Government

New Canaan Employs Director of Health

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The Board of Selectmen last month voted unanimously to employ an established and well-regarded municipal worker as New Canaan’s director of health. 

Jennifer Eielson, whose past positions in the New Canaan Health Department include chief sanitarian and director of environmental health, moved into the new position following the selectmen’s 3-0 vote at its Sept. meeting. According to Cheryl Pickering-Jones, the town’s human resources director, municipal officials in April had met with the state and found that New Canaan is eligible to have a full-time health department because Eielson has a master’s degree. “We are meeting all of the credentials fo the state and they recommended that we take that step,” Pickering-Jones said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “It makes us more eligible for grants and it also keeps us away from possibly being put into a district.”

Though no funds for the promotion had been approved in the current fiscal year’s operating budget, there’s money in the chief building official’s budget to cover it, she said.

Government

PHOTOS: Parking Bureau’s ‘Pablo Snow-Casso’ Wins Inaugural Snowman Contest at Town Hall

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Building on the success of last December’s “ugly sweater” contest, Town Hall workers this holiday season launched a new competition that saw municipal departments vie for the title of “Best Snowman.”

With limitations on height and prohibitions on working on the snowmen on town time or putting more than $20 into them, agencies from the Police Department and Parking Bureau to the Town Clerk’s Office and combined Health-Building-P&Z-Inland Wetlands juggernaut put their entries on display Monday. They’ll remain prominently displayed for the rest of the week in the Town Hall lobby, according to Cheryl Pickering-Jones, New Canaan’s human resources director. “I think it went great,” she said of the contest. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan called the snowmen “fantastic,” saying he was “so impressed by the creativity and imagination of our town employees.”

“It’s going to be a very close call for Tucker Murphy to pick a winner,” Moynihan said. He referred to the executive director of the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce.

Government

Officials Actively Seeking New CFO, Town Planner

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Town officials say they’re actively seeking applicants for two of the most important positions in New Canaan’s municipal government: town planner and finance director. Though it had been suspended temporarily with the idea that a new first selectman should weigh in on the decision, the search for a new CFO very recently has been re-launched and interim Finance Director Sandra Dennies is among the candidates, according to New Canaan Human Resources Director Cheryl Pickering-Jones. The two candidates for first selectman—Democrat Kit Devereaux and Republican Kevin Moynihan—are sitting on the search committee “so that we can continue to move the process up,” Pickering-Jones told NewCanaanite.com. Dennies is overseeing things in finance in the meantime—Planning & Zoning is in a different situation. Former Town Planner Steve Palmer’s last day was last week after less than one year in the job.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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The Board of Selectmen said this week that New Canaan has paid about $5,390 in legal fees this fiscal year and nearly $19,000 overall for advice regarding the sober house on West Road. ***

Straight Outta Maple: We received the photo at right—depicting Jack Trifero and Terry Spring, arrested last week after refusing to leave the burial ground alongside the Merritt Village condo-and-apartment development on Maple and Park Streets—with a caption reading that the pair were “carrying the ONLY weapon they had at their unlawful arrest, a zoning map of the Maple Street Cemetery.” Trifero also supplied his statement to police in which he said an owner of the property threw rocks at him and one hit his leg. “I feel he was also throwing them at Terry—so I was concerned. After about 5 or 6 stones, he stopped. I felt it was an unprovoked violent act.”

***

New Canaan Police at about 6 p.m. on Sept.

Government

‘We Are Going To Miss Him’: Town Planner Steve Palmer To Step Down Next Month

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Steve Palmer, town planner of New Canaan since late last year, is stepping down from his position with the municipality to join his family’s business, officials said Friday. Town employees received word from New Canaan Human Resources Director Cheryl Pickering-Jones in a midmorning email. “We are going to miss Steve and the work he has done in just a  short time for Planning and Zoning,” she said in the email. In a relatively short period of time, Palmer has tackled multiple dense and divisive P&Z applications and appeals before the town, including the Merritt Village, sober house, Grace Farms and Roger Sherman Inn. Asked about the development, First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said that Palmer has done “a magnificent job while here.”

“We are going to miss him,” Mallozzi said.