We’re nearly halfway into July and for New Canaanites that means a few specific things—such as summer camp, including this gem, and of course Village Fair & Sidewalk Sale is near, running 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.
NewCanaanite.com is partnering with Salon Kiklo and with Swirl froyo on two separate giveaways:
- Enter your name and email here for a chance to win a free shampoo and blow-dry at the salon, and be sure to stop by the NewCanaanite.com tent during the sale (we’re just down from the Playhouse) for a fun, interactive Facebook contest and your chance to win one of three gift cards to Swirl. We’ve got a box of fun glasses, wigs, scarves and other items for contestants to wear and pull a funny face for a share-able Facebook photo—get the most likes and win.
The Sidewalk Sale website here includes a full list of vendors.
Speaking of shopping or getting new things, the theme of this Week in Review is “Taking Shape.”
Town Talker
We had a couple of comments come into our Facebook page on this one. The Parking Commission is trying to decide just what to do with a local commuter who is requesting that the town renew his Richmond Hill Lot permit. Initially, the man didn’t seek to renew it because he was—against the rules—using a coveted Lumberyard lot permit left to him by a friend who had moved out of town.
Credit: Terry Dinan
He got caught, thanks to Parking Bureau workers and a new license plate reader, which told them immediately that the permit shown in the car didn’t belong to that vehicle.
One idea is to move the man back to the bottom of the waiting list for the Lumberyard lot (it’s a 7-year wait and he’s only a few years out), though it isn’t clear just what authority the commission has to do that. Just how he’s reprimanded has yet to take shape.
Town Amenities
In one way, the strategy by the Park & Recreation Commission to boost revenue at Waveny Pool this season by raising rates on family passes (and selling 100 to nonresidents at $1,000 a pop) is working: Revenues are up.
Poolside view of the Waveny Pool on a sunny Tuesday in July.
Yet they’re not up as much as projected or hoped, and overall sales of the family passes are down.
That means the commission, which oversees the self-staining pool, may be cutting it fairly close if a relining of the pool’s plaster is needed in short order—one estimate puts it at about $140,000. Plans for boosting revenue are taking shape.
And one amenity yet-to-come that, for a while, seemed like a certain thing, is natural gas. Officials with the town’s Utilities Commission are saying that Yankee Gas started dragging its feet the moment a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the town and utility. So now they’re opening up the possibility of starting negotiations anew, including with CNG.
Taking Shape
We heard a few more details on what a rebuilt New Canaan Library may look like during interviews after the organization’s annual meeting.
New Canaan Library on June 4, 2014. Credit: Michael Dinan
Three major components include the library’s main borrowing and use area, which could be done in a modern style, officials say, a more traditional area for gathering spaces, and more parking.
Not far from town, the busy Parade Hill Road will get a bit busier again, as a home near the bottom corner of Rural Drive comes down to make way for new construction, meaning there will be three simultaneous new home projects on the short street.
Downtown
It’s been a strange phenomenon for years: Cars that park nose-to-nose or rear-to-rear along the sidewalk at Morse Court. The town doesn’t enforce the parallel parking there (focused rather on the timed lot), yet a complaint about safety is prompting officials in charge of traffic to do some new striping at the intersection with South Avenue, in hopes that it will deter cars pulling into Morse Court there from immediately getting into the access way’s left lane.
Public Safety
A very busy stretch for New Canaan Police started as we headed into the Fourth of July holiday weekend—with a DUI checkpoint and a slew of alcohol-related arrests—and police also arrested a drunk teen at the Waveny event itself.
Police toward the end of last week were involved in a pre-dawn search up Ponus Ridge that led to a juvenile arrest, and some crack on-the-spot work led to an arrest warrant via DNA testing to a burglary in town that’s nearly five years old.
On a somber note, two New Canaan men, 18 and 20, were arrested on drug charges after police found heroin on them here in town.