News

Small Women’s Locker Room at Police HQ Limits Ability To Hire More Female Officers

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The female locker room at the police station—a 1926 building that hasn’t seen a substantial renovation in nearly four decades—is so small that the department may not be able to hire more women, officials said last week. At six female officers, the New Canaan Police Department now has more women in uniform than it ever has in its history, “and it’s a good thing happening to us,” according to Police Chief Leon Krolikowski. Yet “there is a limitation in our female locker room, because we may not be able to put on any more female officers because there’s just not enough room,” he said during a Jan. 9 meeting of the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure. “So that’s just another thing that nobody ever planned for.

Dr. Bryan Luizzi

Despite Opposition, First Selectman Presses Idea of New Police Station at Saxe Field

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Though fellow members of the Board of Selectmen are voicing strong opposition, New Canaan’s highest elected official this week has pushed the idea of building a new police station on a Saxe Middle School field where a baseball diamond now stands. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan during budget discussions on Thursday questioned the superintendent of schools about the demand for athletic fields at Saxe and later pressed the recreation director about the prospect of building a replacement baseball diamond at Kiwanis Park. Referring to a grass lot at the Old Norwalk Road park, Moynihan told Recreation Director Steve Benko during a budget presentation to the selectmen at Town Hall, “What I have raised is the possibility of building a ballpark there.”

Benko responded that the area “is not big enough” because it lacks the 205 feet down a right-field line and 225 feet to center field that the current diamond at Saxe has. 

“If you are trying to replicate what we have at Saxe … we do not have that distance,” Benko said. “I taped it out. And someone said to cut into the hillside there, but the problem with the hillside is there’s a rural pond back there.”

Moynihan responded that former Police Commissioner Stuart Sawabini—who brought forward the idea of building a new police headquarters on the Saxe field–also had measured it, as had the parks superintendent. 

Benko said, “I don’t think they have the right measurements.”

The first selectman mentioned Sawabini’s proposal during a press briefing last week, generating wide discussion in town.

Government

‘It Won’t Be Visible To Anybody’: Town Pursues Public Safety Antenna on Oenoke Ridge Road Property

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Longstanding efforts to improve public safety radio communications in northwestern New Canaan are poised to take a major step forward, as the owners of an Oenoke Ridge Road property have agreed to seek permission for an inconspicuous antenna to be placed on an existing barn around the back of their house, officials say. The antenna that would be placed on the four-acre upper Oenoke Ridge Road property would be just 20 feet high and three inches in diameter, officials say—used strictly for public safety communications (as opposed to, say, the type of “cell tower” that has been proposed for Soundview Lane and has drawn concern from some neighbors). The Board of Selectmen at its regular meeting April 10 voted unanimously to approve a $1,500 contract for a “building location survey” on the property. The work, to be done by New Canaan-based RKW Land Surveying, is part of an early-stage effort to determine for certain whether the location is viable. Additional engineering work must be done prior to applying to the Planning & Zoning Commission for a special permit.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Something must’ve happened out front of the 1850-built commercial building on the corner of Main Street and East Avenue, home to a gift shop, swimwear store and tailor. The town on Wednesday received a Freedom of Information Act request from a Stamford-based law firm for all New Canaan Police Department incident reports this month concerning snow or ice at 102 Main St., including abutting sidewalks. The request, from Wofsey, Rosen, Kweskin & Kuriansky, also seeks info on falls, complaints, fines, blight citations, 911 calls and building permit applications related to gutters, downspouts, roofs or sidewalks there. ***

Now that we’re in budget season, here’s a look at what the highest elected official is paid in New Canaan and nearby towns:

 

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The developer who earned high praise recently from historic preservationists for his design of a new house on Forest Street said throughout the process that it was important to him to be respectful of the neighborhood’s history. In fact, Tom Sturges is the great-grandson of Imogene Seymour, who had been curator for the New Canaan Historical Society from 1959 to 1968.

News

Officials Clear Way To Reintroduce ‘Deputy Chief’ Position at New Canaan Police Department

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Town officials on Wednesday night voted unanimously to support an effort designed to change the structure of the New Canaan Police Department’s command staff. Currently, NCPD has a chief and two captains at the top. Police Chief Leon Krolikowski during the Police Commission’s regular meeting recommended that the agency’s general orders preserve that structure as an option, but change the command staff for now to a police chief with a deputy chief and captain. Asked whether change would come with a pay increase, Krolikowski said only that it would represent a promotion in rank. “We do have a history—probably 40 years ago, we had the deputy chief as part of the complement,” he said at the meeting, held in the training room at NCPD.