Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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New Canaan Police on Monday investigated a residential, daytime burglary on Birchwood Avenue. Police Chief Leon Krolikowski said that force was used to enter the house, no alarm was set and it’s not yet clear if anything was taken. On Tuesday, police began investigating a similar burglary on Old Stamford Road. The incidents are promoting Krolikowski to urge residents to always set their home and vehicle alarms, lock up, secure all valuables and report suspicious people and vehicles to the police via 9-1-1. Here’s a full list of ways to “Beat the Burglars,” from the chief.

Government

‘Thank You, Thank You, Thank You’: Town Council Approves Saxe Building Project 12-0

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The Town Council on Monday night unanimously approved the proposed $18.6 million building project at Saxe Middle School, a widely anticipated vote that officially kickstarts a timetable that should see construction start in June and finish by the start of the 2017-18 school year. The 12-0 vote will trigger a bond issuance to pay for a project that has galvanized many parents, students, teachers and other advocates who have said the renovation and expansion of Saxe are needed to accommodate “slow and steady” growth that’s already overburdening the Farm Road school. Town Council Vice Chairman Steve Karl said he was “very proud” of New Canaan for undergoing the lengthy and in-depth process of studying the project and indebted to the “amazing committee of volunteers” on the Saxe Building Committee, including Chairman Penny Rashin and Jim Beall. “Through the meetings and approvals, you are talking about Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance, Board of Ed, Planning & Zoning, Town Council—you start talking about those meetings and then the great meetings we have had with the public outpouring and input into this project, and as a community that’s what you want,” Karl told about 25 people gathered in the Town Meeting Room for the council’s special meeting. “You want people involved.

Government

District: Additional Asbestos, PCBs Found In Saxe Auditorium; Remediation Completed

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When environmental engineers began the physical work of removing hazardous materials from the Saxe Middle School auditorium, more contaminants turned up than originally expected, officials said this week. Specifically, PCBs and asbestos were found above the auditorium ceiling and in the wooden panels around it, according to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi. “When they got into that ceiling and they took down the ceiling, they found when they sampled the dust up there, it did have PCBs so that was a significant amount of work that had to be performed,” Luizzi said Tuesday during a regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen, held at Town Hall. “There was also some work around the acoustical panels that had to come down. The fact that the asbestos that was used in the glue to hold those on the wall, which we know was everywhere, necessitated additional work.”

The selectmen approved about $100,000 to pay the civil and environmental engineering firm that completed the remediation work prior to the start of school in the current academic year, as well as for the owner’s rep on the project, bringing the total cost of remediation work at the auditorium to about $157,000, they said.

Government

Botched Public Notice Prompts Delay in Saxe Vote

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Town officials say a print newspaper’s failure to distribute a public notice has prompted them to push back by about two weeks a final vote on funding the proposed $18.6 million Saxe Middle School building project. The Town Council had planned to take up the widely anticipated vote during a special meeting Thursday, but as per Section C4-10 of the Town Charter, the funding body could not approve that appropriation without publishing a notice in a print newspaper “once a week for two successive weeks.”

Because the notice did not appear in the Nov. 12 edition of the weekly New Canaan Advertiser—two days after the Board of Finance voted unanimously to fund the project—the town attorney recommended putting off the planned Nov. 19 vote, according to First Selectman Rob Mallozzi. “It appears that because of some issues with the publication of the required notice in the local paper for two consecutive weeks, that because of a timing issue on the first publication notice, a strict reading of the law and a cautionary reading of the requirements would provide counsel that the town should delay the vote scheduled for the 19th to a later date, when we can be sure that everyone has had plenty of notice of the meeting if they wanted to attend or opine on the vote,” Mallozzi said when asked about the matter.

Government

‘We All Feel Really Good About It’: Finance Board Votes 8-0 In Favor of Full Saxe Building Project

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After hearing from residents across a wide swath of the town as well as an advisor who described implications for New Canaan’s financial picture, officials on Tuesday night unanimously supported the proposed $18.6 million renovation and expansion at Saxe Middle School. Board of Finance members voted 8-0 in favor of the proposal, formally recommending a bond issuance to the Town Council to pay for it. The vote received applause from an estimated 150-plus people who packed into the Town Meeting Room for the finance board’s meeting, and marks the clearing of what’s been seen as the critical hurdle in a project that has galvanized parents of school-aged kids and others. The Town Council is expected to give the project its formal final approval on Nov. 19.