Government

New Committee Reviews Unused Town-Owned Buildings 

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A newly appointed committee on Wednesday identified and discussed eight town-owned structures that New Canaan may no longer need in its portfolio. The town has 62 total buildings or structures that require some level of maintenance, according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. The figure does not include school district buildings. 

Some of them are “possibly expendable,” Moynihan said during the first meeting of the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure. “All of these buildings are used for some town function, so even though there are a lot of buildings—New Canaan has a lot of buildings—they all have a purpose,” he said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “And some of them are not totally utilized in terms of their capacity.

Government

Officials Seek Workable Site in Kiwanis Park for Proposed Open-Air Ice Rink

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Town officials said Tuesday they’re trying to identify just where in Kiwanis Park would be the best place for a proposed open-air ice rink. 

A leading contender for a seasonal rink site in New Canaan that would be open to the public with an admission charge, Kiwanis is attractive in that it has sufficiently large areas, parking, access to bathrooms, running water and electricity, and structures that could house changing areas, snack bar and skate shop, members of the Parks & Recreation Commission have said. Yet a level area out front of the main pavilion traditionally has been used by a local service organization for a large chunk of the late-November-through-February trial season that Parks & Rec has floated. 

And early cost estimates to level out an area behind the pavilion and install a retaining wall there appear cost-prohibitive, a group of town officials and community volunteers said during a meeting of a Parks & Rec subcommittee. It’s also unclear whether installing the ice rink deeper into the park—on the far side of the swimming hole—would create a sufficiently attractive and workable facility, officials said during the Parks & Rec skating subcommittee meeting. While excavation, fill, retaining wall construction and other costs would push the total expense for an ice rink located between the rear of the pavilion and swimming hole to an estimated $200,000 to $250,000, creating a facility out front of the building, where the Exchange Club of New Canaan in past years has set up its approximately month-long Christmas tree sale would be far less money, official said. Rona Siegel, chair of Parks & Rec, asked whether the club had ever looked at setting up its sale in the Waveny Pool parking lot instead. 

“It’s ideal,” Siegel said at the meeting, held in a conference room at Town Hall.

Board of Selectmen

Six Appointed to Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday voted unanimously to appoint six members to a newly conceived committee that will advise the executive branch of local government on building and infrastructure projects. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan will serve as chairman of the committee, which is to meet monthly and “provide expertise and financial oversight on an ongoing basis for major decisions and plans such as town-owned buildings and infrastructure projects including but not limited to major capital projects that are part of the Five-Year Capital Plan,” according to a draft resolution read out at the Board’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall. “Right now I am the oversight over Public Works, and some other towns have standing commissions,” Moynihan said. “I have discovered that I sometimes do not have the bandwidth to be on top of all projects and this is an opportunity for us to have people on Board of Finance who have a continuing interest, making sure that projects are on budget, so a sort of standing building committee in that regard, and also it gives us the opportunity to better coordinate with the Board of Education on their projects, like solar.”

The appointees to the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure include Moynihan, George Blauvelt (a Board of Finance member), Neil Budnick (Board of Finance), Penny Young (Town Council), Penny Rashin (Board of Education) and Stuart Sawabini, former Police Commission chair. Moynihan said he’s still looking for a seventh member to nominate, a “contractor type.”

Under the resolution, committee members will serve two-year terms.

Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted 3-0 to make the appointments. 

The first selectman introduced the concept of the committee two weeks ago, saying it would include specialists such as contractors and architects and would advise the Board on projects such as major roadway renovation, bridges, school roofs and solar installations.

Board of Selectmen

Selectmen Push for All-Way Stop at Weed and Elm

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Though police have said installing additional stop signs at Weed and Elm Streets would be dangerous, unnecessary and otherwise problematic, the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved $6,000 for a study to determine the feasibility of doing so. In voicing support for installation of stop signs for northbound and southbound Weed Street motorists, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said the intersection has seen “a great deal of additional traffic” from pedestrians using a sidewalk that went in two springs ago connecting the top of Elm to Irwin Park and a “greenlink” footpath beyond the park that opened last summer. State Traffic Administration regulations developed under Connecticut law require that a proposed stop sign must be justified by a traffic engineering study in order to be installed a major street, and that stop signs never be used for speed control, among other provisions. Moynihan said that even if New Canaan weren’t required to commission such a study, “to me it is an obvious location for stop signs, not so much safety but regulating traffic because people don’t have the opportunity to alternate turns.”

“I’m not sure I know another intersection in town that is like this right now,” he said during the selectmen meeting, held at Town Hall. Moynihan added that Public Works Director Tiger Mann had relayed to him prior to the meeting that, under the federal document that informs state statute—the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices—municipalities must have a stop sign warranter’s or engineering study performed in order to put in a stop sign.

Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure

First Selectman Moynihan Proposes Standing Committee To Advise on Town Building and Infrastructure Projects

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New Canaan’s highest elected official on Tuesday proposed creation a committee that would advise the Board of Selectmen on town building and infrastructure projects. Composed of five or seven members, the committee would advise the Board of Selectman on projects including major roadway renovation, bridges, school roofs and solar installations, according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. Though for major capital projects a dedicated building committee still would be formed, a standing committee that includes one representative from each of the Town Council, Board of Finance and Board of Education, as well as specialists such as contractors and architects, could meet monthly to review projects that now are handled on an ad hoc basis, Moynihan said during the selectmen’s regular meeting. “There have been a couple of recent examples where a project has come out and we said, ‘Oh, have we thought about maybe if we oversaw that more or reviewed it more,’ ” Moynihan said during the meeting, held at Town Hall. 

“A project is proposed and funded, and then the oversight of the execution of that project is something we sometimes have been a little surprised by. Do we have enough public input?