COVID-19 New Canaan

Fire Department on Track for $30,000 Deficit Due to COVID-Related Expenses 

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Fire officials say that they’re now expecting to run about $30,000 over budget for this fiscal year due to COVID-19-related costs. The department’s overtime lines “were reduced in the last budget process and we have had a lot of people have to take time off with the COVID crisis,” according to Fire Chief Jack Hennessey. “People have been out of work for weeks because they have sick family members and they have been asked to isolate,” Hennessey said during the April 14 meeting of the Fire Commission, held via videoconference. “So that has been a very big stress on the overtime budget. Preliminarily right now, I am going to guess that we are going to run a $30,000 deficit at the end of the year and it’s all pretty much because of the overtime expense of having to cover people who are not able to work because of family exposures and family sicknesses.”

As of late Friday, 139 New Canaan people had tested positive for coronavirus disease and 18 had succumbed to the virus, according to the Office of Emergency Management.

Government

Selectmen Approve $500,000 for New Fire Rescue Truck

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The Board of Selectmen last week approved a $500,000 contract with a Watertown-based company to build a new rescue truck for the New Canaan Fire Department. 

Bid proposals that came in for the new truck ranged higher than the budgeted half million dollar figure, so the department removed about $41,000 in modifications to the vehicle—some of which it hopes to re-add in the future, according to Fire Chief Jack Hennessey. 

“Everything we cut out we thought we needed,” including a 360-degree camera, Hennessey said during the selectmen’s regular meeting, held Jan. 7 at Town Hall. “But we needed to make our number so we had to delete things. That was a lower-priority thing so we had to take as much stuff truck off of the truck as we could. There might be money in future budgets in other lines that we might be able to put some of these things back in.

News

Three Taken to Hospital After Head-On Crash on Route 123 Early Friday

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Three people were transported to Norwalk Hospital early Friday after a head-on collision on Route 123, officials said. At about 6:30 a.m., a van and car crashed in the area of Smith Ridge Road south of Norholt Drive, trapping the driver of the car, according to Fire Chief Jack Hennessey. The occupants of the van got themselves out, he said. “The high energy impact required rescue personnel to use hydraulic rescue tools, saws and a winch to free the trapped driver,” Hennessey said in a press release. Smith Ridge Road was closed for more than one hour, and reopened at about 7:50 a.m., Hennessey said.

Homepage Featured

High Winds Snap Pine Tree on Norholt Drive on Monday, Damaging House

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Firefighters midday Monday responded to a report of a tree that had fallen into a house on Norholt Drive, officials said. The top of a large pine tree snapped off as winds gusted more than 50 mph, damaging the rear of the home, according to a press release issued by Fire Chief Jack Hennssey. No one was injured, he said. The tree broke a window in the home, according to dispatcher reports. The National Weather Service has put New Canaan under a high wind warning through 6 p.m. Winds are blowing up to 28 mph and gusting up to 55 mph, according to the National Weather Service. 

As of 1 p.m., 54 Eversource customers were without power in New Canaan.

Around Town

‘An Unsung Hero’: New Canaanites Remember Jim Cole 

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Saddened by news of Jim Cole’s passing this week, New Canaanites are remembering the longtime former resident as a dedicated volunteer who served the community quietly and in numerous ways while helping to shape emergency preparedness in town. A former chairman of the New Canaan Police and Fire Commissions who went on to become the town’s director and later deputy director of Emergency Management and served on its Traffic Calming Work Group, Cole died Monday in Florida, according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. In calling for a moment of silence at a regular meeting of the Board of Finance on Tuesday night, Moynihan called Cole “a great friend of New Canaan” and “great volunteer” alongside his wife, Nancy Upton. Known for his deep involvement in the Congregational Church of New Canaan, local service organizations and the Community Emergency Response Team, a volunteer group known as ‘CERT,’ Cole was a widely respected expert on emergency response for whom the safety of the community was imperative, according to those who knew him. 

He not only helped plan for emergencies but also rolled up his sleeves to work hard when they struck, according to Mike Handler, New Canaan’s director of emergency management. Handler called Cole “a remarkable guy” who “took community engagement and involvement to a different level” not only as a volunteer but also as a great recruiter who was “fiercely loyal” to those who gave of their time as he did.