Government

More ‘No Parking’ Signs Coming To Church Street

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Saying motorists are veering into the oncoming lane to avoid cars parked along a bend in the road, officials are installing two ‘No Parking’ signs on Church Street. The Police Commission voted 3-0 at its Nov. 18 meeting to install the signs on the north side of Church Street around where Green Avenue comes into it. Police Capt. John DiFederico said that on the straight sections of Church Street, parked cars are “not much of a problem, but on that curve it’s a real hazard.”

“[The commission] voted last year to designate ‘no parking’ on the south side of Church Street because there’s a curve there and what was happening was that cars were parked along the curve and cars going around them would go across the center line,” DiFederico said at the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “Now they’re parked right on the apex of that curve but on the north side and there are vehicles there all day—I think there is a house under construction, so there are constantly vehicles parked right on the curve.”

Motorists still will be allowed to park on the north side of the street along the straight sections of the road.

News

Underage Drinking Parties: Police Chief Proposes New Program That Offers Education in Lieu of Arrests

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To this point, officers arriving on the scene of an underage drinking party in New Canaan generally gather information about violations—someone is hosting the party and providing alcohol, or somebody is in possession of alcohol—and issue a few infraction summonses or make a few arrests. The balance of kids at the party who have been drinking will leave the scene with no accountability. Under a new initiative that New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski is designing—with support and feedback from the state’s attorney of the Stamford-Norwalk Judicial District—those kids’ names are recorded for possible participation in a “diversionary program.”

“The next step is I am writing to the parents saying, ‘Your child was at this party consuming alcohol, we can charge him or her with X,Y or Z—which is a fine and license suspension and has potential consequences on your insurance—or you can attend this diversionary program,’ ” Krolikowski said Wednesday during the regular monthly meeting of the Police Commission, held at NCPD headquarters. To be taught by volunteering psychiatrists trained in addition, the program would be attended by parents and children, and run through two 2-hour sessions—likely on a Saturday, the chief said—with a focus on drug and alcohol education. Those in charge of the program would “explain the consequences of early abuse of alcohol and drugs, and what that can lead to,” Krolikowski said.

News

‘We Should Be Able To Do That’: Police Eye Unannounced K-9 Sweeps for Drugs at NCHS

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As part of a wider effort to address drug use among New Canaan youth, police say they’re trying to find a way to bring the department’s new K-9 unit into the high school for unannounced sweeps of the building. Asked at Tuesday’s Police Commission meeting whether K-9 dog Apollo found any substances during an exercise where he swept through NCHS hallways just prior to the start of the academic year, Police Chief Leon Krolikowski answered: “Suffice to say there are drugs in the school as we speak, no question—and there always have been and always will be.”

“It is just our job to disrupt that and make people think twice if they are going to bring drugs on campus,” the chief said at the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “That is our intent. We are working with the superintendent where there is some kind of policy where we are able to go, unannounced, and check for narcotics.”

Asked at the time of the K-9 sweep whether unannounced visits by Apollo could become part of NCHS policy, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said the school board was reviewing its policies and was committed to making its schools drug-free. Police Commissioner Paul Foley said at the meeting that Krolikowski had the “total support” of the commission to make unannounced K-9 sweeps at the high schools.

News

Police Report $10,000-Plus Owed by Residents and Businesses Following False Alarms

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The town is owed more than $10,000 from residents and businesses where police responded in the fiscal year just ended to what turned out to be false alarms at homes and commercial properties in New Canaan, documents show. About three-quarters of the $10,700 total is past due and more than half is more than 90 days late, according to a “False Alarm Aging” report discussed at the July 15 Police Commission meeting and obtained by NewCanaanite.com. Businesses with past-due accounts that exceed $100 include Le Pan Quotidien ($1,000), Ralph Lauren ($300), Wells Fargo Bank ($300) and Bank of America ($200), according to the report. “They should be embarrassed by the fact that they want us to respond to their alarms, but when we do and it’s false, they’re not willing to pay for our wasted time,” Police Commission Chair Stuart Sawabini said during the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. The figures do not include monies owed to the town through the Fire Department for responding to what had turned out to be false alarms.

Under section 4A-12 of the Town Code and as required by state law, municipal officials must mail a written warning to alarm users following a false alarm about fines associated with emergency response to such calls ($100 for Police or EMS and $200 for a Fire Department response).

Business

Approved: Pop Up Park Downtown To Remain in Place from End of School through Labor Day

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On the condition that additional details are presented within the next few weeks, officials on Wednesday unanimously approved a proposal to keep the Pop Up Park downtown in place through the summer. Overseen by a volunteer committee since it launched on a test basis three years ago, the Pop Up Park on the last block of South Avenue will run for three straight weekends starting May 30, then remain in place from the end of school (June 19) to Labor Day (Sept. 7), following a 3-0 vote by the Police Commission. Commissioners called the Pop Up Park a successful and well-run effort whose next logical step—and for the volunteers who have spent time and effort setting it up and breaking it down every weekend these past two summers, only viable step—is to try it on a semi-permanent basis. “I have not heard really much grumbling at all,” Commission Chairman Stuart Sawabini said at the group’s regular monthly meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department.