Government

‘A Pattern of Abuse’: Police Commission To Remove Auto Shop’s Designated Parking Space on East Maple Street

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The volunteers who oversee on-street parking in New Canaan voted last week to spend $1,700 for a field analysis and sight line study of East Maple Street, an increasingly busy commercial area downtown whose residents say they’re concerned about traffic and safety. At its regular meeting Wednesday, the Police Commission also decided to discontinue a practice whereby an auto body shop on the corner at Main Street is allowed to park on East Maple. Instead, the commissioners said, AC Auto Body will use two designated spaces in the nearby Center School parking lot for its flatbed trucks and could park a smaller wrecker in its own lot. East Maple Street resident David Shea, who has become a spokesperson for the concerned neighbors, told the commission at its July 20 meeting that “what we are looking at is two kinds of streets when you come up East Maple from Hoyt it is a wide street.”

“As you turn in the curb toward Main it becomes a bottleneck, it narrows down,” Shea said at the meeting, held in the New Canaan Police Department’s training room. “What we are proposing is that parking only be on the right-hand side of the street, the usual two hours, and then on the right-hand side going east, that would be no-parking, no-standing [zone] that will allow traffic to pass on a two-way basis and give the residents the parking that they need.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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New Canaan Fire Company #1 recognized members of the volunteer company as well as career staff for excellence in service to their community at the 135th Annual Dinner, held Friday night at Waveny House. Scroll through the gallery above for photos of award recipients, and other photos, in this week’s DYH gallery. ***

In opinions published this week in the Connecticut Law Journal, the state Supreme Court reinstated a second-degree breach of peace charge against Teri Buhl, a New Canaan woman who had been convicted of the misdemeanor offense (as well as a second-degree harassment charge), and later had it overturned in a state appellate court. Briefly, police arrested Buhl after determining that she had harassed a New Canaan teen—the daughter of a man she was dating at the time—in part through use of a fake Facebook account. An Appellate Court in initially overturning the breach of peace conviction “concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support her breach of the peace conviction because the state had not proven that the Facebook posts were publicly exhibited.” Yet the state Supreme Court disagreed with that assessment. Its opinion states: “We further conclude that the breach of the peace conviction must be reinstated because the trial court reasonably could have found that the state had met its burden of proving the other elements of the crime at trial, namely, that: (1) the defendant was the person who posted M’s diary entries on Facebook; and (2) the defendant intended to ‘inconvenience, [annoy] or alarm’ [the teenage girl] by posting her diary entries on Facebook.” See PDF below for the court’s full decision.

News

‘I Was Meant To Be Here For a Reason’: New Canaan Police Capt. Vincent DeMaio To Retire At Month’s End, Begin as Clinton PD Chief

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Growing up in Stamford, Vincent DeMaio’s dream had always been to work for the Connecticut State Police with the agency’s Troop F in Westbrook. A 1985 Westhill High School graduate (he had spent three years at Wright Tech) who went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Connecticut, DeMaio only took the New Canaan Police Department test 27 years ago because he had a buddy who didn’t want to sit the test alone. “He prodded and prodded, and finally I gave in and did it,” DeMaio recalled Wednesday afternoon. In the end, though his pal didn’t end up getting hired, DeMaio landed a job as a New Canaan police officer. That was in 1989, and he’s been serving the department ever since.

Government

New Loading Zone on Main Street To Revert To Regular Parking After Post Office Moves

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Town officials say they’re viewing the creation of a new loading zone on Main Street as temporary, after a commercial property owner there voiced concerns that it could exacerbate a sight line problem. No one disagrees that there’s a need for more loading zones in the area of Main Street at East Avenue, especially now with Gates reopened (there are alsso two new businesses, a pet supplies shop and healthy food store, coming to Forest Street). Truck drivers have habitually (as well as illegally, and dangerously) parked at the very top of East Avenue when making deliveries—a problem that town officials are addressing. But a proposed new loading zone in front of the former Thali restaurant building at 87 Main St. (now for sale, and the restaurant’s owner is opening up a new place, ‘India,’ up the street) could make it even more difficult for motorists pulling out of the alley by the old Varnum’s, according to the commercial property’s owner.

Around Town

Industrial-Grade Umbrellas, New Seating Coming To Pop Up Park, AKA ‘The Launchpad’

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The volunteers who oversee the soon-to-return Pop Up Park downtown say they’re upgrading the furniture there this summer and partnering with nonprofits to help the organizations gain visibility. As requested, the Pop Up Park’s organizers have checked with New Canaan’s Special Events Committee and are ready to run the makeshift park continuously from Aug. 5 to 28, according to Martin Skrelunas. Merchants have come to the Pop Up Park Committee requesting participation in the space this summer and “they are starting to refer to it as ‘The Launchpad,’ ” Skrelunas told members of the Police Commission at their meeting Thursday, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “I think we also have a grant opportunity that we are going to apply to add to the furnishings that we have.