Business

Local Business and COVID-19: Karl Chevrolet

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What follows are responses from Leo Karl III, president of Karl Chevrolet, for our Q&A on how the local business is navigating the COVID-19 emergency in New Canaan. New Canaanite: What has the past week been like for you and Karl Chevrolet? Leo Karl III: Like all of us, each day has brought new information and adjustments. We have been preparing and making plans for a couple of weeks, so we feel our team has been very pro-active in dealing with the COVID-19 Coronavirus health threat. We want to do our part to be good stewards of our community’s health and well-being, while delivering needed services to our clients as seamlessly as possible. That includes adapting several new business initiatives.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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A senior member of the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church congregation tested positive for COVID-19 virus, according to a post from the Rev. Peter Walsh on the church’s website. The individual’s family is quarantined, and as a protective measure so is a pastor from the church who had visited them, Walsh said. (The pastor is asymptomatic.) St. Mark’s will not gather in person for at least two weeks, through March 29, Walsh said in the post.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Municipal officials on Thursday denied a request to view a legal opinion rendered by the town attorney’s firm regarding New Canaan’s volunteer firefighters. The following line items and billing hours appear in a legal bill approved Feb. 11 by the Board of Selectmen, detailing what are described as professional tasks achieved by Berchem & Moses lawyers Christopher Hodgson, Kyle Roseman, Meredith Diette and Rebecca Goldberg, between Jan. 6 and 24 (New Canaan taxpayers fund an $8,5000 monthly retainer with the firm): 

“Follow up re: volunteer firefighters (.5 hours);
“Discussed strategy for payment of volunteer firefighters advice letter (.3 hours);
“Drafting advice letter re: payment of volunteer firefighters (.6 hours);
“Research volunteer firefighter issue (1 hour);
“Drafting advice letter re: payment of volunteer firefighters (2 hours);
“Review volunteer opinion memo; forward first draft to [Town Human Resources Director Cheryl Pickering-Jones] (.7 hours);
“Drafted advice letter re: use of volunteer firefighters to cover for career firefighter shifts (4 hours);
“Edited advice letter (1 hour);
“Emailed letter along with summary and additional memos of law for review (.4 hours);
“Research, review and revision of opinion letter re: volunteer firefighters (2 hours);
“Interoffice communication re: volunteer firefighter issue; research recent law re: same and draft language for opinion letter re: same (1.1 hours); 
“Research re: definition of volunteer firefighter; interoffice conference re: same (1.5 hours);
“Continued research for volunteer firefighter opinion; revise draft letter (1.7 hours);
“Interoffice communication re: volunteer firefighter issue (1.3 hours);
“Research, review and revision of opinion letter re: volunteer firefighters (1.3 hours);
“Interoffice discussions re: volunteer firefighters; review and analyze DOL opinion letters re: same (.7 hours);
“Final revisions to opinion letter re: volunteer firefighters (.8 hours);
“Interoffice communication re: volunteer firefighters (.7 hours);
“Conference with C. Jones to follow up re: volunteer firefighter issue (.3 hours);
“Reviewed final draft of letter re: compensation of unpaid firefighters (.5 hours);
“Draft memo re: volunteers; telephone conference with C. Jones.”

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The Town Clerk’s office on Feb. 20 recorded a notice of a $13,398.51 state real estate tax lien for the White Oak Shade Road home whose owners include a husband and wife who pleaded guilty to federal charges in connection with a health care fraud scheme. 

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The Board of Education has scheduled a special meeting for March 2 to conduct a “student disciplinary hearing” in executive session.

Business

Hundreds Come to New Canaan’s Karl Chevrolet for 2020 Corvette Stingray Unveiling

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Hundreds of auto enthusiasts visited one of New Canaan’s best established local businesses Tuesday for a milestone unveiling of a new specialty car. 

Supported by New Canaan businesses and designed to support local charities, the all-day unveiling at Karl Chevrolet of the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray marked the first time that people could see the American sports car in Connecticut. 

“Everybody has been waiting for a mid-engine Corvette, including myself, and here it is,” Gary Trombly of East Granby said as dozens of people sat in and took photographs of an orange Stingray in Karl Chevy’s Elm Street showroom. Trombly traveled nearly two hours to attend. “Beautiful car,” he said. “It’s gorgeous. Well set up.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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South School students underwent a safety drill Thursday afternoon, according to an email sent to parents by interim Principal John Grasso. It was “an opportunity for staff and students to practice the procedures that are in place to secure the building in the event of a safety threat to the school,” Grasso said in the email. ***

Congratulations to New Canaan’s Jack Mountford, 11, a Saxe Middle School 7th-grader who qualified this summer to play in major U.S. junior tennis tournaments, including the National Championships on both clay and hard court surfaces. In early July Mountford traveled to Orlando, Fla., for the 12 & Under National Clay Court Championships. In August, he played the National Championships on hard courts in Mobile, Ala. In both events, Mountford made it several rounds eventually running into some of the top-ranked American players.