Government

Officials Dedicate ‘New’ Town Hall with Ribbon-Cutting, Tours [VIDEO]

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1st Selectman Rob Mallozzi Cuts Ribbon on New Town Hall 9 12 15
Uploaded by Michael Dinan on 2015-09-12. Scores of New Canaanites ventured downtown Saturday to attend an official dedication of the newly renovated and expanded Town Hall, a widely anticipated project totaling about $18 million that in recent weeks has seen municipal departments reassemble under a single roof for the first time in nearly two years. Members of the volunteer group that steered and oversaw the project to its completion, Town Hall Building Committee III—Michael Anthony, Chairman (and new father-in-law) Michael Avgerinos, Neil Budnick, Kathleen Corbet, John Goodwin, Vice Chairman Randy Salvatore and Rob Mallozzi—officially welcomed the community to its spick-and-span government building with a ribbon-cutting out front. Mallozzi, New Canaan’s first selectman, called it a “fabulous day for our community.”

“Lots of smiles on display,” Mallozzi said. “The celebration of the preservation and addition to our Town Hall will be a special memory for all of us.

Government

TABLE: Town Hall Building Project To Come In about $100,000 Under Budget

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Officials say the Town Hall renovation and expansion work now wrapping up is on track to come in about $100,000 under the $18 million total budgeted for construction and soft costs. As of June 30, the volunteer committee of residents and town officials overseeing the project say about $156,000 was left to spend from what New Canaan had bonded two years ago. With some final “punch-list” and other items (such as a $21,000 table for the large meeting room) still to be counted against that figure, best estimates as of Monday night were that the project will finish about $100,000 under budget, according to Michael Pastore, director of the New Canaan Department of Public Works. “Every dollar that has been spent is accounted for,” Pastore said at a meeting of the Town Hall Building Committee, held in the Lamb Room at New Canaan Library. Here’s a table that breaks down the budgeted and estimated final costs by major line items:

 

Kathleen Corbet, a member of the committee who serves at secretary on the Town Council, commended Pastore for his diligence.

Government

Town Eyes 14 Parking Spots at Red Cross Building for Municipal Employees

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The town will sign a land lease with the Red Cross to gain about 15 parking spaces for town employees out back of the organization’s Main Street building, and also re-designate some 20 spaces in the Park Street lot that now are being used by construction workers, in order to keep all the parking directly behind the renovated and expanded Town Hall for visitors, officials say. By the time Town Hall is fully reoccupied this summer, the number of spaces for visitors will more than double, from 14 to 30, according to the Town Hall Building Committee. “The good news is that we will have more visitor parking than before,” First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said at the group’s March 23 meeting, held in the Lamb Room at New Canaan Library. Municipal departments located now above Walter Stewart’s—such as the Assessor, Town Clerk, Registrars of Voters and Tax Collector—will start re-occupying the renovated and expanded 1909 building in early May. The estimated $13 million project, whose price tag is closer to $18 million given costs such as renting temporary offices during construction, remains on budget, the Building Committee said.

Government

Beautification League Offers $50,000 for Town Hall Landscaping Plan; Tree for Ben Olmstead Proposed

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A nonprofit organization dedicated to making New Canaan beautiful is offering to fund $50,000 in plantings to the grounds around the newly renovated Town Hall, and wants separately to help plan for a prominently placed sugar maple dedicated to the memory of a beloved man and municipal employee who died following an accident last summer. The New Canaan Beautification League feels that “this is a special opportunity to make a large contribution not only financially but also visually to the town,” one of its members, landscape architect Keith Simpson, said at Monday’s meeting of the Town Hall Building Committee. Part of the landscaping plan that Simpson unveiled (it already has been shown to the DPW chief and first selectman, among others) involves the planting of a tree that would be dedicated to Ben Olmstead. A well-loved town DPW worker for 37 years who possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of the town, Olmstead died July 24 at age 71 after he was struck by a car near the intersection of East Avenue at 123. (Olmstead knew so much about the town that the DPW in making its fiscal year 2016 budget request put in for a full-time person to try and fill his part-time shoes.)

In reviewing landscaping plans from a colleague for whom he has great respect, Norwalk-based Eric Rains, Simpson said it was difficult to find a tree location that would indicate it was planted for a specific, special reason.