Selectmen approve $1.43 million fire engine purchase

Board of Selectmen · Meeting of October 20, 2026

New Canaan selectmen approved a $1.43 million fire engine and overhauled health department fees. The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to award Marion Body Works Inc. $1,299,071, plus a $129,907 contingency, for one engine, with Fire Chief Parrot citing industry-wide delays of "three and four years" at other departments. The board also approved fee schedule changes effective January 1, 2027, raising the Class 4 food establishment license to $475, and a memorandum of understanding joining the Aspatuck Health District's Medical Reserve Corps using roughly $11,000 in redirected grant funds.

Separately, the board approved $97,980 for a new water-control system at Waveny House after flooding filled the basement twice since July, and retroactively ratified a $25,000 emergency drainage repair at Lapham Community Center. The board also split its winter salt purchase between Morton Salt ($195,940 for 2,000 tons) and Chemical Equipment Labs ($102,880 for 1,000 tons) to guard against last year's supply shortages.

In the full story:

• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report — 3,281 words

Source: the Board of Selectmen meeting of October 20, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript.

The Full Article

Agenda and Minutes

The board opened by swapping Jersey Mike's for Kona Ice on the day's FCA cross country event item and approving the amended agenda unanimously. Approval of minutes from the October 6 meeting was pushed to the next session because the documents had not loaded onto board members' tablets. No members of the public addressed the board during the comment period.

Health Department Fee Schedule

The health department last updated its fee schedule in 2023. The item exists because the department says several fee categories, including farmers market vendor permits and food establishment risk-classification fees, have fallen out of step with surrounding towns and with actual department costs.

The board was asked to approve a package of fee changes to take effect January 1, 2027.

The changes add a dedicated farmers market license fee, replacing the temporary-event permit vendors had used despite operating April through December; whole-produce-only vendors are exempt under state farmers market code. A new seasonal fee applies to operations like the golf course halfway house, Bankoe Pool and the Field Club that run April to October, set at half the annual fee to reflect the shorter inspection season. The department is also codifying previously uncollected fees for generator and solar permits, and a two-week late fee for temporary food event licenses.

On food establishment fees, the department described its four-tier FDA risk classification system: Class 1 covers low-risk retailers like CVS; Class 2 covers operations with light food prep, such as ice cream shops; Class 3 covers most restaurants; and Class 4 covers establishments serving vulnerable populations, including Waveny Life Care and certain daycares, which require four inspections annually. The Class 4 annual license fee rises from $450 to $475. The health director compared the new rate to neighbors: Darien charges $700, Wilton $450, Norwalk $570, Aspetuck Health District $575 and Greenwich $478, saying New Canaan's rates were below most peers.

"Their lack of preparation shouldn't create a firestorm in the town hall," the health director said of the new late-fee policy, explaining that food events seeking last-minute licensing create scrambling for inspectors.

A board member asked whether a nonprofit that failed to give two weeks' notice would still face the late fee; the health director confirmed yes, saying consistent enforcement is necessary. Another member asked whether the fee increases represented a meaningful revenue change; the health director said the increases are "de minimis."

The board voted unanimously to approve the fee schedule changes effective January 1, 2027.

Aspatuck Health District Medical Reserve Corps Agreement

New Canaan has never had its own Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), a volunteer pool similar to CERT but medically focused, used by neighboring towns during COVID-19 vaccination clinics. The health director told the board that federal standards now make it "almost impossible" to start a new MRC from scratch, prompting the town to pursue joining an existing one.

The board was asked to approve a memorandum of understanding allowing New Canaan to join the Aspatuck Health District's MRC, which already serves Westport, Easton, Weston and Wilton.

Under the agreement, New Canaan will redirect approximately $11,000 in Public Health Emergency Preparedness Grant funding, previously used to pay a part-time health department employee no longer on staff, to Aspatuck Health District. In exchange, Aspatuck will recruit, train and conduct background checks on volunteers, and administer the MRC on New Canaan's behalf, eliminating the need for the town to staff emergency clinics independently.

The health director explained that MRC volunteers do not need medical backgrounds: "The medical reserve corps takes both medical and non-medical volunteers," noting that in Fairfield, where she previously worked, non-medical volunteers ran intake tables, lines and traffic control during emergencies. She said insurance coverage and background checks, previously a local liability and cost burden, would now be centrally handled through the MRC's government-backed activation process.

Asked how this changes the town's emergency response compared with its ad hoc COVID-era volunteer effort, the health director said the new structure "actually makes it easier," because volunteers from neighboring towns could backstop New Canaan if its own residents were impacted by a localized crisis, and vice versa. One board member noted that residents found comfort seeing familiar faces at past vaccination clinics and suggested the town promote the new MRC at next year's library volunteer fair; the health director agreed to attend.

The board voted unanimously to approve the MOU.

Fire Engine Purchase

The fire department's two oldest engines, a 1997 model requiring roughly $40,000 in repairs and another needing about $60,000, prompted an apparatus committee recommendation to decommission both rather than continue repairs. The department sought board approval to purchase a replacement engine using regional cooperative pricing to avoid a lengthy competitive bid process.

The board was asked to approve a $1,299,071 contract with Marion Body Works Inc., plus a 10 percent contingency of $129,907, for a total of $1,428,978, funded from the fire department's existing FY273 pumper replacement capital budget.

Fire Chief Parrot said the purchase used Houston-Galveston Area Council (HGAC) cooperative pricing, which pools roughly 10,000 municipalities to guarantee most-favored pricing even without a competitive bid. He said delivery is expected in 20 to 24 months, notably faster than the three- to four-year waits other departments are experiencing due to private-equity consolidation in the fire apparatus industry.

"There's been a big change in the industry over the last, let's say, five years. There's been some private equity that's come in, bought up a lot of companies, and you can go on C-SPAN right now — they're getting grilled about their delays," Parrot said.

Asked what happens to the two older engines, Parrot said the department plans to decommission both, with the city of Stanford's fire chief, Morris, already lending New Canaan a spare engine. Parrot said he is in discussions with resale brokers for the decommissioned units. A board member asked whether the purchase matched budgeted figures; Parrot confirmed the $1.5 million line item in budget code 89610 covers the purchase with room to spare, and noted the new engine's design closely matches three units recently purchased by Stanford, which he said would ease future parts and maintenance coordination through a relationship with Stanford's shop, Lieutenant Vettie.

The board voted unanimously to approve the contract.

Human Services and Parking Department Purchase Orders

Human Services Director Marcy told the board that DVCC and GetAbout had not submitted final fiscal year 2026 invoices until after the fiscal year closed, prompting a request for $10,000 for DVCC and $12,500 for GetAbout to be processed through fiscal year 2027 budget mechanisms, with finance correcting the year-end allocation. Marcy explained that New Canaan must contribute roughly $12,500 to GetAbout in order to unlock a matching $12,500 state grant, totaling $25,000 for the program. One board member noted frustration that service organizations often submit funding requests outside the normal budget cycle. The board voted unanimously to approve the FY27 purchase orders.

Parking Department Manager Kevin requested a $79.41 increase to a previously approved travel purchase order, explaining the overage stemmed from unexpected parking fees, $21.85 per day plus $45 for an outdoor lot, incurred while attending a parking industry conference after losing his hotel's conference rate due to a late booking. A board member said data Kevin brought back from a recent parking commission meeting had proven useful to the town. The board voted unanimously to approve the increase.

FCA Cross Country Event and Parks Field Upgrades

The board approved a request to allow the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) to sell Kona Ice and commemorative t-shirts, with proceeds going to FCA rather than the New Canaan Track and Field program, at the FCA Cross Country Championship at Waveny Park on October 21, 2026, with a rain date of October 22. Organizers described the event as drawing nearly 1,000 participants plus spectators.

Separately, the Parks Department requested approval for annual fall softball and baseball field upgrades. The department said it contacted three turf-construction companies by email in September but received only one estimate, from Athletic Field Services (AFS) of Bridgeport, citing seasonal staffing drop-off among competitors and limited interest in lower-scale maintenance work compared with new field construction. A board member pressed on the single-bid outcome, asking whether outreach had been more than email; the Parks representative acknowledged relying on email contact with named individuals at competing firms, including Championship Turf (based in Fairfield) and STS (based in Massachusetts), and said future outreach could include direct follow-up.

The total request, including a 10 percent contingency on each vendor, came to $32,030 for Athletic Field Services' labor, covering seven clay infields, and $24,487 for infield mix from Dura Edge Products, for a combined $56,517 funded from the parks capital budget. The department noted it eliminated sod replacement this year by relying on aeration and seeding instead, producing cost savings. The board voted unanimously to approve both contracts.

Waveny House Basement Water Control

Repeated flooding at Waveny House, following two severe storm events since July, prompted the Department of Public Works to seek a permanent fix after years of gradual water infiltration. Public works staff solicited bids from three basement-system specialty contractors; one did not respond, and the department selected American Dry Basement Systems after reviewing its proprietary interior drainage system.

The board was asked to approve a $89,080 contract, plus an 8,900 contingency for a total of $97,980, to install an interior footing drain system with six to eight sump pumps around the basement perimeter, intercepting water before it penetrates the historic masonry walls and pumping it to an exterior storm drain rather than allowing it to pool under the floor.

Public works staff explained the project involves cutting roughly 12 inches into the concrete floor around the perimeter, installing perforated pipe and pumps on a float system, and capping the work with new concrete. The system will rely on the building's existing generator backup rather than battery backup. Staff said funding came from a prior board of finance-approved transfer of unused capital funds from completed projects, which allowed the work to begin this January rather than waiting for the next full budget cycle, saving roughly a year.

"It's air quotes historic, it's cool, it's really cool down there, actually," a public works representative said, acknowledging the basement's age while describing the planned concrete patch work as minimally invasive compared with excavating around the building's exterior.

The board voted unanimously to approve the contract, along with a related $25,000 increase to the Antonelli Roofing purchase order to address roof leaks discovered during the same storm events, including a tear near solar panel installations at the highway department garage that required removing 20 to 22 panels for repair and inspection.

Winter Salt and Ice-Melt Purchases

Public works staff proposed splitting the town's annual road salt purchase between two vendors after experiencing supply shortages last winter that forced the department to call vendors as far away as Albany and Providence, ultimately paying a premium of roughly $0.30 per ton above contract pricing because no purchase order was in place with the backup vendor.

The board was asked to approve a 2,000-ton order from Morton Salt at $195,940 (via the CRCOG regional bid, with Morton also winning the state of Connecticut's bid this year) and a 1,000-ton order from Chemical Equipment Labs at $102,880, splitting the town's typical 3,000-ton annual purchase.

Staff said buying entirely from Morton would save roughly $5,000 overall but called the split purchase "an insurance policy," noting Morton failed to answer calls for roughly two weeks during last year's shortage, forcing New Canaan to send its own trucks to retrieve the last 200 tons available in New Haven. A board member asked whether unused salt carries over; staff confirmed salt is stored in the town's barn (capacity about 1,800 tons) and rolls over year to year rather than being discarded, though vendors set minimum purchase requirements, 1,000 tons each from Morton and Chemical Equipment Labs under current bid terms. New Canaan used roughly 3,500 tons last year, above its roughly 2,000-ton average.

The board also approved a related $16,740 purchase order with Innovative Service Solutions for 9,000 gallons of liquid ice-melt additive at $1.86 per gallon, a product the town has used since 2007. Both items passed unanimously.

Lapham Community Center Emergency Drainage Repair

A July storm event caused significant flooding at Lapham Community Center. Public works staff said an investigation found a blockage in the drainage line leading to the site's stormwater detention system, which sits beneath a separate detention system built for the adjacent Kapo project. Given forecasts for additional heavy rain, Town Administrator Deanna approved emergency repair work before formal board authorization.

The board was asked to retroactively approve the resulting contract.

Staff described a multi-stage repair: contractor H.I. Stone, familiar with the area from prior Kapo site work, cleared a blockage roughly a third of the way into the pipe, found a second sludge blockage eight feet further along, and then discovered the detention system itself remained nearly full even after days without rain, a condition staff attributed to surrounding clay soil preventing drainage. Crews are now installing a 6-inch drain line and an 8-inch overflow line, both routed to an external storm drain system and ultimately a wetland area across the street, rather than relying on uncertain original overflow infrastructure that could not be located. A new manhole is also being installed adjacent to the detention system to allow future camera inspection access from both sides of a previously inaccessible 126-foot pipe run.

Asked whether a similar water infiltration system was needed inside the Lapham building itself, as is being installed at Waveny House, staff said the building's exterior footing drains should be sufficient and that this was an unprecedented event in years of operation.

The agreed cost was not to exceed $25,000, paid to H.I. Stone for five days of work at $5,000 per day. The board voted unanimously to approve the contract retroactively. A board member requested a site visit to better understand the project; staff agreed to arrange one.

Public Works Update: Roads and Buildings

Public works staff gave a verbal update, without a vote, on ongoing capital projects. Route 106 work between Canoe Hill and Valley Road will pause for the winter with roughly 2,000 feet of full-depth reclamation remaining, to resume in spring, ahead of state deadlines of November 1 for winter operations and November 15 for paving. Crews will shift next week to South Avenue and Farm Road for a temporary two-inch mill-and-fill repair ahead of Halloween; staff cautioned this is not the final, full-depth restoration, which is scheduled for next summer. Southwood driveway and sidewalk work is nearing completion, and preliminary inspection work for next year's Waveny House building envelope project is complete. The Lapham building envelope contractor is expected to finish by late November, and the building's elevator project should see its state inspection milestone met by the end of the week, pending remaining tile and railing finish work.

IT Staffing Arrangement and GFOA Conference Travel

The Human Resources Department requested approval for IT employee Jack Grace, who joined New Canaan's IT department roughly two weeks before the meeting, to continue working part time for the Town of Bethel after hours and on weekends, assisting Bethel's IT operations while that town searches for a new IT director. Grace said Bethel expects to interview and extend an offer to a new director candidate by the end of the following week. The board voted unanimously to approve the arrangement, with HR agreeing to provide a timeline update.

Separately, the Finance Department requested approval for one employee's travel to Charleston, South Carolina, from November 14 to 21, 2026, to attend the GFOA Leadership Academy, a competitive program that accepted New Canaan as one of 43 organizations nationally. The trip will be fully funded by National GFOA and Connecticut GFOA scholarships, at no cost to the town. The board voted unanimously to approve the travel.

Routine Financial Items

The board approved, without extended discussion, a batch of contracts under $15,000 including an annual employee-appreciation taco and tequila food truck event; clarified that purchase orders require separate board approval distinct from underlying contracts, a procedural fix requested for auditing purposes; and approved routine tax overpayment refunds and legal fee payments. All passed unanimously.

Selectmen's Comments

Board members closed the meeting by noting two recent deaths in the community: Libby Butterworth, wife of former town council member Tom Butterworth, and Alex Semenaski, a longtime New Canaan police detective. Members also urged pedestrian and driver caution ahead of Halloween and the November 1 time change, citing darker evening conditions.

Board of Selectmen members: individual members were not identified by name in the transcript beyond the presiding officer, who was not named; multiple unnamed members participated in discussion and voted unanimously throughout.

Fire Chief Parrot — New Canaan Fire Department, presented fire engine purchase request.

Health Director Amy — New Canaan Health Department, presented fee schedule changes and Aspatuck Health District MRC agreement.

Human Services Director Marcy — presented FY27 purchase order requests for DVCC and GetAbout.

Parking Department Manager Kevin — presented travel purchase order increase request.

Ryan (Parks Department) — presented FCA Kona Ice/t-shirt request and softball/baseball field upgrade contracts.

John — co-presented the FCA cross country event item alongside Ryan; title not stated.

Bill and Tiger (Department of Public Works) — presented Waveny House basement system and Lapham Community Center drainage repair items; titles not stated.

Deanna — referenced as having approved emergency repair work at Lapham Community Center ahead of board ratification; title not stated.

Ryan (Finance Department) — presented GFOA Leadership Academy travel request; may or may not be the same individual as the Parks Department's Ryan.

Cheryl — presented IT staffing arrangement request for Jack Grace; likely Human Resources Director based on motion language.

Jack Grace — New Canaan IT department employee, subject of part-time Bethel staffing request.

Chris and Dan — referenced briefly in IT staffing discussion; Dan is a Town of Bethel official.

Aspatuck Health District — regional health district (Westport, Easton, Weston, Wilton) that New Canaan is joining for Medical Reserve Corps services under the MOU discussed in item on health department agenda.

Marion Body Works Inc. — Stanford-based contractor awarded the $1,428,978 fire engine purchase contract.

Houston-Galveston Area Council (HGAC) cooperative purchasing bid — used to secure most-favored pricing on the fire engine without a separate competitive bid.

City of Stanford Fire Department — lent New Canaan a spare fire engine and purchased similar apparatus, cited as a maintenance and parts resource.

DVCC and GetAbout — social service organizations receiving FY27 purchase orders of $10,000 and $12,500 respectively; GetAbout funding tied to a matching state grant.

Athletic Field Services and Dura Edge Products Inc. — vendors awarded combined $56,517 contract for softball/baseball field upgrades.

American Dry Basement Systems — contractor awarded $97,980 contract for Waveny House basement water control system.

H.I. Stone — contractor awarded up to $25,000 emergency contract for Lapham Community Center drainage repair, based on prior familiarity with the adjacent Kapo project site.

Morton Salt and Chemical Equipment Labs — vendors awarded combined $298,820 contract for 3,000 tons of road salt, split to mitigate supply-shortage risk experienced in the prior winter.

Innovative Service Solutions — vendor awarded $16,740 contract for liquid ice-melt additive.

GFOA (Government Finance Officers Association) Leadership Academy — competitive national program in Charleston, South Carolina, funded by scholarships, that a New Canaan finance employee will attend November 14-21, 2026.

CRCOG (Capitol Region Council of Governments) bid — regional purchasing cooperative referenced for the salt contract bidding process.