Around Town

PHOTOS, VIDEO: ‘New’ New Canaan Library Opens to the Public

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Some day soon—“it could even be today,” Town Council Chair Steve Karl said Tuesday morning, addressing a crowd of 300-plus people gathered outside the new New Canaan Library—a boy or girl “will walk through these doors and learn to read for the first time.”

“They’ll be holding their parents’ hands, and when they leave here they may leave with a book in the other hand,” Karl said. “Their eyes will be open and they will begin a journey of learning that will last a lifetime. It’s been a magical journey on the corner of Main and Cherry for 100 years now. I actually learned to read here, as well. When the ribbon is cut in a few short minutes, it will represent hundreds of thousands of hours in long-range planning, thoughtful design, hard work, gritty determination and literally a small army of people putting this together.”

More than three years after library officials unveiled a vision for a dramatically reimagined facility and campus, New Canaan Library opened its doors at 9 a.m. on Feb.

Andrew Brooks

Board of Finance Chair: Budget Planning Amid Economic Headwinds

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The purpose of this letter is to update you on the plan for the 2023/24 budget, and our overall financial picture. In summary, our town is in great financial shape, but there are economic uncertainties and challenges that we will need to work through this year. Let me share some highlights. On February 7th, the New Canaan Board of Finance will begin analyzing the Town’s budget for the fiscal year 2023/2024 that begins on July 1st. The town departments have been working on their needs and requests over the past few months.

Board of Finance

Lawsuit: Town’s Denial of Sewer Application ‘Illegal’

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A lawyer representing the owner of a property at Weed and Elm Streets, site of a planned 102-unit multifamily redevelopment, is appealing a municipal body’s decision last month to deny a proposed relocated sewer connection. The Board of Finance, in its role as New Canaan’s Water Pollution Control Authority, violated state law in its “illegal” denial, which was “an abuse of discretion and/or not supported by substantial evidence in the records” for several reasons, according to a complaint filed in state Superior Court by attorney Tim Hollister of Hartford-based Hinckley Allen. The property at 751 Weed St. is already connected to the town’s sewer system, “ample sewer capacity exists for the proposed use” and “no system extension is proposed,” Hollister said in the complaint, received Monday by the Town Clerk’s office. “[T]here are no engineering impediments to connecting,” the complaint said, the sewer extension will be privately funded and “the applicants have a right to approval and the WPCA has a non-discretionary / ministerial obligation to grant the application.” 

“In denying the application, the WPCA illegally used sewer system access to control or regulate land use, which is beyond its statutory authority,” Hollister said in the complaint, and the denial was also “pre-textual in the sense that the record shows that its stated denial reasons were not the actual factors that resulted in the decision.”

“The record contains no factual or legal basis for detail of the application,” the complaint said.

Government

‘Counselor, Partner, Sounding Board and Thinker’: Board of Finance Thanks Neil Budnick, Stepping Down After 15 Years

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Members of the Board of Finance last week offered high praise for a fellow member of the appointed body who is stepping down after 15 years. Neil Budnick has been “a phenomenal counselor, partner, sounding board and thinker,” Board Chair Lavieri said during the group’s regular meeting held June 7 at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

“You have added so much value to this board on all of the things you’ve done,” he said. “On anything you’ve done. And you always raise your hand, and you’re always willing to help and you always go the extra mile. Town pensions are overfunded, and there’s a lot of guidance there from the committee, yourself included, of course.

Around Town

New Canaan Library: $1.5 Million Needed Now to Move ‘Legacy’ Building in Time for Feb. ‘23 Opening of New Facility

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New Canaan Library officials said Tuesday that unless their organization is able to secure funding to move the original 1913 building to the western edge of its campus—as conditioned by the Planning & Zoning Commission via approvals last July and December—they could end up with two facilities, the present-day library and a new one, sitting next to each other. The library has already has raised more than $33 million toward its new approximately $40 million building, including a $10 million gift from the town, Executive Director Lisa Oldham told members of the Board of Finance at their regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

Yet the library sees the P&Z-approved project of preserving and moving what remains of the 1,200-square-foot 1913 or “legacy” building as a separate project, and need $1.5 million now in order for that structure to be secured on a new foundation behind the Sunoco gas station by the time the new facility opens to the public Feb. 1, 2023, Oldham said. (A further $1 million will be needed to fit out the building for use, such as by getting insulation, heat, bathrooms and plumbing in it.)

Asked by Board of Finance Chair Todd Lavieri how the library is going to get the $1.5 million, Oldham said, “That is a good question.”

“As our primary investors, our biggest investor, you will appreciate that I am full focused on fundraising the last $6.5 million for the main project,” she said. “This [new library] can’t wait for me to finish that [legacy building] job, so we need a source of funding immediately.