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Anonymous Complaint to DOJ Leads to Creation of 12 Disabled Parking Spaces Downtown

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Officials said last week that they’ve re-designated 12 parking spaces in metered lots downtown for disabled motorists following an anonymous complaint to the U.S. Department of Justice. The town had been “deficient in number,” according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann said, and quickly addressed the problem by installing three disabled spaces in Morse Court, six in Locust Avenue Lot and three in Park Street Lot. “We had someone contact the Department of Justice and they came down and said that we needed to amend our number of handicapped spaces in three separate parking lots,” Mann told members of the Police Commission at their regular meeting, held Oct. 16 at the New Canaan Police Department. The complaint “fell on the heels pretty much right after the original thing for Main Street,” he said, referring to a complaint that had been made to the state that could see New Canaan lose even more parking spaces near crosswalks.

Government

Town To Net $14,400 for Selling Excess Composted Leaf Mulch

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Town officials last week approve the sale of New Canaan’s surplus composted leaf mulch to a local construction company. Selling 1,600 cubic yards of the mulch to Lanni Construction at $9 per yard will net the town $14,400 in revenue, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. Since putting its program of selling extra mulch into place in 2009, New Canaan has received about $128,000, Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen at at their Oct. 8 meeting. “It’s that time of year again to clear out our leaf mulch area,” Mann said during the meeting, held in Town Hall. 

Lanni Construction’s price is the same as last year, he said.

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‘No Parking’ Signs Installed To Improve Safety at Marshall Ridge and Richmond Hill Roads

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Town officials have installed new parking signs in a residential neighborhood just south of the downtown following concerns from residents there that increased on-street parking has created a safety hazard. At the recommendation of the Traffic Calming Work Group, ‘No Parking Here To Corner’ signs have been installed toward the northern end of Marshall Ridge Road, where it intersects with Richmond Hill Road. 

An administrative team that includes members of the Police, Fire, Parking and Public Works Departments, the Work Group fielded a Marshall Ridge Road resident’s request for traffic-calming following what she described as a car crash during the morning school and work rush. According to Dawn Belles, a vehicle traveling eastbound on Richmond Hill Road at about 8:10 a.m. on a recent morning struck a vehicle with a mom driving her son toward school as that car tried to exit from Marshall Ridge. “Its very lucky kids weren’t around crossing to get to the bus stop on [Marshall] Ridge,” Belles wrote in her email to traffic officials, obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request. With motorists, possibly commuters, parking on both sides of the road in the morning, that end of Marshall Ridge becomes dangerously narrow, to the point where school buses sometimes have difficulty getting through, Belles said in the letter.

Government

Town Approves $7,500 Contract in Pursuit of Improved, Expanded Parking at Waveny Water Towers

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The Board of Selectmen at its most recent meeting approved a contract with a New Canaan company to survey an area of Waveny where a newly paved access road and expanded parking area are planned. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectman Kit Devereaux at the Board’s Sept. 17 meeting voted 2-0 in favor of a $7,540 contract with RKW Land Surveying. 

The company will flag wetlands for a proposed paving of the milled access road between the main road through Waveny and a parking lot that abuts the water towers and overlooks the new artificial turf fields there. “RKW has done work all four corners of this property, so it stands to reason that we would ask them to come forward and finish this interior piece to do,” Public Works Director Tiger Mann said at the selectmen’s meeting, held at Town Hall. Selectman Nick Williams was absent.

Government

Resident Voices Traffic Safety Concerns at Weed and Elm

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Town officials say they’ll see whether it’s possible to move the line instructing motorists to stop at the top of Elm Street closer to Weed Street, following concerns from a longtime resident of the intersection that limited sight lines risk serious car crashes. Mike Field told members of the Traffic Calming Work Group at their Sept. 17 meeting that Elm Street’s westbound motorists “feel obliged to stop short because that is where stop sign is, but you absolutely not see anything from there.”

“So what happens is, people coming along going southbound on Weed, they think they have right of way over all that space between that stop sign and the area in front of it,” Field said at the meeting, held at the New Canaan Police Department. “And a lot of people don’t slow down, and a lot of the screeching and breaking and swearing comes from the fact that somebody is trying to creep forward, and somebody else who is not really visible until they get pretty close to the top of the hill there starts blasting their horn.”

Composed of members of the Police, Fire, Parking and Public Works Departments, the Work Group is an administrative team that fields requests for traffic calming and advises the Police Commission. 

Field suggested installing stop signs for Weed Street traffic at Elm, saying “that would stop people who are barreling down Weed Street trying to get to work or coming into town and I don’t see anybody slowing down.”

Yet there are already stop signs the Frogtown Road intersection nearby, and it’s dangerous to try and use stop signs to slow down traffic, according to Police Deputy Chief John DiFederico, a member of the Work Group. “The problem with putting a stop sign where it really doesn’t belong is that it gives people a false sense of security,” he said.