Housing board weighs fiber conduit before major parking lot paving

Other Committee · Meeting of June 24, 2026

New Canaan Housing Authority board debates adding fiber-optic conduit before repaving Millport's lot. Commissioners Scott Hobbs, Tim Welsh, Peggy Danneman and Mike Sweeney heard from staff that opening new conduit later could cost more than doing it during the planned paving project, with contractor All Star Paving quoting "approximately $25 a foot" for trenching. Danneman, a former phone company engineer, cautioned residents that Frontier is "switching out the central offices" that carry copper landlines regardless of any fiber decision, while staff put a combined camera and key-fob security upgrade quote from vendor Silent Watchman at roughly $50,000.

Paving itself is not expected before September or October. Canaan Parish's relocation project is set to finish next week, with the last two displaced units due back in the North building. The board also voted unanimously to enter executive session on tenant matters, taking no votes there, before adjourning at 6:58 p.m.

In the full story:

• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report — 2,150 words

Source: the Other Committee meeting of June 24, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

The Full Article

Opening and Minutes Approval

The New Canaan Housing Authority board convened at 5:32 p.m., after the prior week's meeting was canceled for lack of a quorum. Commissioners Scott Hobbs, Tim Welsh, Peggy Danneman and Mike Sweeney were present. The board reviewed and approved the previous meeting's minutes without discussion, on a motion by Tim Welsh, seconded and approved unanimously by voice vote. This was a routine procedural item that consumed less than a minute.

Public Comment: Water Utility, Paving Schedule and Parking

A resident identified as Wendy raised a cluster of questions during public comment tied to upcoming site work at the Millport and Canaan Parish properties. She asked about a planned visit from MJ Daily, a vendor that previously performed combined phase one, phase two and Mill Apartments water-line work in a single trip; whether an "aquarian flushing" of the lines had occurred; and whether tenants had received notices from Aquarian, the water utility, about a pending sale that might affect billing. She also asked whether the authority had set a firm start date for parking lot paving so residents could plan around reduced parking, and voiced concern that any redesign not narrow existing parking spaces.

A staff property manager, addressed later in the meeting as Amy, responded that the MJ Daily work tied to the Aquarian system had already been completed and did not affect Mill Apartments tenants directly, though the change would eventually affect utility allowances once new water and sewer pricing takes effect. She said the authority would request updated usage and billing documentation from Aquarian once available. On paving, she said the authority remains in the bidding process and does not expect a start date before September or October, with tree-clearing work likely sooner, potentially by the end of July. She said the redesign is intended to ensure every unit has an assigned space in its own area, not to reduce the number of parking spaces. Wendy also asked, unprompted, whether federal changes to Medicaid could affect residents, a question the board did not substantively address.

This exchange ran roughly 12 minutes and set up the fiber-conduit discussion that followed, since Wendy's paving-timeline questions were the same ones a second commenter used to pivot into infrastructure planning.

Public Comment: Fiber Optic Conduit Proposal

The meeting's most substantive deliberation came from a resident who participated by phone and was addressed in the meeting alternately as Jim and Chip; he identified himself only by the latter name when he began speaking. He said he had raised the idea before, possibly through another resident, that the authority consider adding capacity for fiber-optic internet service coinciding with the planned parking lot paving, arguing that tearing up the lot presented a rare, low-cost window to add conduit that would otherwise require reopening finished pavement.

The question before the board was not a funding decision but whether to direct staff to investigate feasibility and cost before the paving specification is finalized. Commissioners and staff worked through several layers of the problem. Commissioner Peggy Danneman asked how service is currently distributed inside the buildings; she and a second commissioner, identified as Rick, who said he had worked as an engineer at a phone company, said residents currently have Frontier, which provides landline voice service over copper, and Optimum, which provides coaxial cable and Wi-Fi service. Neither, they said, delivers fiber to individual units today.

Danneman raised a practical concern about whether bringing fiber only as far as the building, without rewiring each unit, would produce any real benefit to residents. "I don't think it makes sense to... whether they bring fiber to the building or not is sort of their call," she said, adding that a comparable conversion in her own neighborhood had left the building's internal wiring on coaxial or wireless distribution rather than fiber to each apartment. She said typical residential service tops out around 1 gigabit whether delivered over fiber or existing lines, and questioned whether residents' actual usage would benefit from added capacity.

Wendy, participating again from public comment, pushed back that any fiber project would not resolve her core concern: preserving her landline, which she said has been in her family since a relative was assigned an early New Canaan telephone number generations ago. Danneman told her Frontier is required to maintain some form of service but is actively "switching out the central offices" that handle copper lines, meaning the interface for her line could change regardless of whether the authority pursues fiber. "They will force you off of it. However, I will... see if I can call somebody at Frontier," Danneman told her, offering to use her past industry contacts to get a direct answer.

Staff member Alec, who is coordinating the paving and security-camera specifications, told the board he had already built roughly 600 to 700 feet of empty conduit into the paving specification for future camera wiring, and that extending that allowance to accommodate fiber would add only incremental cost. He cited a quote of approximately $25 a foot to open new conduit trenches, obtained in a same-day conversation with All Star Paving; commissioners had initially attributed the figure to a different contractor, US Pavement, before correcting the record to All Star Paving during the meeting. At that rate, adding 100 feet of conduit would cost about $2,500 — money officials said would be recovered many times over by avoiding the cost of reopening newly finished asphalt in future years.

Commissioner Scott Hobbs summarized the board's position: pursue the possibility of adding conduit in a handful of strategic locations without committing to a specific fiber buildout, and gather more information on whether a larger incoming pipeline to the building would actually benefit residents given the limits of internal wiring. He said he and Danneman would work as an informal subcommittee to answer Alec's outstanding questions and keep the item moving. No vote was taken; the item was treated as a staff-research directive rather than a formal action.

Management Report: Millport

Alec told the board that paving specifications have been distributed to two contractors, described in the meeting as All Star Paving and US Pavement, and that a third bidder would come through a contact supplied by Commissioner Hobbs, giving the authority three competing bids.

A staff property manager, addressed as Amy, delivered the balance of the Millport report. She said tenants temporarily displaced by an ongoing renovation effort are expected to be back in their units by the end of the month. Vacant units are being prepared for re-occupancy. Monthly pest extermination was completed this cycle, with the next service scheduled for September 17 and 18. Sprinkler system work is scheduled for late July, subject to the vendor's own scheduling constraints. Paving bids are in and the authority is working through required paperwork; the contractor has visited the site to review conditions. Filter changes began this week and are expected to finish by Friday. Unit recertifications are proceeding on schedule, with the authority's workload extending into November. She said several appliances have failed recently, including one unit's air conditioning system, and the authority is awaiting proposals for either a repair or full replacement.

On staffing, Amy said the authority is working to relocate its maintenance staff member to an on-site office at Millport, where he has better printing capability than at his current post at Canaan Parish. The move depends on the departure of a staff member named Carla, expected at the end of July, which will free the office space; a longer-term plan to construct a dedicated office remains unresolved. Separately, Alec reported a quote from the authority's camera vendor, Silent Watchman, covering both additional camera installation, contingent on conduit being in place during the parking lot project, and an upgrade to the building's key fob access system. He put the combined cost at roughly $50,000, breaking down to approximately $39,000 for cameras and $11,000 for the fob upgrade, and said he would forward the formal quotes to Hobbs.

Management Report: Canaan Parish

The Canaan Parish property manager, whose name was rendered inconsistently in the meeting audio as Chandrita, Shondra and Andrew, reported that all relocated tenants have returned to their units except three: one in the South building, already relocated to Riverview and due back this week, and two in the North building, due back next week. Completing those two moves, she said, will finish the entire relocation project. The community room remains the last space to be finished, pending final electrical and lighting work by a contractor referred to as Camson, after which a deep cleaning will be performed before it reopens.

She reported the property passed a fire inspection from the New Canaan Fire Department with no issues identified, and that the authority has submitted its Management Occupancy Review, the federally required final approval step, and is awaiting closure. She also relayed a request from Riverview to borrow two to four parking spaces near the community room during Riverview's own paving project; the authority indicated it could likely spare two or three spaces, primarily for visitor use, while steering Riverview toward overflow options used during Canaan Parish's own relocation, including street parking and the adjacent cemetery.

Riverwood Update

Commissioner Tim Welsh gave a brief update on Riverwood. He said leasing activity was slow for the three weeks following the board's last meeting but picked up last week with three to four new net leases signed. He said the property's own regular meeting had been postponed to the following day, so he did not yet have its most recent figures. Paving work at Riverwood is also about to begin.

Welsh said he had not yet heard back from a town contact identified only as Christina about whether parking near a local school might be made available to residents during paving, noting that a cemetery lot remains the preferred option because of its convenience, and that the school option remains "on our list" as a backup. A commissioner recalled that a prior employer had similarly used a roughly 30-car stretch of roadway near the town transfer station during two past paving projects, an arrangement a town representative, referred to in the discussion by a name that transcribed as "Tiger Man" or "Mr. Man," had previously offered to make available for this project as well.

Executive Session and Adjournment

With no further public business, the board voted unanimously to enter executive session to discuss specific tenant issues and other confidential matters; Chair Hobbs noted no votes would be taken in executive session. Public attendees, including Wendy, Cindy and the resident who spoke on the fiber conduit issue, were asked to leave the call. The board resumed regular session at 6:58 p.m., confirming no votes had been taken during the closed portion, and then voted unanimously to adjourn on a motion initiated by Commissioner Peggy Danneman and seconded by Commissioner Tim Welsh.

Scott Hobbs, Commissioner, presided over the meeting Tim Welsh, Commissioner Peggy Danneman, Commissioner Mike Sweeney, Commissioner A commissioner or attendee identified only as Rick, who said he formerly worked as an engineer for a phone company Alec, staff member coordinating paving and security-camera specifications A property manager addressed as Amy, delivering the Millport management report The Canaan Parish property manager, whose name was rendered inconsistently as Chandrita, Shondra and Andrew Cindy, public commenter, declined to speak substantively Wendy, public commenter and Mill Apartments tenant, raised utility, paving and parking questions A resident who participated by phone, addressed alternately as Jim and Chip, raised the fiber-optic conduit proposal Carla, staff member departing at the end of July, referenced regarding office space planning

Aquarian — water utility whose rate changes and prior line-flushing work with MJ Daily were discussed in connection with Millport and Mill Apartments billing MJ Daily — contractor previously performed combined water-line work across phase one, phase two and Mill Apartments; a possible return visit in July or August was discussed Frontier — telecommunications provider supplying copper landline voice service to residents, discussed in the fiber-conduit and Danneman-Wendy exchange Optimum — telecommunications provider supplying cable and Wi-Fi service to residents, discussed in the same conduit conversation All Star Paving — contractor that provided the approximately $25-per-foot conduit-trenching quote cited by staff member Alec US Pavement — one of two contractors that received the Millport paving specification for bidding Silent Watchman — the authority's camera vendor, providing quotes for camera installation and a fob-system upgrade at Millport, roughly $50,000 combined New Canaan Fire Department — conducted the fire inspection at Canaan Parish, which the property passed with no issues Management Occupancy Review — the federal final-approval filing submitted for Canaan Parish, pending closure Camson — contractor cited as completing final electrical and lighting work in the Canaan Parish community room before it reopens