News

Finally: Construction of Cell Tower at Silver Hill To Start This Week

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After more than a decade of false starts, legal wrangles, lapsed approvals and countless volunteer hours dedicated to the effort, a new cell tower finally will go up in eastern New Canaan. Silvermine is one area of town (there are others, yet without a firm plan for acquiring service) that long has endured a spotty cell signal—a  shortcoming that affects not only quality of life and real estate values, advocates say, but most importantly, public safety. Construction of the monopole-style tower on a wooded ridge at Silver Hill Hospital’s campus is due to start this week under the supervision of Phoenix Partners LLC, according to the staff at the Valley Road psychiatric facility. “We’re very happy to be able to do this as an accommodation to the town,” Silver Hill President and Medical Director Dr. Sigurd Ackerman told NewCanaanite.com Monday. “From that point of view, it’s a very good thing.”

It isn’t clear just when service will be available.

Around Town

New Canaan Taps Social Media, Selfies to Celebrate and Encourage Family Togetherness

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Here’s some data that Kate Boyle and Jacqui D’Louhy had in mind when they thought of ways New Canaan could mark April as Alcohol Awareness Month: Families that have dinner together five to seven times per week are 33 percent less likely to abuse alcohol or drugs. Family time lowers the risk of mental health problems, substance abuse and eating disorders, said D’Louhy, youth and family services coordinator at the New Canaan Department of Human Services. Boyle works there as youth and family services specialist. So this month, the pair are launching a campaign that’s designed to document, share and celebrate family togetherness. During “30 Days of Family,” residents are encouraged to snap photos of what they’re doing with loved ones, and then to share them with the community through Boyle (details on how to do that below).

Around Town

Heroin and New Canaan, Part 2 of 3: Parenting

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Editor’s Note: This is the middle installment of a three-part series. The other two parts can be found here:

Heroin and New Canaan, Part 1 of 3: Tracing and Defining a Problem
Heroin and New Canaan, Part 3 of 3: ‘Reach Out to a Person’

 

Nancy Welch moved to New Canaan 10 years ago with her husband and three kids. With one child now at each level in New Canaan Public Schools, Welch said she has become increasingly concerned about what officials are calling a rise in recent years of heroin’s availability and use in New Canaan and the region. “My concern would be that one dose of it can kill you,” Welch told NewCanaanite.com when asked for her thoughts on the drug’s prevalence here. “I think a lot of parents don’t know about it,” she added.

News

Heroin and New Canaan, Part 1 of 3: Tracing and Defining a Problem

By |

Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of a three-part series. The final two parts can be found here:

Heroin and New Canaan, Part 2 of 3: Parenting
Heroin and New Canaan, Part 3 of 3: ‘Reach Out to a Person’

 

No one died from a heroin overdose in town in 2013, data from state officials tells us, yet the drug for many reasons has become increasingly prevalent in recent years—in New Canaan and most everywhere else around here, officials say. Rising with an epidemic in prescription drug abuse that’s largely rooted in a critical change in how the medical field started viewing and treating pain—in fact, heroin pharmacologically is identical to legal, prescribed opioids, physicians say—the drug’s availability and use has become one area of focus for professionals here who deal with all aspects of substance abuse. Though heroin overdoses in New Canaan thankfully haven’t been fatal in the past year, use and even overdoses are occurring, said Jacqueline D’Louhy, assistant director of youth services with the town’s Department of Human Services, an employee in the municipal agency for about nine years. Asked to characterize what she’s seen in local heroin use, D’Louhy said: “New Canaan does not have a death from heroin per se, but we have gotten close.