NewCanaanite.com (https://newcanaanite.com/tag/town-council/page/21)
Breathtaking accolades for our schools continue to roll in. On Feb. 9, the Connecticut Department of Education released its annual statewide school ratings. Drum roll: New Canaan is the number one district in the State once more. Remarkably, we’re among only 27 percent of districts whose rating improved.
The former Outback Teen Center downtown is off the table at this point as a possible future home for an “alternative high school” program envisioned by the school district, the town’s highest elected official said Tuesday. In order to maximize the value of the shuttered, centrally located building, New Canaan first must find out whether it can be rented or sold, according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. “And in order to do that, you have to expose it to the market,” Moynihan told NewCanaanite.com following a full day’s worth of meetings on the fiscal year 2019 budget, which now moves to the Board of Finance. Moynihan said the decision was informed by a committee of the Town Council. Members of the Council’s Education Committee, and Moynihan himself, met Jan.
New Canaan’s legislative body on Monday night voted to fill a vacancy in the 12-member group with a father of twin kindergartners who has resided in New Canaan for two years and works as an attorney. Mike Mauro will fill a Town Council seat previously held by fellow Republican Ken Campbell, following an 8-3 vote during a special meeting at Town Hall. He was one of two candidates for the open seat, along with Democrat Colm Dobbyn, a 25-year resident of New Canaan and attorney who is the longest-serving member of the Inland Wetlands Commission. Describing himself and his wife, Melissa, as family-oriented young parents and hard-working professionals—she works for a commodities firm based in Switzerland—Mauro said he specializes in labor employment and views his candidacy for the Council as an opportunity to give back to a town he and Melissa quickly embraced after falling in love with its schools. “You know, it’s getting tougher and tougher to get into this town—it’s getting tougher and tougher to stay in this town,” he said during the meeting, attended by about 50 people including First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, Selectman Kit Devereaux and several members of the Democratic and Republican Town Committees.
Attorney Mike Mauro is the only correct candidate to assume the Town Council seat vacated by Ken Campbell. Mike Mauro was vetted during the two, Town Council candidate only, televised Republican Caucus debates responding to questions from and moderated by the owner-editor of the New Canaanite and editor of the New Canaan Advertiser. He also was vetted in the written responses to the published media Q-and-A forums that appeared in our town newspapers. Mike is brilliant, has the highest standards of civility, dedicated, loves our town and a dedicated family man. Above all he has the expertise that the Town Council Currently lacks—in labor law and labor dispute negotiating.
Saying that the town first must decide how the building will be used, members of New Canaan’s funding bodies decided last week to put off a vote on $50,000 in studies that would be needed in order to make repairs and code-compliant upgrades to the former Outback Teen Center building. It’s too early to discuss an investment in architectural and engineering plans for what some now call the ‘Town Hall Annex’ when its future use remains unclear, Board of Finance members Todd Lavieri and George Blauvelt said at the group’s regular meeting, held Tuesday at Town Hall. Town Councilman Steve Karl voiced that thought during the legislative body’s regular meeting the following night. “This is about a building and about a hardship, basically, that the town inherited—we inherited what amounts to a dilapidated barn and we need to figure out what is a post-and-beam barn that is 17 years old with two bathrooms, how much is a couple of bathrooms and a barn worth?” Karl said at the meeting, held at Town Hall. “And there is no property underneath it, because it’s the town’s property.