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Officials Approve Contract for Design of New Sidewalk at Talmadge Hill

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Town officials on Tuesday approved a contract with a Shelton-based engineering firm to survey and design a new sidewalk at Talmadge Hill Train Station. The Board of Selectmen voted 3-0 at its regular meeting in favor of the $15,900 contract with Tighe & Bond. 

The sidewalk will run along the north side of Talmadge Hill Road, from the upper parking lots down the hill past the train stop to Route 106, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. The construction work itself—involving the replacement of an existing sidewalk and an extension—will be paid for through a state Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program or ‘LOTCIP’ grant, Mann told the selectmen at their meeting, held in Town Hall. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, participating in the meeting by phone, said the LOTCIP funds had been allocated four years ago “and we are just trying to keep them.”

“They are being directed to three different transpiration-related projects for sidewalks, and this is one of them,” Moynihan said. The others are for sidewalks on Park Street and Richmond Hill Road, officials said.

Government

‘Gaming the System’: Town Eyes Change to Fees at Dump

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Saying some residents take unfair advantage of a standing rule, municipal officials are considering a change to how the town charges those bringing brush and construction debris to the dump. As it is, it’s free for those with a Transfer Station sticker to dump the first 300 pounds of material, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. Yet “we have people that are gaming the system,” Mann told the Board of Selectmen at their Feb. 25 meeting in Town Hall. “[They] will come in multiple times a day—290 pounds, 275 pounds, things of that nature, where they are weighing at their house and then coming in and gaming the system,” Mann said.

Board of Selectmen

Town Hires Consulting Firm To Study Parking Use Downtown, Recommend Changes

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday voted unanimously to enter into a $25,000 contract with a Hartford-based consulting firm that will study the use and turnover of parking spaces throughout the downtown and make recommendations on future use. 

The work of Fitzgerald & Halliday will be divided into three separate tasks, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann: Taking an inventory of current municipal parking, studying utilization and turnover of parking over three weeks and providing guidance on how New Canaan could better serve visitors and workers who park downtown. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said New Canaan must understand how many parking spaces it has and how they’re used “so we can decide what can we do differently.”

“This parking picture has gotten so complicated with the addition of Boxcar and based on what is happening with Town Hall and Locust, we really need to make decisions over the next three months and need input,” he said at the Board’s regular meeting, held in Town Hall. Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted in favor of the contract. 

The study comes as New Canaan weighs a proposal from Williams to eliminate metered parking downtown while still enforcing time limits. Moynihan said the objective of the new study is to make it free to park up to two hours—as on-street parking already is throughout downtown New Canaan—and also to study the budget implications of doing so. 

Members of the Parking Commission have said the change would amount to a loss of about $200,000 in revenue annually. The town last year took in more than $300,000 in parking infractions, officials have said.

Government

Officials: Trash-Collecting Company Non-Responsive To Inquiries Regarding High Rates

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Town officials said Tuesday that they’ve been unable to reach a Stamford-based garbage and recycling collection company for a reason why New Canaan is paying about 30% more than neighboring Wilton for a similar service, and will seek a new contractor. 

The town pays City Carting about $85 per ton for recycling services, compared to Wilton’s rate of $65 per ton, according to Department of Public Works Assistant Superintendent of Solid Waste Don Smith. 

“I can’t get ahold of nobody,” Smith told the Board of Selectmen when asked whether City Carting had justified the $20 difference. “I have sent emails, phone calls and text messages and nobody has gotten back to me since our last time we had this [discussion] in November.”

The comments can as the Board approved payment of about $64,000 to City Carting for invoices racked up the past three months. The town since July 1 has been using the company without a contract. 

Smith told the selectmen during their regular meeting at Town Hall that a request for proposals will go out next week. “I’m sending it to all three major companies in the area and hopefully someone else will just respond and go after it,” Smith said. The two other companies are located in Shelton and Bridgeport, he said.

Board of Selectmen

Family Fourth: Officials Approve $31,000 Contract for Fireworks at Waveny

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Town officials on Tuesday approved a $31,000 contract with a Douglassville, Pa.-based company for this year’s Independence Day fireworks at Waveny, the 40th Family Fourth celebration at the public park. Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted 2-0 in favor of the contract with International Fireworks Manufacturing Company. Tom Stadler, chair of the Family Fourth Committee that oversees the popular show, said revenues from sales of passes have risen following efforts to educate the attending public that the fireworks are not town-funded but rely on monies collected privately through the passes. “This past year we were able to fund not only the whole entire show but also give some money to the Emergency Medical Services so they could buy that golf cart and there’s a stretcher on it—it’s equipment for the emergency medical people which we were renting each year from Norwalk so deiced to help them buy it,” Stadler told the selectmen at their regular meeting at Town Hall. “Also we helped the Police Department with some work on their trailer.