Around Town

Winter Storm Hub: What’s Open & Closed, Snowfall Totals, Photos [UPDATED]

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New Canaan Public Schools, Town Hall and New Canaan Library are closed Thursday as a winter storm that’s expected to create hazardous driving conditions bears down on the town (see more openings & closings below). The National Weather Service reported about 10.4 inches of snowfall as of 3:15 p.m. and issued a Winter Storm Warning that’s in effect through 1 a.m. Friday. Metro-North Railroad reported that a downed tree in the area of Talmadge Hill prompted the company to switch to bus shuttle service from Stamford for the New Canaan line starting at 2:58 p.m. By 6 p.m., Metro-North was reporting limited rail service on the branch. 

What’s Open

Franco’s Wine (opening at 8 a.m.)
Walter Stewart’s Market (open at 7:30 a.m.)
Stewart’s Spirits (opening at 9 a.m.)
Karl Chevrolet (8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for service, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for sales)
Farmer’s Table (open 5 to 10 p.m.)
Joe’s Pizza (11 a.m. to 10 p.m.)
Real Estate Information Center (11 a.m. to 3 p.m.)
YMCA open as normal though some classes cancelled (updates here)
Teachers Who Tutor
LPQ
Dunkin Donuts
Starbucks
Gates (opening bar at 1 p.m., dinner at 5 p.m.)

What’s Closed

Rucci Law Group
Pet Pantry Warehouse
Halo Studios
New Canaan Racquet Club
Town Hall
New Canaan Library
New Canaan Public Schools
All Bankwell branches
Pryority Wellness
South End
SE Uncorked
La Pescaderia Fish Market & Arepa
elm restaurant (closed for lunch, dinner decision to come)
TD Bank
Salon 5 East
Ciel Eau Day Spa
Vineyard Vines
Candy Nichols
Jul’s Salon
Oxygen Fitness closed for remainder of Thursday

NewCanaanite.com has cancelled Thursday’s Community Coffee and the next one will be held Jan. 18. The library’s planned art exhibition opening has been moved to 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

News

Letter: Chamber Director Thanks YMCA, Sponsors, Volunteers for Halloween Event

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While the weather could have been better for the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce’s annual Halloween Parade, hundreds of ghosts and goblins headed over to the YMCA for a Halloween Family event. The party started at noon with activities and entertainment for all to enjoy. The School of Rock serenaded parade goers with Halloween tunes and a flash mob of New England Academy of Dance zombies danced to “Thriller.”

Pet Pantry hosted the Great Scirico who created balloon animals for all to enjoy and “Marshall” from Pet Patrol was on hand to greet trick-or-treaters thanks to Toddlertime Nursery School. We are so grateful that the YMCA stepped in to save the day and allowed us to have the event in their beautiful new gym. We gave out more than 750 goody bags and thanks go to Joe Vittoria —Promotion in Motion, Camp Playland, Jack and Jill Petsitting, Friends of Mead Park, TD Bank, Mackenzies, Walter Stewart’s Market, Vineyard Vines and Toddlertime Nursery School.

Around Town

‘Stay Connected with the Natural World’: New Canaan Land Trust Opens ‘Silvermine-Fowler Preserve’ [PHOTOS]

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Jim Fowler describes himself as the type of person who promotes the natural world as important. An award-winning zoologist and New Canaanite for more than three decades, Fowler doesn’t mean saving animals alone by that, but also preserving open space and wilderness. “We need, in a community like this, to stay connected with the natural world,” Fowler said on a warm, sunny Saturday afternoon, seated in a foldout camping chair in the middle of the woods off of Silvermine Road as more than 200 locals gathered on the 6.35-acre property he purchased in 1984, arriving by shuttle bus or by way of leafy footpaths he knows intimately. “And that is why it gives me great pleasure. Look at this original forest around here.

Business

‘Every Aspect of the Store is Being Updated and Renovated’: Major Makeover Underway at Walter Stewart’s Market

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New Canaan’s longest-running retail establishment is getting a major makeover. Customers at Walter Stewart’s Market, pushing shopping carts in recent weeks over partially removed flooring as the Elm Street grocer undergoes a comprehensive renovation, soon will experience a new entrance and offerings including an expanded organic produce section and new and larger prepared foods section and salad bar, as well as new fixtures, flooring, glass and lighting in every department. “It’s going to be easier to shop, we are expanding our produce department and we are going to offer an even better selection,” Alex Stewart told NewCanaanite.com. “We will have a greatly expanded prepared foods section that is going to be the centerpiece of our store, and we are putting a brand-new, state-of-the-art kitchen upstairs to meet the demand while we revamp our deli department.”

An expanded “chef’s case” will feature healthy new “grab-and-go options,” he said, complementing new service hot food and salad bar stations. Stewart’s is moving fast, as flooring and shelving will be replaced later this month and in October, with the new produce section complete next month and the rest of the fixtures and refrigerated cases coming in October and November, Doug Stewart said.

Business

Starting Thursday, Walter Stewart’s Customers May Direct ‘T-Bill’ Rewards Savings To Tropical Storm Harvey Aid

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New Canaan’s oldest retail establishment is setting up a system through which it will aid those displaced and otherwise devastated by Tropical Storm Harvey in Texas. Walter Stewart’s Market from Aug. 31 to Sept. 6 is holding a special “T-Bill Donations Day,” through which customers participating in the business’s rewards program will be able to donate their balances to the American Red Cross and AmeriCares. Stewart’s will match all cash that is raised in the effort.