Board of Selectmen

Selectmen Approve Request To Spend $7,500 on Non-Refundable Deposit for Ice Rink Materials

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Though they haven’t yet recommended a specific trial site, those pursuing an open-air ice rink in New Canaan are readying to purchase used equipment for the facility that will save hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved a request to put $7,500 in privately raised funds held in a town account toward a 60-by-120-foot ice rink and accessory equipment. The non-refundable deposit is for a rink that the Fairfield County Hunt Club is selling for $75,000, according to Gene Goodman, who has spent more than one year as a member of the Parks & Recreation Commission spearheading efforts to study what would be needed to create an outdoor rink facility and where it may go. “Having looked at every site in this town, every site has its plusses and minuses,” Goodman told the selectmen at their regular meeting, held in Town Hall. “No one is an absolute clear hands-down winner.

Government

Town Approves $5,000 To Support Upcoming ‘Sculpture Trail’

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Town officials on Tuesday approved $5,000 toward a “Sculpture Trail” that will see outdoor art displayed at eight locations around New Canaan this spring and summer.  

The Board of Selectmen’s 2-0 vote during its regular meeting will support the efforts of the New Canaan Land Trust and Carriage Barn Arts Center for the Sculpture Trail, which will run for four months through July, officials said. “The mission, first of all, is to celebrate the anniversary of Earth Day but really to celebrate open space for the Land Trust and celebrate New Canaan,” Beth Sanford, a member of the Land Trust’s board, told the selectmen during their regular meeting at Town Hall. About 70 artists submitted proposals for the exhibition, curated with hope from the Carriage Barn, officials said. Ultimately, six pieces of art will be installed on Land Trust property, with one out front of Town Hall and one at the Carriage Barn, Sanford said.

Board of Finance

First Selectman: Playground at Kiwanis Should Be Relocated to Waveny Pool

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The town should remove funds earmarked to replace fencing around a playground at Kiwanis Park and relocate the equipment there to Waveny Pool, New Canaan’s highest elected official said last week. The playground at Kiwanis is “used very little,” according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. “Maybe a little bit by the neighborhood,” Moynihan said during a press briefing held Thursday in his office at Town Hall. “But it should be moved over to Waveny where the kids at the pool could go to an adjacent playground.”

He added: “You could build it so that there is a gate from the playground from the pool. A lot of the kids are at the pool.

Government

Budget Cuts: Town To Reduce Funding for Landscaping Work Around Several Public Buildings

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Town officials are looking to cut back on landscaping work around a handful of public buildings, including Vine Cottage, Powerhouse Theater, Carriage Barn Arts Center, Saxe Middle School and New Canaan High School. The proposed budget for next fiscal year removes about $15,000 paid annually to outside contractors in recent years for more frequent weeding and mulching that the Parks & Recreation Commission had pushed for, including during “spring cleanups.”

John Howe, parks superintendent in the Department of Public Works, told members of the Commission during their Jan. 8 meeting, “The hard part I see is that we have been able to have these buildings look great throughout the year.”

“And we are kind of going backwards,” he said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “Are we in better shape now than we were five years ago? Yes, by a long shot.”

The cutbacks come as the Board of Finance guides municipal departments to reduce operating costs by 2%.

Board of Selectmen

Public-Private Partnership: District Pursues $1 Million Refurbishment of Planetarium at NCHS

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District officials say hundreds of thousands of dollars are to be raised privately to offset a taxpayer contribution toward an upgrade of the planetarium at New Canaan High School and that the revamped facility would be used by students as well as the wider community. 

The ca.-1970 planetarium and its original projector have been “aged out for a while,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi told the Board of Selectmen at a Jan. 23 budget hearing, held in Town Hall. 

“We use it for our programs, but the opportunities that are there at the planetarium are enormous. The new technology now allows you to change the projector out and put a new projector in that use the dome as the screen in an immersive environment. And if you have been to the Natural History Museum or others and have seen a planetarium show, you have seen that this is an immersive experience that is focused on not only astronomy but multi-disciplinary, across anything, any age, any discipline, any subject.”

To upgrade the projector, sound system, dome and seats in the planetarium would cost about $1 million, Luizzi said. The selectmen at a subsequent meeting voted 3-0 in favor of a capital spending plan that includes $550,000 in taxpayer funding for the planetarium.