Government

First Selectman: Funding for Security Cameras at Waveny Could Come Sooner Than Budget Season

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After saying earlier this month that there’s no pressing need to install security cameras at Waveny’s entrances and that the work could wait until next summer after the fiscal year 2021 budget is set, New Canaan’s highest elected official on Tuesday conceded that funding for the project could come through as a special appropriation before then. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said he is to meet with the Police Commission on Wednesday night and that the Board of Selectmen could take up a definitive plan as early as the elected body’s next meeting (Oct. 8). “I’m not sure we will have a definite plan,” Moynihan said during the selectmen’s regular meeting, held in Town Hall. “We are working with a security consultant and we will hopefully have further discussion.”

He added, “We will definitely have further discussion at our next meeting, whether or not we adopt something at that meeting.

Government

Parking Manager: Body Cameras for Enforcement Officers Would Cost $3,500 Plus $1,000 Annually for Cloud Storage

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The body cameras that the head of of the New Canaan Parking Bureau is seeking to acquire for enforcement officers would cost about $3,500 total and funding for them is included in this year’s budget, she said last week. The cost of storing the video the cameras record in the cloud would come to an additional approximately $1,000 per year, according to Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg. With support from the Parking Commission at the appointed body’s prior meeting, Miltenberg put together a formal proposal for the Board of Selectmen to purchase the cameras. Miltenberg and parking enforcement officers have spoken in favor of using them to ensure that there’s an official record of interactions with motorists. “I put a proposal together, and a procedure together … for the Board of Selectmen, but at this time [First Selectman] Kevin [Moynihan] does not want to move forward with it until he gives it more thought,” she told members of the Commission during a special meeting held Sept.

Board of Selectmen

Garden Club Funding $80,000 Flexi-Pave Path Installation at Irwin Park

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Town officials last week approved an approximately $80,000 contract with a Danbury-based company in order to complete a final section of pedestrian-friendly footpath surfacing at a popular Weed Street park. The Board of Selectmen at its regular meeting Tuesday voted 3-0 in favor of the contract with Tri-State Flexi Pave, which is to surface the footpath that traverses the southeastern part of Irwin Park. The funds will be paid by the New Canaan Garden Club, officials said. “We were one of the first installations in this area and in the country, as well,” Public Works Director Tiger Mann said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “The material has held up very, very well.”

He added, “It doesn’t seem to be falling apart, it’s not getting brittle, it’s not having any repair issues.”

First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted in favor of the $79,360.40 contract, which includes $5,000 in contingency funding.

Government

Town Approves Less Costly Contract for Emergency Outcall Services

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved a yearlong contract with a Washington, D.C.-based company that provides outcall services used by local emergency response officials. The contract with Blackboard Connect had risen to a cost of about $17,500 per year and municipal officials after getting quotes from different vendors were able to negotiate it down to half that rate, according to Chris Kaiser, director of Information Technology for the town. “We kind of realized and recognized that it was a little overpayment for services,” Kaiser told the selectmen at their regular meeting, held in Town Hall. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of the $8,750 contract. 

At the moment, police, firefighters, EMTs and the New Canaan Office of Emergency Management have used the system to issue calls to those who have volunteered their contact information. The technology can be used in more ways and various types of outreach, Kaiser said, including for surveys or in reaching employees at times when Town Hall may be closed.

Board of Selectmen

Town Approves $13,000 Mosquito Larvicide Contract

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The Board of Selectmen at a recent meeting approved a $13,280 contract with a Branford-based ecological management firm to put mosquito larvicide in New Canaan’s storm drains. Representatives from All Habitat Services LLC come to town four times per year to dump a product called Vectolex into some 2,656 catch basins, Parks Superintendent John Howe told the Board. 

Doing so is “the best thing we can do for West Nile Virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis,” Howe said at the Aug. 20 meeting, held in Town Hall. Vectolex “reproduces itself, so it gives us longer control,” Howe said. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of the contract.