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Proposed Spending Plan Calls for $250,000 Toward Land Acquisition

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The proposed capital spending plan now with the Board of Finance includes $250,000 for land acquisition, a figure that represents five times current spending. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, a longtime proponent of creating and building up the Land Acquisition Fund, noted during a press briefing last week that Westport puts about $250,000 into its own similar fund “and they have $3.2 million” in it now. “I would like to have more built up for land acquisition,” Moynihan said during the briefing, held Feb. 6 in his Town Hall office. “So I am in favor of that general direction.”

The $250,000 request for fiscal year 2021 appears under the Conservation Commission in the proposed capital spending plan that the Board of Selectmen recommend 3-0 last month.

Board of Finance

First Selectman: Playground at Kiwanis Should Be Relocated to Waveny Pool

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The town should remove funds earmarked to replace fencing around a playground at Kiwanis Park and relocate the equipment there to Waveny Pool, New Canaan’s highest elected official said last week. The playground at Kiwanis is “used very little,” according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. “Maybe a little bit by the neighborhood,” Moynihan said during a press briefing held Thursday in his office at Town Hall. “But it should be moved over to Waveny where the kids at the pool could go to an adjacent playground.”

He added: “You could build it so that there is a gate from the playground from the pool. A lot of the kids are at the pool.

Alicia Meyer

‘The Goodwill Has Been Taken Away’: Two Resign from Human Services Commission

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Saying they felt poorly treated in their volunteer roles, two members of a town body that oversees the New Canaan Department of Human Services on Thursday resigned from their positions. Judy Dunn, a member of the Human Services Commission since 2010 and its chair for the past five years, said in a letter read aloud at the appointed body’s regular meeting that First Selectman Kevin Moynihan had acted inappropriately in selecting the nine-member body’s next chair himself. Because the Commission had a quorum, the first selectman also had been incorrect in January to postpone an organizational meeting for the body to elect its own chair, Dunn said in her letter, and wrongly asserted that Commissioner Renate Dolphin should resign for missing meetings. “Mr. Moynihan said Renate Dolphin had missed three meetings and should be asked to resign,” Dunn said in the letter, read out by Commissioner Alicia Meyer. “He said I should ask her to resign.

Government

Budget Cuts: Town To Reduce Funding for Landscaping Work Around Several Public Buildings

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Town officials are looking to cut back on landscaping work around a handful of public buildings, including Vine Cottage, Powerhouse Theater, Carriage Barn Arts Center, Saxe Middle School and New Canaan High School. The proposed budget for next fiscal year removes about $15,000 paid annually to outside contractors in recent years for more frequent weeding and mulching that the Parks & Recreation Commission had pushed for, including during “spring cleanups.”

John Howe, parks superintendent in the Department of Public Works, told members of the Commission during their Jan. 8 meeting, “The hard part I see is that we have been able to have these buildings look great throughout the year.”

“And we are kind of going backwards,” he said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “Are we in better shape now than we were five years ago? Yes, by a long shot.”

The cutbacks come as the Board of Finance guides municipal departments to reduce operating costs by 2%.

Government

Selectmen Vote 3-0 To Recommend Capital Plan with $10 Million for Library, Police Station Projects

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday voted unanimously to recommend a Five-Year Capital Plan that includes earmarks of $10 million for the New Canaan Library’s rebuilding project and $10 million for a long-discussed renovation of the New Canaan Police Department. 

The Capital Plan—a fluid planning document that’s required by the Town Charter—calls for four $2.5 million payments to the library starting next fiscal year, and $5 million in fiscal years 2022 and 2023 for the police station. The selectmen’s 3-0 vote in favor of the Capital Plan does not amount to an appropriation—an allocation of taxpayer funds toward either project would require public hearings with multiple appointed and elected bodies. The document now moves to the Board of Finance. 

Officials representing the library and NCPD both have described their buildings as inefficient and limiting, with aging physical plants that haven’t undergone substantial upgrades in decades. 

The Police Department renovation “would be two-year project and we anticipate a year of planning,” First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said. He voted in favor of recommending the Capital Plan, as did Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams.

Williams said all the selectmen agree “that the library should be fully funded.”

“Yes, it’s a lot of money, it’s $10 million over four years but it’s one for two,” Williams said. “The public-private partnership is putting in $20 million from private money, and 20 plus 10 is 30, so it’s a one for two and it’s something I am very supportive of.”

Devereaux said, “Although I do support the capital expenditure.