Government

Town Approves $32,780 Contract for Masonry Repairs at Schoolhouse Apartments; Senior Living Facility To Secure Funding for Work

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Officials this week approved a $32,780 contract for a Darien-based company to do masonry repairs to the town-owned Schoolhouse Apartments building on South Avenue. The funds will come from the senior living facility itself, through HUD, according to Bill Oestmann, superintendent of buildings with the New Canaan Department of Public Works. “[Schoolhouse officials] had went out and got some quotes to do repairs on the buildings and sidewalks and they were confused because the numbers were so crazy—all the quotes were something different—so explained to them at that time that these policies had been implemented there, that the town owns all that property, we are liable for all that stuff, so we will mange the project, they are going to give us all the funds through HUD,” Oestmann said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “They had no problem with that.”

He added: “And at the end of the day, the town owns the building and so we want the work done properly so it will last.”

The 1931-built Schoolhouse Apartments originally had been constructed as New Canaan’s first junior high school, and it was built in a style—brick, with a cupola—that complemented the original New Canaan High School (now the New Canaan Police Department), which opened in 1927 (the same year Karl Chevrolet was founded). Oestmann said DPW officials met with contractors and after the project went out to bid it garnered estimates that varied widely—some $20,000 between them.

Government

New Canaan To Upgrade To Chip Readers for Credit Card Processing; $1.7 Million in Sales Last Fiscal Year

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New Canaan in the fiscal year just ended did about $1.7 million in credit card sales, among registration online for Recreation Department programs, Waveny Pool passes, Transfer Station fees and Lapham Community Center offerings, officials said Tuesday. For credit card processing in-house, the town used “old cheap magnetic stripe readers,” according to Assistant Recreation Director Bill Kapp. “Quite frankly, this is something that we should have upgraded one year ago when the [payment card] industry said, ‘Go to the new chip and readers,’ ” Kapp said during a Board of Selectmen meeting, held at Town Hall. “We have been patiently waiting for our software provider to provide us with coded devices. Well, that failed.

Government

Mallozzi: Search for Town’s New CFO Suspended Until After Election

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Officials say they’ve suspended temporarily the search for New Canaan’s new finance director, so that the new first selectman can weigh in on the important decision. First Selectman Rob Mallozzi, who is not seeking a fourth term, said he feels “it would be much, much better for the next first selectman, whether that is Kit [Devereaux] or Kevin [Moynihan], to have direct input into the process and evaluation, and what they want to see in a CFO.”

A committee’s search for a permanent CFO will pick up again after the election in November, Mallozzi said. Human Resources Director Cheryl Pickering-Jones said the search committee—which includes members of the Board of Finance, Town Council and Audit Committee—received “plenty of resumes” in response to an initial call in May and that a candidates to be brought back in for a second interview “are on hold right now.”

“If the panel and Kit and Kevin were to meet, then maybe we would move it sooner, but that is where things are at this point,” she said. The Board of Selectmen at its regular meeting on Tuesday is scheduled to vote on extending the contract of current interim Finance Director Sandra Dennies by four months, through December. Asked about what he sees as necessary qualities for New Canaan’s next finance director, Moynihan said, “I would like to see a CPA, which is not a job requirement but I would like to see a CPA.”

Moynihan, a Republican, declined to speak further on the matter, saying there’s a process underway and that the extension of Dennies’ contract would not preclude the town making a decision sooner than November or December on a permanent CFO.

Government

‘We Are Going To Miss Him’: Town Planner Steve Palmer To Step Down Next Month

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Steve Palmer, town planner of New Canaan since late last year, is stepping down from his position with the municipality to join his family’s business, officials said Friday. Town employees received word from New Canaan Human Resources Director Cheryl Pickering-Jones in a midmorning email. “We are going to miss Steve and the work he has done in just a  short time for Planning and Zoning,” she said in the email. In a relatively short period of time, Palmer has tackled multiple dense and divisive P&Z applications and appeals before the town, including the Merritt Village, sober house, Grace Farms and Roger Sherman Inn. Asked about the development, First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said that Palmer has done “a magnificent job while here.”

“We are going to miss him,” Mallozzi said.

Government

Town Councilman Pushes To Resolve Beetle Infestation at Former Outback Teen Center Building

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A member of the Town Council on Wednesday night called for the legislative body to push officials to address a documented “powder post beetle” infestation at the former Outback Teen Center Building. Told that the town likely won’t address the problem until a more comprehensive report on the building’s capital needs and possible future use is in hand, Councilman Cristina A. Ross said that it’s been “slightly over one year” since the infestation was identified and “I am really surprised and concerned that this just keeps going and now we are waiting for another report and no action has been taken.”

“So I think it’s within our [Town Council Infrastructure & Utilities] subcommittee to be able to recommend to the Board of Selectmen to act on [an RFP for remediation] and to take care of the infestation at this point,” she said at the group’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall. No one knows what’s going to happen with the cavernous structure behind town hall. It’s been two years since the Outback Teen Center closed, unable either to make enough money to run itself or convince town officials to support a re-imagined, broad program that went beyond serving just teens. It reverted to town ownership last July and the vacant building has been vandalized since then.