Government

After Difficulty with Trash-Collecting Company, Town Turns to New Hauler 

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Municipal officials on Tuesday approved a contract with a new hauler of recyclables following months of difficulty with a company that had been charging New Canaan more than neighboring towns. 

The Board of Selectmen voted 3-0 in favor of the contract with Danbury-based Oak Ridge Waste and Recycling. The two-year contract calls for Oak Ridge to haul recyclables at a rate of $83.74 per ton, compared to the $85 per ton that New Canaan currently is paying Stamford’s City Carting, and the $95 per ton that City Carting offered in responding to the town’s bid for the job. “We are doing slightly better going forward than what we were paying City for this year,” Public Works Director Tiger Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen during their regular meeting, held via videoconference. 

The estimated $215,000 annual contract also calls for a per-pull cost of $189 for recyclables. 

Officials said in November that New Canaan was paying $85 per ton while Wilton was paying $65 per ton for similar services. New Canaan Department of Public Works Assistant Superintendent of Solid Waste Don Smith said in January that he’d been unable to reach City Carting to get an explanation for the discrepancy. 

Asked about City Carting’s failure to return calls during this week’s meeting by Selectman Kit Devereaux, Smith said that the “new general manager apologized for all that.”

“But I already told him the damage is done,” Smith said. “And then they tried to negotiate after-the-fact when we put it out to bid again and I said no.”

First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, Devereaux and Selectman Nick Williams voted in favor of the new contract with Oak Ridge. 

William asked what drives the pricing for the work.

Government

Town Awaits Bids on Waveny House ADA Project as Major Funding Decision Looms

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Municipal officials say they’re eagerly awaiting contractors’ bids this week for a major multi-part project at Waveny House, as the town decides whether and how quickly to redress the historic structure’s noncompliance with ADA standards. Originally believed to be a project of narrow scope costing about $1 million, a multi-year project now expected to cost $2.8 million would include creation of ADA-compliant bathrooms and installation of an elevator so that disabled people could access Waveny’s second floor—where the Parks & Recreation Department is located—as well as required upgrades to a fire escape and entrances to the brick mansion from its west porch and rear balcony. 

While some municipal leaders have said they support the project, including First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, others—including some members of New Canaan’s legislative body—have voiced concerns about spending the money while much of the large structure itself still has no clearly defined long-term use or identified revenue stream beyond the roughly $100,000 to $140,000 generated annually through renting it out for events such as weddings. “We have got to make some decisions about this project, because if we have no project, we probably don’t have a Waveny House,” Moynihan said Monday during a meeting of the Selectmen’s Committee on Facilities and Infrastructure, held via videoconference. 

The Board of Finance and Town Council are expected to vote next month on whether to authorize the funds (the issuance of bonds to pay for the project, and attendant public hearings, would still need to follow). Bid packages expected to arrive Thursday could make a major difference in the town’s decision, officials say, especially given the prospect of cost-savings with contractors finding less work now amid the COVID-19 public health emergency. “The numbers will help us decide,” Moynihan said.

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‘They Haven’t Been Forthcoming’: Town Seeks Information from Utility Co. on Gas Installation Plans

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Town officials say the utility company that began installing a natural gas main in New Canaan two years ago hasn’t been forthcoming about its plans for this year since the onset of the COVID-19 public health emergency. 
Eversource has interpreted the governor’s declaration about “essential businesses” being able to continue their work to mean that it doesn’t cover new services or new installations of natural gas, according to New Canaan Public Works Director Tiger Mann. Yet the town is hoping the company “will relent” on its read of the new requirement “because if nothing comes forward in this construction season, then we will be looking at a delay of the project for a year,” Mann told members of the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Buildings & Infrastructure during a meeting held Monday via videoconference. 

“In a nutshell, we have asked them for their plans for 2020 several times. They have come back with limited information. We are going to sit back down with them and ask for some more detailed information to see if we can guide them into certain areas of town—they seem to be expanding and want gas service—and then see what their plans might be for 2021 and 2022, given the fact that they haven’t been forthcoming so far. So we are hoping that they might help us plan for the future.”

Mann had said during a Board of Selectmen meeting last week that Eversource hit pause running service lines from the gas main or expanding that main further into New Canaan, as originally planned. 

First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said during Monday’s meeting that part of Eversource’s thinking “may be that with the new installations they don’t want to go into people’s homes currently.”

“But it’s no reason why the business projects can’t go forward,” he said.

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Town ID’s $695,000 in Planned Capital Spending This Fiscal Year That Could Be Delayed

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Saying New Canaan should consider putting off some capital spending in the near term until a clearer picture of the economy emerges, town officials last week identified nearly $700,000 earmarked for the current fiscal year that could be delayed. Prepared with input from public works and district officials as well as the first selectman, the draft list of more than 75 items total $695,000 and range from small expenditures such $29 for signage and striping up to about $63,000 for a solar project at a town building, documents show. Board of Finance Chair Todd Lavieri said the main question now facing the town is whether the spending could be delayed or deferred “until we have a little more clarity.”

“You guys control this,” Lavieri told First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, Public Works Director Tiger Mann and town CFO Lunda Asmani during the finance board’s April 7 meeting, held via videoconference. “We can’t tell you what to do and how to do this. But I guess it would be our recommendation, or at least our consideration, to hold onto the spending at least for another month until we got more clarity.”

The comments came during a discussion within the finance board and no formal action has been taken on the recommendation. They also came as New Canaan and the nation grapple with a hard stop to the economy that’s seen businesses forced to slow down or shutter altogether for health reasons as unemployment claims soar.

Government

Selectmen Vote 3-0 To Raise Dump Sticker Fee

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday voted unanimously in favor of a 67% increase to annual sticker fees at the dump, a move designed to bring New Canaan more closely aligned with surrounding towns and help recoup what it pays to get rid of household garbage. The fee increase, from $45 to $75, is expected to apply to about one-quarter to one-third of New Canaan’s approximately 7,000 households, since those using private haulers will pay the existing rate, officials said. That includes people living in apartment or condominium complexes who pay for master haulers through rent or other charges, officials said. The average New Canaan household produces about 1.5 tons of garbage per year, and that figure likely will go up amid the COVID-19 emergency as more people are eating at home, Public Works Director Tiger Mann told the selectmen during their regular meeting, held via videoconference. 

With New Canaan paying $90 per ton to haul the garbage away, that means the town is paying out about $135 per residence against a fee of $45 for stickers, he said. “So the thought is to try and chew at that apple a little bit and bring us up just slightly to $75 a permit and try to keep us closer in line with surrounding towns,” Mann said.