Board of Selectmen

Devereaux: Funds from Proposed Sale of Town-Owned Property Should Go Toward Open Space

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If New Canaan ends up selling an undeveloped 6.25-acre parcel adjacent to the Talmadge Hill Train Station, those funds should go into a standing fund for acquiring open space, Selectman Kit Devereaux said Tuesday. Referring to a proposal made public last week by New Canaan’s highest elected official, Devereaux noted during a regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen that the town just approved $50,000 for its recently formed Land Acquisition Fund. “Given that we have added money to the open space fund, I think it would be appropriate that that money go toward open space,” she said during the meeting, held on Town Hall. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said he’d “have no problem with that, if that is what people want to do.”

“But I do think we need to be prepared for strategic possibilities—open space adjacent to parks,” he said, adding that New Canaan must be ready to acquire such properties. “I want to build up a fund like Westport has, they have $3 million in their fund, when something comes opportunistically—land is very opportunistic— when it comes up, you need to be able to jump,” he said.

Government

Solar Power Systems To Be Installed at Four Town Buildings 

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday unanimously approved two contracts that will see solar power systems installed on town buildings in New Canaan for the first time. If all goes as planned, the new photovoltaic or ‘PV’ systems could be up and running at Town Hall, the Animal Care building at the New Canaan Nature Center, Waveny Pool house and Highway Department garage prior to next winter, officials said at the selectmen’s regular meeting. “This is our first foray into solar and I am very excited to get this project launched,” First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of a $530,000 contract with Hartford-based Northeast Smart Energy to install the PV systems and with Norwalk-based MHR Development, which drew up the RFP for the work and will help manage the project. 

MHR’s principal is Mark Robbins, a former New Canaan resident who attended the meeting. Moynihan noted that Robbins has consulted on solar projects at local schools.

Board of Selectmen

Divided Board of Selectmen Supports Charging for Disabled Parking Spaces at Train Station

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Two of three members of the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday said they supported charging a regular daily rate for six disabled parking spaces at the New Canaan Train Station that in the past have been free. Though it’s important to locate the designated spaces in close proximity to the station platform for reasons of access, and also to ensure that disabled people are accommodated in terms of physically making payment—for example, by mailing a check if using a pay machine is not possible—the question of whether or not those individuals have the ability to pay is separate, according to Selectman Nick Williams.

“I am not sure why you would treat disabled individuals differently because of their disability apart from the mobility to get to be able to pay which I totally agree to,” Williams said during a regular selectmen meeting, held at Town Hall. Noting that he’s chairman of the Board of Directors of Art Beyond Sight, a nonprofit organization serving the visually impaired, Williams said he didn’t see why a disability “in and of itself should make a difference with respect to something like paying fees.”

“I think we should strive in life to treat everybody equally and because you are disabled it does not mean you lack the ability to pay as others do,” he said. “There are disabled people who are far more successful than I am and so because we have been doing in the past doesn’t mean we shouldn’t change in the future. To me, it’s not the money.

Government

West Road Bridge Replacement on Track for Spring 2020

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Town officials last week approved a $100,000 contract with a Newington-based consulting firm to design a West Road bridge whose headwall failed during a storm last summer. 

The Board of Selectmen voted 3-0 in favor of the contract with WMC Consulting Engineers. The new bridge will replace the existing one, located just north of the intersection at Turtle Back Road. The town moved the funding for the project up by a few months so that, following an estimated six-month design phase, the project can go out to bid in late-2019 for spring 2020 construction, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. New Canaan is expected to pay about $921,000 toward the total $1.8 million cost to replace the bridge, Mann said said. The Connecticut Department of Transportation has committed to a 50 percent grant that will go toward construction design and administration, Mann told the selectmen at their March 12 meeting.

Board of Selectmen

‘It’s Time To Move On’: Board of Selectmen Votes 2-1 To Demolish ‘Mead Park Brick Barn’

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A divided Board of Selectmen on Tuesday voted to approve a pair of contracts to demolish a long-neglected town-owned building on the northern edge of Mead Park, signaling the end of a long-running and hotly disputed debate concerning its future. 

Selectman Nick Williams, who emerged in recent months as the Board’s “swing vote” on what preservationists have dubbed the “Mead Park Brick Barn,” said he had mixed feelings about voting to raze it. 

Noting that a local nonprofit organization, the New Canaan Preservation Alliance, has “worked tirelessly in its efforts to save the Barn” and that “every citizen of New Canaan, regardless of whether you are in favor of or opposed to its continuation, should applaud their efforts,” Williams said that “the time has finally come to proceed with demolition.”

“During a meeting last fall, I said then and I quote, ‘I am personally generally agnostic about the disposition of the Brick Barn, but regardless, one of two things needs to happen—it either needs to be fixed and rehabilitated soon, very soon, or it needs to come down,’ ” Williams said during the Board’s meeting, held at Town Hall. 

“While the Alliance has indeed tried to move heaven and earth to save the Barn, alas, the requisite funding plan, in my mind, essentially, cash on the barrel and in the bank for the complete restoration, with no ‘strings attached,’ and together with a business plan acceptable to relevant town bodies has not come to full fruition,” Williams continued. 

He noted that municipal bodies including the Town Council and Parks & Recreation Commission have voted repeatedly to see the Brick Barn demolished. 

“That tells me that even if we as a Board today were to provide additional time for the Alliance, their continued efforts would ultimately be in vain,” Williams said. “For those reasons, I feel compelled to assist in ending a discussion that has has taken place for nearly a decade. It’s time to move on. The disposition of the Barn has engendered an extraordinary amount of input from our citizens, with emotions running strong on both sides of the issue. Likewise the so-called ‘process’ of that disposition has been discussed and debated extensively in our local press.