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.

Board of Finance

Finance Board Chair: Selling Police Building ‘Wouldn’t Pay for the New Structure’ at Saxe 

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Based on a recent public presentation, revenues generated by selling the current police station would not offset additional costs that would come with building a new one on a Saxe Middle School baseball field, versus renovating-on-site, according to the chair of the Board of Finance. 

Though selling off the police building at 174 South Ave. “could offset some building costs” and “would be a source of property taxes for years,” still “the delta between the new police building at a new site and the ‘Renovate on Site’ option was significant,” Todd Lavieri said in an Oct. 3 email to town officials, obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request. 

“The sale of the current structure wouldn’t pay for the new structure,” Lavieri said in the email, sent to fellow Board of Finance members and Tucker Murphy, a staffer in First Selectman Kevin Moynihan’s office, with the Board of Selectmen and town CFO Lunda Asmani copied in. “Not even close. It might help close the gap between the two options, at best.”

Cited by Selectman Nick Williams during a heated discussion of the Saxe proposal at the selectmen’s Oct.

Government

Moynihan: Playhouse To Have New Movie Operator in September at the Earliest

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The town-owned Playhouse on Elm Street likely will have a new operator in September at the earliest, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said this week. The town “may have news about a potential operator soon,” Moynihan told members of the Board of Finance during their regular meeting Tuesday, held via videoconference. Municipal officials “are working on the assumption that the town wants a first-run movie theater and that’s what we’re working on,” he told the Board during a general update. “If we can’t achieve that, we would look to other things,” he said. “But I think that’s a consensus in the town and certainly it supports restaurants and merchants to bring people to New Canaan.

Around Town

Board of Finance Chair: ‘We Will Approve 100% of the Board of Education’s Operating Spending Requests’

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What follows are comments that Board of Finance Chair Todd Lavieri made at the start of a budget hearing Tuesday night. Several residents addressed the appointed body during the meeting. They spoke mostly on the question of funding for the Board of Education as it relates to additional buses needed to introduce a new start times schedule that would take effect in the middle of the 2021-22 academic year. 

Comments from two parents, one on each side of the issue, are included below the transcription of Lavieri’s remarks. The chair did address those speakers during the hearing, saying in part, “As you know, I think, the Board of Finance already completely supports our great school system. And obviously we have for over 20 years.

Moynihan on Superintendent’s Proposed Board of Ed Budget: ‘I Wasn’t Too Happy’

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New Canaan’s highest elected official said Tuesday night that he’s unhappy with the spending plan that the superintendent of schools has proposed for next fiscal year. The Board of Education is expected to vote later this month on Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi’s $95.7 million operating budget for fiscal year 2022. Driven mainly by salary and benefits, it includes about $460,000 for what Luizzi described Monday as a student health and wellness initiative in the form of new start times. 

The approved Board of Ed budget for the current fiscal year is $90.9 million, town finance documents show. The Town Council in making its final budget vote last April reduced the Board of Ed’s requested amount by about $1 million, effectively forestalling a change to school start times. Addressing the Board of Finance during its regular meeting, Moynihan said, “The budget numbers are coming together very nicely on the town side.