Around Town

Cost- and Energy-Efficient LED Bulbs Coming to Downtown New Canaan’s Holiday Lights

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In an environmentally friendly move that’s expected to save money for the town as well as supporting businesses and individuals, the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce next holiday season will start using new energy-efficient white bulbs in the trees downtown. The cost of installing, replacing and removing the bulbs that adorn trees on Main, Elm and Forest Streets is about $20,000 per year, according to Tucker Murphy, the chamber’s executive director. Officials have wanted to switch to LED bulbs but the only ones available in the past were “harsh blue-gray and we didn’t like the light,” Murphy said. “They’ve finally come out with a [LED] bulb that has that soft, warm, mellow glow, so we are starting to transfer over to LEDs,” she said. Murphy announced the switchover at the May 16 meeting of the Plan of Conservation and Development Implementation Committee.

Business

Here are 28 Current New Canaan Chamber Member Businesses That Also Belonged in Back in ’82

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Here’s a short list of sweeping economic crises that have affected, directly or indirectly, every U.S. business since 1982: Black Monday, savings and loan crisis, subprime mortgage crisis and Great Recession. Locally, success in business involves nimbleness and acumen, and far more than that—interpersonal skills, involvement, diligence and imagination. Recently, the head of an organization that’s central for many local businesses, the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce, came by chance across a list of 28 current members that also were members back in 1982. “They’ve supported the chamber, supported the town and been here for a long, long time,” Executive Director Tucker Murphy said. “We want to congratulate them on that.”

Here’s the list, in alphabetical order (not every single business has been a continuous member of the chamber, though many—including Bob’s Sports, Karl Chevrolet, Walter Stewart’s and Stewart’s Spirits—have been):

Ann Taylor
Baskin Robbins
Bob’s Sports
Brotherhood & Higley
Congregational Church
Family Britches
Franco’s Wine
Healthfare
Hersam Acorn- New Canaan Advertiser
Hoyt Funeral Home
Hutchinson Tree Company

Karl Chevrolet
League of Women Voters
Merrill Lynch
New Canaan Board of Realtors
New Canaan Community Nursery School
New Canaan Country School
New Canaan Library
New Canaan Nature Center
Pennyweights
Roger Sherman Inn
Silvermine Arts Guild
Stewart’s Spirits
Taylor’s Luggage
Visiting Nurse Association of New Canaan
Walter Stewart’s
Waveny Care Center
Whitney Shop

Ties to the local chamber run very deep for businesses such as Walter Stewart’s, recently recognized as Business of the Year.