Government

Conservation Officials Consider 10K Running or Walking Event to Spotlight New Canaan’s ‘Greenlink’

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Citing a successful model from Darien, local conservation officials say they’re thinking of launching a 10K running or walking event in New Canaan that would spotlight the town’s “green link” connecting public parks and the downtown via trails and sidewalks. 

Robin Bates-Mason, a Town Council member who sits on the legislative body’s Land Use and Parks & Recreation Committee, and also volunteers with local nonprofit organizations such as Planet New Canaan and the New Canaan Beautification League, said the Darien Land Trust uses an event to bring awareness to its properties around Darien. “It’s quite popular,” Bates-Mason said during last week’s meeting of the Conservation Commission, where she was a guest. Participants pay a $15 fee, she said. The appointed body’s chair, Chris Schipper, said it could be “an interesting project.”

“I like the idea of people walking and riding,” Schipper said during the Oct. 14 meeting, held via videoconference. 

Referring to his request on behalf of open space advocates to allocate a portion of a $6 million windfall in federal funds through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Schipper added, “And I have, in the course of discussing ARPA funds and allocations of funds, I’ve said we really have to promote walk-ability and bike-ability here in New Canaan and I think we have some support from [the Department of Public Works], we just have to get around some of these state road restrictions.”

“And I can tell you it drives me crazy I come up 106, regularly coming back from Greenwich, and I see young moms with a stroller walking alongside [Route] 106.

Amy Murphy Carroll

ARPA Funds: Town Weighs $500,000 in ‘Premium Pay’ Stipends to ‘Essential Workers’ During COVID

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Town officials say they could direct $500,000-plus of an approximately $6 million windfall in federal funds for New Canaan to municipal employees who have worked long hours due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Board of Finance “has been talking about a premium pay element for some employees after COVID and that will probably be for a half-million dollars or more,” according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. 

“One of the purposes of these funds are to give premium pay to employees who, because of COVID, may have worked extra hard,” Moynihan said during the Oct. 5 meeting of the Board of Selectmen. “That is something that has been discussed and I think the Board of Finance will talk about that,” Moynihan said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

The comments came during a general discussion of how the town should spend the first tranche of about $6 million granted to New Canaan through the American Rescue Plan Act. 

Town officials disclosed the windfall mid-summer, and since then elected and appointed bodies including the selectmen, Board of Finance and Town Council have weighed in on how to spend the money, including outlining a process for such decisions. The town has until 2024 to spend the money.

Government

Petitioners Fail To Obtain Required Signatures for Referendum Vote on Town’s $10 Million Grant for New Canaan Library Project

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Those seeking to force a referendum vote on town’s $10 million grant to New Canaan Library for its widely anticipated rebuilding project failed to garner enough verifiable signatures before deadline, officials say. The petitioners needed to obtain 689 signatures of New Canaan registered voters—5% of qualified local electors as of the most recent voter list—in order to force a town-wide vote on the grant, Town Clerk Claudia Weber has said. Yet after verifying the names and qualifying status of the names submitted to her office, Weber said the petitioners fell short. 

They obtained 528 signatures of support, Weber told NewCanaanite.com. 

“On behalf of the thousands of New Canaanites eagerly waiting for the new New Canaan Library, we look forward to receiving our building permit and starting construction,” Library Director Lisa Oldham said. Opponents to the library’s plan for a new 42,641-square-foot facility—located closer to Maple Street and with a new entrance facing south—emerged soon after the organization unveiled its project in January 2020. Many of those opposed to the project said the library should be required to preserve the original 1913 library and a 1930s-era addition.

Board of Finance

Proposal for New Police Station on Saxe Baseball Field Unveiled

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A team assembled by First Selectman Kevin Moynihan on Wednesday night unveiled a proposed new $23.5 million police station that would be built on a Saxe Middle School baseball diamond. The two-story, approximately 24,000- to 25,000-square-foot glass-and-brick exterior building would sit on 3.6 acres running east off of South Avenue, along a line of trees that separates the school property from the New Canaan Y (see videos embedded above and below), according to a presentation from a New Britain-based architectural firm. 

The new station would also include an underground level with a shooting range, and 89 parking spots would be spaced across about 36,000-square-feet around the building, according to Eric Rossi and Chuck Boos, a specialist and founding principal, respectively, at Kaestle Boos Associates, Inc.

The Saxe ballfield was one of about a dozen potential sites that the firm’s representatives, Moynihan, New Canaan Department of Public Works officials and a former Police Commission chair have been studying out of the public eye for months and it’s “the site that’s risen to the top of the heap,” Rossi said. “This site is fairly flat,” he told members of members of the Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance and Town Council gathered at Town Hall and via videoconference for a special meeting. 

“It’s an existing [baseball] field, 60-foot baseline [baseball] field. Using the site allows us to get all the redundancies and all the site and mechanical systems that we need to get into police station in an easy way. The generator can go on-grade.

Election 2021

Election 2021 Republican Caucus: Town Council Candidate Luke J. Kaufman [CORRECTED]

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New Canaan resident Luke J. Kaufman is seeking the endorsement of the Republican Party for a seat on the elected Town Council. We put some questions to Kaufman about his candidacy. Our exchange follows. New Canaanite: Tell us about yourself – how long you have lived in New Canaan, what have you been involved with here in town and what has led you to seek elected office? Luke J. Kaufman: My wife, Emily, and I moved to New Canaan from New York City 6 years ago. We have three boys – ages 8, 6, and 5 – who attend South School and play on various sports teams. I have coached travel and local recreation baseball, flag football and lacrosse teams and take pride in creating a fun environment, while teaching children how to play the game and improve their skills. I’m a parishioner at St.