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This week on 0684-Radi0, our free weekly podcast (subscribe here in the iTunes Store), we talk to Kathleen Corbet and Russ Barksdale Jr. about Waveny LifeCare Network’s proposed senior independent living facility on Oenoke Ridge. Corbet is the organization’s Board of Directors chair, and Barksdale is its president and CEO. Here are recent episodes of 0684-Radi0:
This week on 0684-Radi0, our free weekly podcast (subscribe here in the iTunes Store), we talk to Kathleen Corbet, a member of the League of Women Voters of New Canaan, about the number of candidates running for local office this year, how they’re elected to their various seats, what the ballot itself looks like (a sample is embedded below as a PDF) and recent changes to New Canaan’s Charter. Here’s a FAQ from the League:
How many candidates can I vote for? For First Selectman, you can choose 1. For Selectman, you can choose 1.
For Town Council, you can choose any number up to 6. You don’t have to choose 6; in other words, there is no penalty for voting for fewer than 6.
Saying a proposed residential retirement complex would loom over New Canaan’s Historic District, members of a local nonprofit organization dedicated to preservation said this week that they’re opposed to it. The three-story complex planned for 65 Oenoke Ridge “will dominate the view looking north from God’s Acre, and simply overpower the Historical Society campus and St. Michael’s Church,” according to a Sept. 30 letter to the Planning & Zoning Commission from Neele-Banks Stichnoth, president of the New Canaan Preservation Alliance Board of Trustees. “The view looking south from St.
Town finance officials said this week that since there’s no money in the current budget for a proposed survey of residents regarding spending priorities in the town—a survey estimated to cost $16,000 to $19,000—that it must wait for the fiscal year starting July 1 to get underway. Though there is “wide support to do the survey,” Board of Finance Chairman Todd Lavieri said during the group’s regular meeting Tuesday night, funding it would require a special appropriation. “We just do not have money in this budget, so it has got to be the next one,” Lavieri said during the meeting, held at Town Hall. Lavieri added that there are also open questions such as what firm to use and how the survey would be conducted. Ultimately, no one on the Board proposed a special appropriation to fund the survey now.
The town’s highest elected official said Tuesday night that his office is preparing to make a recommendation on surveying taxpayers as the budget season gets underway. Addressing the Board of Finance at its regular meeting, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan noted that during a recent pre-budget workshop that included members of the Boards of Selectmen, Education and Finance as well as the Town Council, among others, officials concluded that it would be helpful in the coming weeks to understand what residents think New Canaan’s spending priorities should be.
“We talked about doing a survey,” Moynihan said during the meeting, held at Town Hall. “We have been looking into a professional survey … We will come back to you with some recommendation regarding a survey.”
He referred to a joint workshop—held Nov. 17 at Lapham Community Center and moderated by former Town Councilman Kathleen Corbet—where officials shared opinions on who or what municipal body is responsible for the budget and what percentage budget increase would be acceptable to taxpayers, given New Canaan’s services. Speaking on behalf of a group that included Town Councilmen Mike Mauro and Jim Kucharczyk and Board of Education members Tom Cronin and Brendan Hayes, Councilman Liz Donovan said during the workshop that New Canaan might consider focusing on what drives demand in the town rather than specific increases in municipal spending.