New Canaan Week in Review: Bo Hickey, Enrollment, Taste of the Town

Residents, including youth sports families with kids whose practices and camps already are underway, are returning to New Canaan from the Cape, the Jersey shore and further afield.

The first day of school is just a few days away, and for now the town is suspended in a relaxing equilibrium—neighbors and friends are greeting each other in town with a feeling of vacation still lingering, even as Labor Day approaches with not just the academic year but municipal government reconvenes.

The Board of Education kickstarted this academic year’s meetings with a peek at higher-than-anticipated (by an outside organization) enrollment projections—here’s a table that was distributed at Monday’s meeting, article continues below:

New Canaan Public Schools: 2014-15 Enrollment Projections—Elementary

Grade	East	South	West	2014-15	2013-14	(Diff)	(NESDEC 2014-15 Projections)
Total	567	547	560	1,674	1,602	72	1612
Pre-K			42	42	41	1	42
K	108	91	111	310	270	40	258
1	90	110	89	289	331	-42	295
2	129	105	123	357	302	55	346
3	117	122	81	320	347	-27	315
4	123	119	114	356	311	45	356

Class size guidelines
*Grades K-3: 16 to 20 pupils
*Grade 4: 20 to 24 pupils

 

The South School windows project is on schedule and budget, and we got word from New Canaan’s police chief that the department not only would conduct targeted enforcement around schools, but also a great list of tips for students who are college-bound, and their parents.

This past week saw one of New Canaan’s highest elected officials undergo the popular ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, and extend that challenge to a colleague, while a very cool new exhibition opened at the New Canaan Library gallery and one of New Canaan’s delegates in Washington, D.C. (who is up for re-election this and every even-numbered year) dropped by The Candy Scoop, New Canaan Music and New Canaan Olive Oil, among other local businesses.

Here’s the Week in Review.

Town Talker

We got some strong feedback on our Facebook page when we posted this article about how New Canaan firefighters, on returning to the station, fear for their lives after dismounting from vehicles prior to backing them into the Main Street garage.

Whether the fire trucks are approaching the station from the north or south, Fire Chief Jack Hennessey told us, “guys dismount the truck and try to stop traffic and as they are doing that, people will try to drive around the truck.”

Perhaps newly designated Community Impact Officer Roy Adams will make a difference in motorist behavior there as well as in other areas downtown.

Business

Speaking of whom, Adams is slated to start in his new role next week.

As CIO, the 13-year New Canaan Police veteran will work directly with merchants, forging relationships with them and working on security, while keeping an eye on motorists who violate distracted driving and other laws, as well as parking offenders and others.

Other news from our downtown this week was the very successful Taste of the Town Stroll, a “food raiser” for the New Canaan Food Pantry that also serves merchants and customers in New Canaan by opening up new lines between them. The organizing agency, the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce, put the value on non-perishables raised for the increasingly important pantry at about $6,000.

[acx_slideshow name=”2014 New Canaan Taste of the Town Stroll”]

 

Land Use

A long sought-after strip of land that open space advocates have coveted for years, in order to create a new walk-able “greenway” in New Canaan, popped up as a conservation easement in the proposed subdivision of a Weed Street property.

If granted (and made traversable), the strip of land on the northern edge of the Weed Street property, located near the intersection at Wahackme, would complete a new “loop” in town between Irwin Park and, through the woods and including some New Canaan Land Trust property, the New Canaan Nature Center.

A public hearing for a proposed accessway that would run to the three lots where one now stands on the 9-acre property is scheduled for Oct. 20.

In other land use news, New Canaan will see another teardown on South Avenue, as number 386 makes way for planned new construction.

Youth Sports

One of this week’s major stories is Bo Hickey’s retirement from New Canaan High School boys’ varsity ice hockey coach after 20 years in the post.

Hickey, a hugely successful coach who also is deeply respected and even beloved with ice hockey and varsity athletics circles, received some nice words in this send-off video, including from NCHS athletes and coaches.

Meanwhile, New Canaan’s youth athletes are back in town and training on our fields, both on school grounds (which are not treated with pesticides) and public parks (which often are, such as Conner, Mead and Waveny). Recently, we’ve heard news bubble up in other parts of the state that fields that have gone untreated are being wrecked, and even made unsafe, by ruts, bumps and divots that potentially could injure athletes who use them. New Canaan’s parks superintendent said all fields are safe.

Our Animals

Finally, we released a pair of animal-related videos this past week. One shows NCPD Animal Control Officer Diane Apicelli removing a large bird of prey—experts are calling it a red-tailed hawk—from a screened porch in town:

And we introduced Randy, a brindle Chihuahua found roaming on Carter Street last month, who is up for adoption through the NCPD Animal Control shelter: