Government

‘There Has Got To Be a Better Solution’: Town Officials Reject Single-Lane Exit from Saxe at South Avenue

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Saying motorists already back up onto South Avenue during busy drop-off and pick-up times at Saxe Middle School, town officials on Thursday night bucked at a recommendation from the state to change the driveway’s two-lane exit to one. Doing so would exacerbate a problem of traffic and would be “a near impossibility,” Police Commission Chairman Stuart Sawabini said during the group’s regular monthly meeting. “I am more than in favor of the Saxe expansion and all the rest, but what you are suggesting will create such a huge bottleneck,” Sawabini said during the meeting, held at the New Canaan Police Department. “There has got to be a better solution. My other understanding is that the exiting cars off of the back [of Saxe, on Farm Road] are not allowed because it’s bus time and the gate closes.

Government

Town Plans New System of Crosswalks, Push-Button Signs To Help Pedestrians Safely Navigate God’s Acre

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Town officials plan to install two crosswalks and three signs around God’s Acre in order to make the area safer for the scores of pedestrians who travel through it on foot as commuters, residents, church-goers, downtown visitors and others. Motorists who come off of Main Street and zip up by God’s Acre often come suddenly upon pedestrians seeking to cross Park Street at the crest of the hill, where St. John’s Place comes in, officials say. To notify those motorists that someone up ahead is about to cross a planned new crosswalk—one will come directly across Park Street to the southern corner of St. John’s Place, another spanning St.

Business

‘We Need To Find a Compromise’: ‘No Parking’ Signs To Go Up on East Avenue

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Officials say they’re going to post “No Parking” signs outside of an East Avenue business that’s been plagued by truck drivers idling outside the door to make deliveries around New Canaan. Though the truckers cannot park their vehicles outside day spa Ciel Eau at 1 East Ave.—because it’s illegal, bad for business owner Alicia Brandfellner and unsafe for motorists and pedestrians—still, those delivery drivers must be accommodated somewhere so that New Canaan restaurants get deliveries, Police Commission Chairman Stuart Sawabini said. “We clearly need to protect her [Brandfellner’s] business but we also cannot damage their [restaurants’] business,” Sawabini said during the commission’s regular monthly meeting, held Nov. 18 in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “We need to find a compromise as we go through all this.”

Though there’s a designated 7 to 10 a.m. loading zone in front of Sleepy’s across East Avenue at the start of Forest Street, it’s rarely used because Forest is still in disarray with the mixed-use project going up by Locust Avenue, commissioners said.

News

‘It’s Beyond Our Control’: No Ready Solution To Morning Traffic Back-Up from NCHS Parking Lot

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Town officials, after receiving a resident’s complaint about traffic backed up on Old Stamford Road at Farm Road in the mornings, reached this conclusion: There’s no feasible solution to the problem, short of an expensive New Canaan High School parking lot redesign for which no one has an appetite. Police sent a shift out to investigate the complaint and what the officers discovered is that “it’s not a timing of the light issue,” Capt. John DiFederico said during the Police Commission’s Nov. 18 meeting. “What the issue is, is that there is a very short period of time—maybe 15 minutes—when there is so much volume going into the high school that it backs up all the way down Farm Road so there are cars that cannot turn from Old Stamford Road onto Farm,” DiFederico said at the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “It has nothing really to do with the light and it has nothing to do with us—it’s just a poorly designed high school parking lot which makes ingress of vehicles so difficult for those 15 minutes.”

A big part of the problem, Police Capt. Vincent DeMaio said, is that the lot is designed so that kids park at the far side—to the right of the access road as you come in—so that they then must cross the road in order to get to the building, which holds up traffic.

News

Supportive of NCPD’s Proposed ‘Diversionary Program,’ Superintendent of Schools Eyes Ways To Integrate It at NCHS

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As a new initiative from New Canaan’s police chief takes shape—a program that would see young people caught drinking alcohol illegally diverted into an educational session rather than arrested—the superintendent of schools is exploring ways to integrate the program at NCHS. Asked for his thoughts on the proposed “diversionary program,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said it’s a “great idea to approach substance use and abuse by young people—by anyone—as an educational opportunity.”

“It is important that we do not just focus on punishment, that we focus on helping the people involved to learn from whatever mistakes they have made and support them so that they do not make the same mistakes in the future.”

The program itself would see police who break up underage drinking parties gather the names of kids otherwise charged with possession of alcohol by a minor or more serious offenses. Instead of receiving an infraction summons, those teens would be offered an opportunity to attend, together with their parents, two 2-hour sessions focused on drug and alcohol education. One way that Luizzi has considered integrating the program at New Canaan High School is through its Athletic Policies and Guidelines. Right now, students who break the law are subject to immediate suspensions from participation and other punitive measures.