Brendan Hayes

Solar Panels To Be Installed on South School Roof This Summer

By |

Officials are moving forward with the first phase of a plan to install solar panels on the roofs of New Canaan’s public schools. 

New Canaan Public Schools Director of Finance and Operations Dr. Jo-Ann Keating told the Board of Education at its regular meeting July 15 that a revised contract with the party providing the panels had been finalized. The revised contract is “about 73% less than our current rate that we pay per kilowatt hour,” Keating said at the meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. “The panel system is going to cover about 80% of our demand requirement, so we’ll still be going out to the grid for about 20% of what we need,” she added. The revised contract follows months of progress in bringing the sustainable power source to New Canaan Public Schools. At the Board’s April 22 meeting, Keating said that solar panels are to be installed on the roof of South School this summer, with a plan for installation on East and West schools and Saxe Middle Schools over the next three years.

News

‘Sky Blue Poles Seen Against the Sky’: Public Safety Antennas Proposed for West School, St. Luke’s

By |

Town officials have received applications to affix radio antennas to existing structures at West and St. Luke’s Schools, part of a wider effort to improve communications for New Canaan’s first responders. The proposed 20.8-foot antenna at West School would be located atop of a building toward the rear of the campus, on a roof whose peak is about 28 feet from the ground, according to an application submitted to Planning & Zoning. The proposed 20-foot antenna at St. Luke’s would be affixed atop a brick chimney at a building alongside the football field, according to the school’s application.

News

Board of Ed Voices Support for Proposed Emergency Communications Antenna at West School

By |

Board of Education members on Monday night voiced support for a proposal from the New Canaan Police Department to install an approximately 10-foot radio communications antenna on a 5-foot “monopole” atop the roof of the West School gymnasium. Assured that the pole poses no health hazards—in fact, there are two existing, similar set-ups already at West School, used by the bus company and district itself, according to Police Capt. John DiFederico—Board of Ed members stopped short of a formal vote. The new one would serve public safety needs, he said. School board member Sheri West said: “It seems very straightforward to me that we would be supporting” the installation. DiFederico described the proposed antenna as an initial step toward improving portable radio communications for police, fire and public works officials as well as EMTs and members of the Community Emergency Response Team or ‘CERT.’

“The problem is that portable radios in the western side of town have a real difficult time reaching our base so that is what a receive-only antenna does—it captures the radio signals in the air and sends them back to the police department or the fire house or the public works facilities,” DiFederico said at the meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

By |

Studio Elan, an established business on Burtis Avenue, is moving into the former Candy Scoop space on Elm Street, up the alley by Chef Luis and next to New Canaan Music. ***

New Canaan Public Schools cafeterias recently earned the No. 1 “Best Food Ranking” from Niche.com. Here’s a peek at the top-10 (Darien is No. 23—nanny nanny boo boo):

New Canaan
Middlefield
Weston
Westport
Wilton
Chester
Killingly
Waterford
Simsbury
Glastonbury

***

Police responded to a call at 1:28 p.m. last Saturday that a dog near Forest Street and Locust Avenue was “going crazy in a car.” The dog’s owner, who was inside the nearby New Canaan Diner, paid her bill and left the restaurant to take care of the barking animal.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

By |

An interesting side note to the New Canaan Housing Authority’s plan to build with greater density the public housing at Mill Pond (a project that will trigger relief from a developer loophole in the state statutes): According to the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, the total number of housing units in New Canaan has decreased over the last several reportable years:

***

Troopers from Connecticut State Police Troop G last Thursday rescued two Hawks Hill Road golden retrievers who had wandered onto the Merritt Parkway. The fortunate animals were secured safely just after 1 p.m. on March 3, according to the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section. It wasn’t immediately clear how they got out. ***

Congratulations to New Canaanite Ann Cotoia on her retirement from Bankwell after nearly 14 years. She joined the bank the month it opened (April 2002) and is a third generation New Canaanite. March 4 marked her last day, following 48 total years in the banking industry. “She was a tremendously valued employee at Bankwell as a Personal Banker, and often heralded for her outstanding service to customers,” officials say.