Government

Town To Replace East Avenue Sidewalks

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Town officials are planning to replace all sidewalks on East Avenue, starting downtown at Main Street and running east all the way to Route 123. The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved a $34,500 contract with a Bridgeport-based company to survey and design the sidewalks. The overall project itself is projected to cost about $1.1 million, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. 

There are sidewalks on both sides of East Avenue running east from the downtown to Summer Street, and then it’s only on the north side to Route 123/New Norwalk Road, Mann said. “We’re looking to design it in whole and then look to piece it out, the thought being that we’ll likely do from Cherry Street to Main Street since that’s the closest to the downtown, and then work our way out,” he said during the regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “And the thought is that at present we might look for a grant to take care of the stretch from Cherry to New Norwalk Road.”

Specifically, Mann said, the town would seek a “Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program” or “LOTCIP” grant.

Business

Town To Focus on Ridding Elm Street of Double-Parking Trucks

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Once the oversized dumpsters in the parking lot behind The Playhouse are moved to a better area, and there’s also a new ramp connecting that lot with the alley that runs alongside Le Pain Quotidien, enforcement officers will focus on getting double-parking delivery trucks off New Canaan’s main drag downtown. As it is, delivery trucks exacerbate congestion on the one-way stretch of Elm Street throughout the day. That segment of Elm and the commercial block of South Avenue both will change to paid parking later this summer, reversing a decades-old system. (When that happens, the town will convert the paid spots in the Park Street Lot to free.)

“We are going to be trying to push them, and we do that now,” Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg said Tuesday during a regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

She continued: “We try to move them. We try to direct them where we can.

Board of Selectmen

Town Approves $195,000 Contract To Dredge Pond at Nature Center

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Town officials this week approved an approximately $195,000 contract to dredge a pond at the New Canaan Nature Center. A build-up of material can be seen beneath the surface of the “Kiwanis Pond” at the town-owned Oenoke Ridge property, located down a short path from the Visitors Center, so it’s time for a dredge, according to Tiger Mann, director of the Department of Public Works. “That starts to affect the flora and fauna that are around it,” Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting, held Tuesday at Town Hall and via videoconference. “This has been on our radar for quite some time, and we’ve been pushing it a little bit. Now it’s to the point where we need to bring it forward.”

First Selectman Dionn Carlson and Selectman Steve Karl voted 2-0 in favor of a $195,456 contract with New Canaan-based Peter Lanni Inc. to do the work.

Government

Selectmen Approve Traffic-Calming Work at Conrad and Whiffle Tree

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The Board of Selectmen last week approved an approximately $87,000 contract with a New Canaan-based company to further improve a closely watched and historically problematic intersection in the “South of the Y” neighborhood. The town had several stops and starts since it began focusing on relieving high-volume traffic and speeding at the intersection of Conrad Road and Whiffle Tree Lane, including a proposal to install a “mini-roundabout” and a short-lived experiment involving a barricade that drew criticism from residents. Last year, town officials striped the intersection into a three-way stop, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “That was after multiple discussions with the residents and the Police Commission,” Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen during their April 15 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

He continued: “We turned it into a three-way stop with temporary striping to show everyone the delineation of where these—I’ll call it a ‘bumpout’—but it’s basically bringing the intersection in, honing it down to make it a true three-way intersection and not allow you to cut the corners on the tangents. So in order to do so, we’ve got to install some drainage on each corner of each bumpout.”

First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of the $86,767.50 contract with Peter Lanni Inc. to complete the work.

Government

Town Ups Contract with Provider After Rise in Bench Donations

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Town officials say that New Canaan is seeing an unusually high number of requests from residents who purchase honorific or memorial benches dedicated to loved ones. Typically, the Department of Public Works receives donations from locals who purchase benches and then the town itself assembles and places them in a location that makes sense—for example, in a park. This year, “we’ve actually had more than we normally have,” according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. The benches in public places—which are consistent throughout New Canaan, following a Parks & Recreation Commission initiative in 2018—cost about $1,700 each and are purchased through a Gaithersburg, Md.-based company called Country Casual Teak, Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen at their April 15 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. Normally, the town’s highest elected official, First Selectman Dionna Carlson, approves the purchases herself because the total comes to less than $10,000.