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Parks plans, BOE budget and behavioral-health reports highlighted during committee updates
Summary
Council committee reports on Jan. 15 covered Parks & Recreation designs for a deck and proposed pickleball courts, the Board of Education’s initial $114 million budget proposal, and Silver Hill’s urgent behavioral-health assessment program statistics; the utilities commission announced a public session on small-scale cogeneration.
Councilors used the committee-report portion of the meeting to flag a set of items that will move into the budget and public-review process.
Parks and Recreation: Jennifer (Town Council member) summarized recent Parks & Rec discussion about a proposed outdoor deck (frequently described in public materials as a “paddle hut” deck with fire pits) and a separate proposal for four to five new pickleball courts. The deck concept shown to the committee is budgeted at about $299,000; councilors said the town will work through layout and placement and present capital proposals during the budget process.
Board of Education budget: Committee members reported that the Board of Education presented an initial budget proposal of about $114 million, roughly a 4.6% increase over the prior year. Reporters at the meeting noted roughly 90% of the BOE budget is salaries and benefits; the BOE’s proposed capital requests were described at approximately $5 million and will move through the Board of Finance review.
Behavioral-health urgent assessment program: Council member Kim and others summarized a presentation by Susanna Lewis of Silver Hill during a Health & Human Services meeting. Key points included an average of roughly 12 urgent-assessment cases per month, 308 cases since the program began in July 2022, 85% New Canaan residents, and 64% of service users aged 26 and under. About 14% presented with some degree of suicidal ideation; 30% of referrals came from schools and 25% were peer-to-peer referrals. The average scheduling wait cited was about 48 hours; about 60% of assessed clients were referred to in-network providers while 40% went out of network. Councilors noted a public QPR suicide-prevention training and a forthcoming Behavioral Health Alliance public presentation on the community survey results.
Utilities: The Utilities Commission will host a public session at the library to present a small-scale residential cogeneration product from Axion Energy Group; the session was scheduled for the evening after the council meeting.
Councilors said these items will be considered further during budget review, committee meetings and public hearings; many of the reports were informational and will reappear in more detailed committee hearings later in the process.
