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Committee Raises Question of Whether Renovating Police Station or Building Anew Is Best

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The appointed body charged with planning for a new police station will start by researching whether it’s more prudent to renovate or build anew on-site or elsewhere in town, members said Thursday. At their first meeting, members of the Police Department Building Committee noted that occupying a structure while it’s being renovated presents practical problems, and that it costs $1 million or more to move a large part of a police force into a separate facility temporarily during construction. Stuart Sawabini, a former Police Commission chair who is advising the Committee as director of New Canaan’s Community Emergency Response Team, said that if a suitable location could be found, “my personal choice would be to build new.”

“The efficiency of the building is far greater when you have spaces that are purpose-specific,” Sawabini said during the meeting, held via videoconference. “So building a new building means you are designing it with only the items you really want in it. As compared to renovating a building where there’s bound to be spaces that are allocated to a prior use which the Police Department may not be able to utilize.

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Councilman Calls for New Canaan To Make Decisions on ‘Under-Utilized’ Town-Owned Buildings

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A member of New Canaan’s legislative body is calling for municipal officials to examine whether it’s time to offload town-owned structures that she described as “under-utilized.”

Town Councilman Penny Young said Monday that “it is really time to look a little more in-depth” at “some of these buildings which are under-utilized or which we should be offloading.”

“Other than the swing space for a possible need for the police, what do we do with the Irwin House?” Young said during a regular meeting of the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure, held via videoconference. “Because it’s really not that great a structure. So maybe the recommendation is that after the police have use of it, it’s demolished. So I think we really need to take a good look. What is happening with Vine Cottage?

Government

Moynihan: Movie Operators, Others Interested in Playhouse

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New Canaan already has received several calls from movie operators and others interested in The Playhouse on Elm Street, the town’s highest elected official said Monday. Though there’s “a lot of sentiment because it’s good to have a movie theater in town,” according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, “we can certainly look at other opportunities to do active performance type things there.”

He spoke during a regular meeting of the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure, held via videoconference. Moynihan was responding to a suggestion from Committee member Stuart Sawabini that the group review the use of town-owned buildings. 

“The movie theater—is it good utilization to bring the theater back?” Sawabini said. “You go right around the town and there’s a long list of buildings, and I just wonder whether periodically it would be advisable for us to go back and look at building utilization and see what we can do to either improve or sell off buildings that we are not using,” he said. Moynihan disclosed last week that Bow Tie Cinemas is terminating its lease for The Playhouse, which closed mid-March amid the onset of COVID-19 virus.

Board of Education

June 15 Graduation Parade Planned for NCHS Class of 2020

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[Note: The parade will kick off from NCHS at 11 a.m.]

New Canaan High School seniors will participate in a community-wide parade to mark the milestone of their graduation in lieu of the accustomed ceremony at Dunning Field, ruled out this year due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, district officials say. To be lined with banners spotlighting each student in the Class of 2020, the June 15 parade will start at NCHS travel up South Avenue to Cherry Street, then turn back toward Main and Farm Roads and finish in Waveny, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi told members of the Board of Education during a regular meeting held June 1. “As students pull into Waveny and crest the hill, we will have our faculty and staff lined up here for a final wave goodbye,” Luizzi said during the meeting, held via videoconference. “As you know, our graduation is so special. One of the things I love about it, at the very end after receiving their diplomas, teachers recess out first and form two lines and then the kids come through they have one more chance to give them hugs, shake their hands, give them high-fives.

News

Small Women’s Locker Room at Police HQ Limits Ability To Hire More Female Officers

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The female locker room at the police station—a 1926 building that hasn’t seen a substantial renovation in nearly four decades—is so small that the department may not be able to hire more women, officials said last week. At six female officers, the New Canaan Police Department now has more women in uniform than it ever has in its history, “and it’s a good thing happening to us,” according to Police Chief Leon Krolikowski. Yet “there is a limitation in our female locker room, because we may not be able to put on any more female officers because there’s just not enough room,” he said during a Jan. 9 meeting of the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure. “So that’s just another thing that nobody ever planned for.