Government

‘The Cacophony of Finger-Pointing’: Selectmen Voice Concerns over Third-Party Review of NCHS Fields Project

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Saying that a very able town-appointed committee appears to be directing funds for outside contractors instead of handling the work itself, members of the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday voiced concerns regarding how reviews of the track and fields projects at the high school will affect public-private partnerships and volunteerism in New Canaan. When the town first formed the Audit Committee, Selectman Beth Jones said, she was “under the crazy impression that they were actually going to do some of this auditing and stuff.”

“I did not know they would just tell us what needed to be done and pay outside people,” Jones said during the selectmen’s meeting, held at Town Hall. “I would hope they are all such financial experts and so great at this that I would love their insight on what needs to be done, rather than just handing it off and paying $16,000 to somebody else.”

She referred to funds to be paid to independent auditors who, at the request of the Audit Committee, will take on reviews of how the building projects at New Canaan High School have unfolded. The projects, partially completed, include re-turfing a playing field, creating a new turf field-and-a-half and replacing the track. Originally estimated to cost $4.9 million, with the town committing $3.9 million in bonding, the project itself was changed in June by a Fields Building Committee as higher-than-expected costs emerged.

News

Letter: Rob Fryer for Treasurer

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Editor, New Canaanite:

New Canaan voters have the opportunity to put an accomplished CPA in office as town treasurer this November. Rob Fryer spent 34 years in the financial world as a partner at Deloitte. Numbers are not partisan, and Rob knows numbers. He knows how to follow the money coming in and going out and he knows the proper processes for how transactions should happen. With Rob Fryer as treasurer, material weaknesses would not have continued for years.

Government

New Handrails Coming to Two Culvert Crossings on Waveny Trail

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Town officials on Tuesday approved a $20,000 contract—nearly all of that to be funded privately—to install wooden handrails over two culverts on newly upgraded trails at Waveny. The work by Wilton-based Riverside Fence is a final touch from the nonprofit Waveny Park Conservancy on the organization’s improved trails running from South Avenue to the four-way along the main road through the park, according to Tiger Mann, New Canaan’s public works director. “The Conservancy would like to see a couple of handrails put over the top for fall protection,” Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting, held in Town Hall. The Conservancy is paying for all but $1,000 of the work, Mann said. Keith Simpson, a prominent landscape architect in town who is a member of the Conservancy’s board of directors, solicited the quote from Riverside Fence—the same company that installed the new footbridge he designed at Mead Park to complete the Gold Star Walk.

Government

Town Officials Approve Road Repair Projects on Garibaldi, Sleepy Hollow

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Town officials on Tuesday approved an approximately $65,000 contract extension with a Norwalk-based company to repair two small sections of roads in residential neighborhoods. The $66,820 contract with FGB Construction includes the milling and paving of parts of Garibaldi Lane and Sleepy Hollow Road as well as about $5,000 for police protection during the work. “We normally do not do small sections but these two sections warrant repair,” New Canaan Public Works Director Tiger Mann said during a regular meeting fo the Board of Selectmen, held at Town Hall. The portion on Garibaldi essentially will finish off the road, which had been started from the Route 123 side but stopped at a narrow section toward Brushy Ridge Road “and since the rest of the road is in good shape, that is the last piece to have done,” Mann said. “There is a large development going in there right, basically right at the terminus of this stretch, and all the prospective buyers that keep coming in are driving down a poor road to get a prospective half-million-dollar home to purchase, so we feel it would be in our best interests to take care of this section.”

The portion of Sleepy Hollow lies along the first 1,000 feet or so as that road comes off of Laurel, Mann said.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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A divided Town Council on Wednesday night voted 8-4 in favor of a revisited bonding package of $3.9 million for the fields projects now underway at New Canaan High School—$800,000 more in taxpayer money than had been committed in April. Those voting against the spending were Christa Kenin, Kathleen Corbet, Joe Paladino and Jim Kucharczyk. Those voting in favor were Cristina A. Ross, John Engel, Ken Campbell, Penny Young, Bill Walbert, Steve Karl, Kevin Moynihan and Sven Englund. ***

Dozens of New Canaan High School students at 7 a.m. Wednesday gathered at the flagpole out front of the Farm Road facility to pray together as part of the national “See You at the Pole” movement. Participants included members of St. Aloysius Church, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Congregational Church of New Canaan.