New Canaan Board Of Selectmen Approve Part-Time Hire, Promotion

NEW CANAAN, CT — The Board of Selectmen approved the promotion of a part-time town employee to a full-time position and hired a part-time gardener for Waveny Park during their meeting Tuesday.

The board unanimously approved a request to promote Cathy Casali to an assessment technician position, following the recent promotion of Katie Lam from assessment technician to assistant tax assessor last month.

"We had an opening in the assessor's office," Cheryl Pickering Jones, the town's personnel director, said during the meeting. "We posted it internally, and Cathy was the only one who put an application in."

According to Jones, Casali has worked for the town on a part-time basis for the past three years.

"We feel that she would fit very nicely into the assessment technician position," Jones said.

The board also unanimously approved a request from the Parks and Recreation department to hire Ray Martin as a part-time gardener at Waveny Park.

Director of Public Works Tiger Mann told the board organizations such as the Waveny Park Conservancy, the New Canaan Garden Club and the New Canaan Beautification League have done an excellent job installing plantings in the Waveny area, however maintaining those plantings is a niche the town needs to fill.

"Our parks staff does a fantastic job on all of our grounds," Mann said during the meeting. "This is one area where we're lacking, where we feel that it would be a good thing to have someone on hand to take a look and make sure that everything looks good for a wedding, an event or just the fact that it's Wavney; it's the crown jewel of New Canaan."

Martin, a licensed arborist, currently maintains the area in and around The Country Club of New Canaan, and Mann said he has done "fantastic" work there.

"We're looking to bring him to Waveny and start to help us basically garden around the property," Mann said, "and take a look at it from a horticultural standpoint and see what might be necessary and what might be needed."

According to Mann, Martin would continue working at the country club but spend four hours twice a week working, initially, around Waveny House, the Lapham Community Center and other necessary areas.

Mann said he'd like to have Martin come to Waveny for at least a month, working until sometime in November. Martin will only work for the country club from roughly November to March, then work for both the club and the town for about nine months each year.

Selectman Nick Williams asked if the town had ever done this before, to which Moynihan said they had not, rather they've had Recreation Director Stephen Benko planting flowers.

"That's our thought is that we have this niche that we're not filling," Mann said. "We're doing a great work of installation and we necessarily need a little bit of help on the maintenance side, and we're hoping that he'll do that for us."