Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said Tuesday that the newly formed ‘Dog Litter Committee’ has raised a red flag for Town Attorney Ira Bloom. The town attorney has said it is “not well advised” to “allocate enforcement responsibilities to a committee,” Moynihan said during a Board of Selectmen meeting. The question “raises the issue of the Spencer’s Run Committee for volunteers and also we have to address the Youth Sports Committee,” Moynihan said. Selectman Kit Devereaux, chairperson of the Spencer’s Run Committee, noted that its members are “ambassadors.” “They are not enforcers,” she said. The board will examine those committees, as well as the Deer Committee, at its next meeting, Moynihan said.

News

Full Disclosure: Hello Darkness, My New Friend

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[Editor’s Note: If you don’t know her, Susan Gelvin is a wry, keen observer of herself and her hometown and she writes extremely well, so I asked her recently to consider penning a regular column for NewCanaanite.com. Our editorial board is very pleased and proud today to introduce Susan as the news site’s first columnist. Here’s the debut installment of “Full Disclosure.”]

 

Through the years I have jogged up and down South Avenue countless times. At a certain point, it was exhilarating getting an encouraging honk from a driver-by. Even a whistle or two wasn’t terrible.

News

Letter: Chamber Director Thanks YMCA, Sponsors, Volunteers for Halloween Event

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While the weather could have been better for the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce’s annual Halloween Parade, hundreds of ghosts and goblins headed over to the YMCA for a Halloween Family event. The party started at noon with activities and entertainment for all to enjoy. The School of Rock serenaded parade goers with Halloween tunes and a flash mob of New England Academy of Dance zombies danced to “Thriller.”

Pet Pantry hosted the Great Scirico who created balloon animals for all to enjoy and “Marshall” from Pet Patrol was on hand to greet trick-or-treaters thanks to Toddlertime Nursery School. We are so grateful that the YMCA stepped in to save the day and allowed us to have the event in their beautiful new gym. We gave out more than 750 goody bags and thanks go to Joe Vittoria —Promotion in Motion, Camp Playland, Jack and Jill Petsitting, Friends of Mead Park, TD Bank, Mackenzies, Walter Stewart’s Market, Vineyard Vines and Toddlertime Nursery School.

Around Town

New Canaan Promotes ‘Tech-Free Family Time’ through ’30 Days of Family’

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Town and local nonprofit officials are urging New Canaan families this month to unplug their mobile devices and spend more time communicating directly with each other. The Department of Human Services-led “30 Days of Family” initiative this year has taken up “tech-free family time” as its motto. Unplugging forces family members to talk to each other “with their voices and spend quality time making eye contact and practicing listening skills,” according to Jacqueline D’Louhy, the department’s coordinator of youth and family services. “Think about how much teens ‘talk’ to each other electronically,” D’Louhy said. “Sometimes they’ll be sitting in the same room but never utter a word to one another.

Government

P&Z Denies Grace Farms’ Bid To Host Other Organizations’ Sports Programs

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Saying it would be a slap in the faces of concerned neighbors and citing the awkward timing of the request, officials on Monday night turned down Grace Farms’ bid to host other organizations’ multiple youth and adult sports activities in its own gymnasium over the next six months. Grace Farms already had applied to amend its operating permit in order to allow for wide-ranging activities that have been taking place on its Lukes Wood Road campus, and OK’ing the use of its gym by other organizations—in this case, the New Canaan YMCA and St. Luke’s School—would be very bad timing because that application is pending, according to members of the Planning & Zoning Commission. Though P&Z may, under Grace Farms’ current permit, make special allowances for such a use, “if there was ever a time you would not want to do it, it is now, while we are considering altering a special permit for Grace Farms,” P&Z commissioner Jack Flinn said during the group’s special meeting, held at Town Hall. “I think it is not incidental.