Around Town

New Canaan League’s ‘Women Rock the Vote’ Celebration Scheduled for Feb. 29

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A long-established New Canaan nonprofit organization is marking a major anniversary with a community event this month that’s designed to be inclusive and affordable. The League of Women Voters of New Canaan is celebrating the centennial of the 19th Amendment’s ratification—the U.S. Constitution amendment that says state and federal governments cannot deny people the right to vote based on sex—with “Women Rock the Vote.”

To be held starting at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 29 at the Carriage Barn in Waveny, it will include local New Canaan Bands—the house band from the New Canaan School of Rock, Rock Paper Soul and Bad Dog Buddy—and drinks will be provided as part of a $30 ticket for those 21 and older ($20 tickets for all others). 

“I think it’s going to be a great time,” Robin Bates-Mason, who is helping lead a League committee that’s organizing the event and also includes Kiowa Kosche, Krista Neilson, Alyssa MacKenzie, Eilish Main and Karen Ferguson. 

“We want people thinking it only has ben 100 years [since women got the right to vote] and this is a huge achievement and let’s celebrate this and get people to learn more about what the League of Women Voters does,” Bates-Mason said. The national League was formed in 1920, she said, while the New Canaan chapter formed about 20 years later. 

Plans for “Women Rock the Vote” started coming together last spring, Bates-Mason said. “We wanted something that will be fun, a celebration,” she said.

Around Town

Happy Birthday: Three New Canaan-Based Nonprofit Organizations Turn 80

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Three well-known local nonprofit organizations this year will mark 80 years in operation. The New Canaan Chapter of the League of Women Voters, New Canaan Mounted Troop and the New Canaan Beautification League are united by their focus on community engagement and service. The League of Women Voters is the local chapter of a national organization that helps register citizens to vote, and provides voter education about candidates and issues, according to LOWV Chapter President Miki Porta. 

“We’re really all about civic engagement,” she said. “A lot of us are just history and civics and government geeks who really believe that the more of us who volunteer and get involved, the better life is.” Porta said that running the candidates’ debate prior to Election Day is the LOWV event that makes the biggest difference in the lives of New Canaan residents. 

“Because the League of Women Voters is a non-partisan organization…I think that the candidates themselves and also the people coming to the debate feel that it’s going to be fair, it’s going to be substantive, and it’s going to be balanced,” she said.

Government

Town Council Candidates Discuss Transparency in Local Government at Debate

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New Canaan’s strong zoning is one of its most important assets, according to one incumbent member of the town’s legislative body. The zoning regulations are what underpin property values here, yet in recent years—considering the handling of applications for Merritt Village, Grace Farms, the Roger Sherman Inn, mixed-use on Forest Street and “Zone D” on Grove Street, New Canaan has been “managing by exception,” according to Town Councilman John Engel. “The mere fact that we have 100 caveats to the Grace Farms approval, another 100 for the Merritt Village approval, shows that we have got to do a better job of getting in front of this and the evidence is, it is costing us money,” Engel, a Republican seeking re-election to the Town Council, said during a debate last week. “When I talk to the developer [of Heritage Square] on Forest Street and I ask, ‘Would you do it again?’ and he said, ‘No, it’s far too risky to develop in this town not knowing after a two-year process whether your project will get approved or not.’ So developers are staying away and I don’t know if most people realize it, but building permits are down by 50 percent this year versus last year. It is costing us money.

Business

Here are 28 Current New Canaan Chamber Member Businesses That Also Belonged in Back in ’82

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Here’s a short list of sweeping economic crises that have affected, directly or indirectly, every U.S. business since 1982: Black Monday, savings and loan crisis, subprime mortgage crisis and Great Recession. Locally, success in business involves nimbleness and acumen, and far more than that—interpersonal skills, involvement, diligence and imagination. Recently, the head of an organization that’s central for many local businesses, the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce, came by chance across a list of 28 current members that also were members back in 1982. “They’ve supported the chamber, supported the town and been here for a long, long time,” Executive Director Tucker Murphy said. “We want to congratulate them on that.”

Here’s the list, in alphabetical order (not every single business has been a continuous member of the chamber, though many—including Bob’s Sports, Karl Chevrolet, Walter Stewart’s and Stewart’s Spirits—have been):

Ann Taylor
Baskin Robbins
Bob’s Sports
Brotherhood & Higley
Congregational Church
Family Britches
Franco’s Wine
Healthfare
Hersam Acorn- New Canaan Advertiser
Hoyt Funeral Home
Hutchinson Tree Company

Karl Chevrolet
League of Women Voters
Merrill Lynch
New Canaan Board of Realtors
New Canaan Community Nursery School
New Canaan Country School
New Canaan Library
New Canaan Nature Center
Pennyweights
Roger Sherman Inn
Silvermine Arts Guild
Stewart’s Spirits
Taylor’s Luggage
Visiting Nurse Association of New Canaan
Walter Stewart’s
Waveny Care Center
Whitney Shop

Ties to the local chamber run very deep for businesses such as Walter Stewart’s, recently recognized as Business of the Year.