y,” he said. “We did Putnam [Road] last year. And then that was approximately $500,000.”

Selectman Steve Karl, a 25-year resident of the neighborhood, said sidewalks there are “all sunk and they’re all broken up and everything.”

“But I will say, Sunday when the weather turned two, I think it was two weeks ago when we had that really warm Sunday, I walked the neighborhood and I counted at least 56 people using the sidewalk, the new sidewalks that were there,” Karl said.

Government

Selectmen: In-Street Outdoor Dining Was Never Meant To Stay

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It was never the town’s intention to make permanent the plastic water-filled barriers that protected restaurant patrons sitting in the street as part of downtown New Canaan’s outdoor dining season, officials said Tuesday. In fact, town officials “were always trying to get to the point where we didn’t have those plastic barriers up,” according to Selectman Steve Karl. “So I think it’s important that people remember that, and know that New Canaan is going to look great this summer,” Karl said during the Board of Selectmen’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. He continued: “It’s going to be functioning and you’re not going to see those barriers out there. And it’s unfortunate that there are a couple of restaurants that aren’t going to have it… But that was always part of the original plan.”

Made during a section of the meeting dedicated to general matters before the town, Karl’s comments come as news has spread about a change in this year’s outdoor dining season, which kicks off May 1.