Government

Across-the-Board Tax Cut? State Senate Hopefuls Share Plans at League of Women Voters’ Forum

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[A message from the League of Women Voters of New Canaan: If you or any friends couldn’t attend Candidates Night on Tuesday at New Canaan High School, please check the Channel 79 website (www.nctv79.org) for the viewing schedule beginning Friday morning, Oct. 24th.]

While an across-the-board tax cut is not in order, Connecticut could reduce how much it spends on incarcerating perpetrators of nonviolent crimes, a challenger for the 125th District state House seat said Tuesday. The money used to incarcerate them would be better spent on education and “keeping one prisoner incarcerated could be used to pay for 20 students’ college education,” town resident and Green Party candidate David Bedell, who last week received an endorsement from the Connecticut Police & Fire Union, said during a “Meet the Candidates” forum, hosted by the League of Women Voters of New Canaan. “Right now we have a lot of people incarcerated on drug crimes,” Bedell said during the 2-hour event, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. “I think we could view the abuse of drugs as a public health problem and not a criminal justice problem. I would be in favor of following the examples of Colorado and Washington state: Legalize marijuana and regulate it to keep it out of the hands of our children.”

Some 60 people attended the forum, moderated by New Canaan’s Susan LaPerla and co-sponsored by the New Canaan Advertiser.

Government

Candidates for State Senate Debate Future of New Canaan’s Metro-North Branch Line

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[A message from the League of Women Voters of New Canaan: If you or any friends couldn’t attend Candidates Night on Tuesday at New Canaan High School, please check the Channel 79 website (www.nctv79.org) for the viewing schedule beginning Friday morning, Oct. 24th.]

Connecticut’s 20 percent subsidy for rail commuters “very clearly” would go away if there’s a change in administration this fall, a candidate for office in the state legislature said Tuesday. What’s more, branch lines lose money and unless the state has a “concerned governor” in office, “branch service will be gone,” Philip Sharlach, a Democrat and Wilton resident who is challenging incumbent State Sen. Toni Boucher (R-26) said during a “Meet the Candidates” forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of New Canaan. “In the short-term, New Canaan, you’ve got a problem,” he said. Sharlach added: “To think that it can’t happen is absolutely ridiculous, because it almost happened before. Bad things happen to good people.

Alicia Wyckoff

Kick up Your Heels at Books, Blues & BBQ, New Canaan Library’s Annual Fundraiser

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New Canaan Library is turning up the heat on fundraising with its third annual Books, Blues & BBQ.. Tickets are going fast for the Friday, May 30 event so dust off the cowboy boots, grab your partner and get ready for a spectacular evening in support of New Canaan Library. The evening kicks off at 7:00 p.m. to the live music of “Tangled Vine,” a local group offering a dance-inviting mix of rock, soul and rhythm and blues. “Go ahead and work up an appetite,” states Holly Parmelee, one of the event’s three chairs, “because Stamford’s own Dinosaur Bar-B-Que will serve its award-winning barbeque throughout the evening.” This all happens under festive white tents on the Library’s grounds– so the show goes on, rain or shine. Benefit chairs for Books, Blues & BBQ are Maya Frey, Holly Parmelee, and Alicia Wyckoff, all of New Canaan.  According to Susan LaPerla, the Library’s programming director,  the co-chairs have become “a large part of the success of the Library’s fundraising events, and we are grateful they have come together again to provide this additional support to what is sure to be a special evening.”

To support this initiative please visit the Library website, newcanaanlibrary.org, for ticket information and levels of support.

Around Town

Talking to New Canaan Library About ‘One Book New Canaan’

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Starting in early February, New Canaan Library coordinated and led a town-wide reading project and no one really knew how it’d go. Designed to get New Canaanites all reading the same book for a concentrated period of time, “One Book New Canaan” saw town residents of all ages pick up a copy of Nathaniel Philbrick’s award-winning “In the Heart of the Sea: the Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex.” (It’s a nonfiction account of the 1821 whaling tragedy that helped inspire Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick.”)

In the past six weeks, the library has hosted events connected to One Book New Canaan, including two book talks on “In the Heart of the Sea.” And at 7 p.m. Friday at New Canaan High School auditorium (register here), Philbrick himself will come and speak to our town. We caught up with New Canaan Library Programming Director Susan LaPerla to talk about the townwide reading initiative, and she told us some interesting things that the library discovered through the process of running One Book New Canaan—including a great suggestion from our town’s youth about a topic we could take up for a future project. Here’s our conversation, and we include some information about Philbrick himself at the end:

 

New Canaanite: We’re approaching the end of One Book New Canaan here in its inaugural year. How did it go?