The opening of school this year has been smooth and many have noticed the significant upgrades to facilities on all campuses. Though it’s early still, another closely followed storyline emerged in the young academic year this past week when, after New Canaan High School students petitioned to bring back the pep rally (which had been cancelled and would have been held Friday night), ticket sales for the annual Homecoming Dance were so low that administrators were forced to cancel the dance itself.
This past week, a pair of bulletins also put us on notice for some important dates in October: Metro-North Railroad needs to work on the rails at the Richmond Hill Road crossing, so that street will be closed at that point Oct. 3 to 8, and DPW leaf collection will start Oct. 27.
Here’s the Week in Review.
David Leibenguth. Photo courtesy of the New Canaan Police Department
Town Talker
Details of a disturbing incident downtown began emerging Monday in a story that has since been picked up by The Associated Press and gone national.
A 55-year-old Greenwich man on a weekday morning last month, apparently upset about a $15 parking ticket just issued to him at Morse Court, used racial slurs and even a reference to Ferguson, Mo.—the town where a police officer last month shot to death an unarmed black teenager—in his remarks to the African-American town parking enforcement officer who had issued the ticket.
Police charged the man by warrant with second-degree breach of peace—a step to which the Cos Cob resident objected, saying among other things in a letter to New Canaan’s highest elected official, town attorney and police chief that it’s the parking officer, not him, who should be charged.
In addition to “Remember what happened in Ferguson,” the other things that David Liebenguth appears to have told the New Canaan parking officer is that he only issued the ticket because Liebenguth’s car was white.
Vitti Street at Cherry. Credit: Terry Dinan
Land Use
With the newly updated and adopted Plan of Conservation and Development firmly in hand, planning officials are turning their attention to a section of the downtown that they call long neglected and ripe for an aesthetic and utility (as in “usefulness”) upgrade.
The band of Vitti and Cross Streets for decades has defaulted into a kind of industrial zone for New Canaan, with heavy-equipment uses, car washes, auto repair and print businesses operating out of the area wedged in a box roughly inside East Avenue, Cherry Street, Locust Avenue and Summer.
This is the south elevation of the proposed, expanded pavilion at the New Canaan Field Club, from PH Architects of Newtown.
Possibilities for a newly defined zone there could bring in mixed use residential-and-retail structures, a Post Office and upgrades to sidewalks and streetscapes.
Planning officials this week also approved on 16 conditions the divisive New Canaan Field Club’s proposal to expand its decades-old pool pavilion. The significantly roomier new structure raised concerns among Glen Drive and other neighbors worried about increased noise, traffic and light, as well as lower property values.
1124 Valley Road. Credit: Michael Dinan
We also connected with Norwalk’s first taxing district, owner of an interesting and desirable 4-plus-acre lot on upper Valley Road that both abuts a well cared-for New Canaan Land Trust property and includes what preservationists call an historic ca. 1750 house. The property could soon hit the market, opening the possibility of developing the oversized lot. We also reported this week on a handful of parcels in New Canaan for which new construction has been approved or soon likely will be.
A request has come into the town to install a crosswalk here, at Parade Hill Lane and Oenoke Ridge Road. The crosswalk, which requires ConnDOT approval since Oenoke/Route 124 is a state road, ideally would run across from the south side of Parade Hill Lane the south side of Parade Hill Road, allowing kids in the neighborhood to walk safely to town by way of a sidewalk along the eastern side of Oenoke. Credit: Terry Dinan
Government
Parents on Parade Hill Lane say the neighborhood there, a dead-end on the west side of Oenoke Ridge, just as that final straightaway past St. Mark’s starts toward town, is increasingly full of kids (up to 20 now) and many of them are now reaching the age where they’d like to walk to town. But how to get safely across to the sidewalk that runs along the eastern side of Oenoke? They proposed a crosswalk, a suggestion which officials say they would pass along to a team that handles such requests, though since Oenoke itself is a state road (Route 124) a physical crosswalk likely shouldn’t be expected for a few years.
Two trees along Ponus Ridge are dead and must now come down as a result of damage from a stone wall build around them. Credit: Michael Dinan
We also heard from New Canaan’s longtime tree warden, about a problem that crops up fairly steadily: Homeowners, often unwittingly, are killing public trees that front their properties by putting up stone walls that damage the roots.
Tree Warden Bruce Pauley asked the Board of Selectmen to consider a new requirement that would mandate at least a consultation with his office prior to putting up a stone wall.
Holden Busby picks up big yards for New Canaan. (Jen Gentner photo)
Sports
On the sports front, we not only had the big Homecoming football game versus Greenwich on our home turf at Dunning Field—congrats, Lou—we also saw some young footballers put up an impressive victory against Wilton (Terry’s son, the Schmoop, is on the team). New Canaan’s comprehensive youth soccer organization posted write-ups on several impressive victories for boys and girls teams, and we got some tough news regarding local hero Curt Casali, the town’s first major league baseball player: He’s been sidelined for this final weekend of play due to concussions.
The Water Tower fields at New Canaan High School. Credit: Terry Dinan
On the sports news front, we reported on a problem that is exacerbated in the fall: A perceived shortage of playing time on lighted fields in the evening.
Our Animals
We reported on two dog attacks in town in the past week, one in which a woman was scratched by a golden retriever mix, prompting police to quarantine the animal for two weeks, and another in which a Great Dane attacked a smaller dog before dawn one weekday morning, forcing the Chihuahua mix to get stitches.