12 thoughts on “Williams: Superintendent, NCAF Chair Do Not Support New Police Station on Saxe Ball Field

  1. Why must there be a secret process to circumvent public input on this important decision? This type of concealment is unworthy of New Canaan.

  2. If Moynihan were so enamored with architects’ opinions, you’d think he’d stop trying to undermine the new library at every opportunity and sign their building permit. So tired of this shady, backroom nonsense coming from him. Homeboy thinks he’s Trump.

  3. Most towns have a landmark that welcomes both residents and visitors. As you drive north on South Ave toward town, the Saxe Fields and School are a wonderful testament to both our schools and recreation programs. The fields represent at the very least, tens of thousands of memories for all those who have played or watched our youth play. It brings me joy every time I walk, run, cycle or drive by. We live in an active town and this is a wonderful reminder. I hope we keep the entire, beautiful field.

  4. I’ll say it again, can we elect Nick Williams to be first selectman? Mike Handler? Anyone? Is there no one else in town who feels up to the task of running both the town and a secretive, side-hustle government of special, shady and shifty projects that lack enough popular support to be seen in daylight to go up against Kevin this November?

    What if we said they’d only have to do the normal duties and leave the pouting, bullying, no-commenting, sacking volunteers unceremoniously, defending the indefensible, back-room closed-door antics to others? Would that sweeten the deal?

    It’s crazy to me that we as a town should be so lucky to get a third term of someone who, as this article points out several times, lacks the judgement, honesty and plain old good manners to make decisions on our collective behalf.

    A real leader would shut this baseball-diamond-paving police station nonsense down immediately. But I guess that’s a little awkward when it’s “secretly” your own idea?

    In unrelated news, what’s the town policy on write-in candidates? Asking for a friend.

  5. There is ZERO reason for the NCPD to move from its currently ideal strategic, aesthetic and functional location. I cannot, and do not, believe town assertions that the cost of renovating in situ can be exponentially more than building an entirely new building 1/2 mile down the same street, and depriving the town of even more open recreational acreage in the process. Once again, I smell a developer strategy at work behind the scenes to get their hands on the current South Ave parcel, as they’d never get approval to build anything near Saxe like the town can. Sounds disturbingly familiar to the 1913 Library situation – have the town clear the land, and have developers step in after the dust settles, both literally and politically. We should all be smarter than this. Thank you Nick Williams for stepping up and saying as much.

  6. I thoroughly agree & commend the Ault’s exquisite portraying dysfunctional behavior of total lack of transparency to save my hometown from utter disgrace by again voting in Monhihan.

  7. As I read the local news daily, I am increasingly shocked by our First Selectman. Just when you think, you’ve seen and heard it all, it gets worse and worse. It seems obvious that the input of the residents, is of no interest or concern to Mr. Moynihan. What happened to being accountable ? The taxpayers cannot allow one individual to decide the future of our town. Go out and cast your vote.

  8. I am a former EMT with New Canaan EMS and I still have strong ties to the service. The proposed plan to turn the now Police Station into more senior housing will cause big problems. That campus now contains School House Apartments, the Police Station, South Avenue Cottage and EMS Headquarters. There is not enough space for everyone to park there! It’s limited already. As it is the ambulance is often blocked by badly parked cars or waiting for lines of cars to exit from the lot as there is no room for more exits. Delays occur and a lot of frustration. There is too high a residential population and Police/Ambulance population, all with cars to add any more. This would be a disaster. There is no room for more there.

  9. Why is it okay for our town’s First Selectman to assemble a secret team (seriously, a secret team?!?) when there’s an actual Police Building Committee? Did town resources go to this effort? Are there other secret teams we don’t yet know about?

    This doesn’t even anger me as much as his truly out-of-touch comments in March that we should stop the vaccination clinic in town because it was “putting a bit of a strain on our Health Department” and that everyone could easily get a vaccination appointment elsewhere.

    Why is no one running against Kevin Moynihan? Honest question – if someone has the answer, I’d appreciate it.

    • Hi Lisa,

      Thanks for submitting your comments and questions.

      It is allowed under state law for town employees (the first selectman is salaried, in fact exceedingly high-salaried, compared to counterparts in area towns similar to New Canaan) to meet out of the public eye. So it’s not a violation of FOI law for this team to have been assembled. The superintendent of schools invokes the same exemption from state sunshine laws with the Curriculum Leadership Council that has been in the news in recent weeks. I don’t think it’s accurate to say this was a “secret team.” Though the team didn’t meet in public, its existence wasn’t a secret and the purpose of its work also wasn’t a secret. In fact we reported weeks ago that the Saxe proposal appeared to be coming out of the team.

      What isn’t clear is why the first selectman withheld the team’s findings regarding Saxe even from the appointed Police Building Committee. As noted in the story, the first selectman has said in the past that wide public input would be sought before a recommendation is made. Yet the Saxe option was the only one at last week’s joint public meeting that came with flyover videos and colorful renderings. The architects themselves said it had risen “to the top of the heap” among all options. As some of the elected and appointed officials at that meeting noted, that conclusion would need to be reached by town funding bodies, not this other team. And in order to do that, the town funding bodies would need to have access to all of the data that went into the team’s finding. And that’s just deciding which build-as-new option is best, nevermind the larger open question of whether it makes the most sense just to renovate the existing NCPD. All of this makes it hard to reconcile the first selectman’s assertion that he hasn’t favored the Saxe rebuilding option over a renovation at the current facility.

      Yet this isn’t his decision, ultimately the project would need to be approved by the Town Council. And even then, the bond issuance for the project would be subject to a town-wide referendum if it were approved. So there’s checks and balances.

      To your second question, yes, town resources went into this effort, just as taxpayer money goes into any effort of the government. The allocation of municipal workers’ time—the first selectman said there were nine of them who have been consulted on the Saxe plan—the hiring of the architecture firms, the first selectman’s own salary (which was substantially increased for the fiscal year that started July 1)—that’s all supported by the local taxpayers.

      To your last question I have no answer. That would be one for the Democratic Town Committee.

      Thanks again.

  10. Can anyone tell me why Kevin Moynihan thinks it is ok to repeatedly put his hands on someone else’s body and push them? I was reading this to understand why the town of New Canaan’s selectman went so far as to pay for outlandish architectural plans for a new police building on a baseball field at Saxe Middle School, but now I’m equally flabbergasted at the shocking behavior I just watched, captured on the above video. What is going on here? If that was me he was pushing there would be hell to pay.

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