North Canaan fixed Route 44 traffic flow

NORTH CANAAN — A significant highlight of the past year has to be the state Department of Transportation construction project along Route 44 through the town’s center. The inconvenience and diverted traffic resulted in measurable improvements to the highway and traffic movement.

Construction was no hindrance to new commercial development in the town center where new businesses opened and are flourishing in a positive business climate as pandemic pressures appear to be easing.

A continuing effort to develop a Housatonic River access point at the site of the former Masonic Hall is beginning to come together.

During the past year, a Friends group was assembled, and is now ready to move toward proposing a project. The group’s efforts will align with the process used when the Friends of Beckley Furnace assembled that project. The coming year will bring updates.

Another group formed in the spring to organize its efforts to block potential development of a warm asphalt plant in East Canaan. The Blackberry River Valley Protection Alliance, Inc. (BRVPA) is the new name for Stop the Asphalt Plant (STAP). With a wider focus and newfound funding, it plans to expand its years-long battle to stop the plant on conservation and environmental fronts.

Applications are still being considered for use of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)  funding. During the year the selectmen approved requests from emergency and public safety services aligned with ARPA guidelines.

The fire department received funds for equipment upgrades and the ambulance corps will be able to purchase a new ambulance. The town hall received needed computer upgrades.

Window replacement at the North Canaan Elementary School and fencing for the day care center are projects under consideration by the town’s application for Small Town Economic Assistance Program (STEAP) grant funding.

Nearing the end of a one-year moratorium on cannabis, the town continued the process of developing a policy regarding growing and selling cannabis. The coming year will see additional public hearings on the issue.

 

Latest News

Classifieds - December 4, 2025

Help Wanted

CARE GIVER NEEDED: Part Time. Sharon. 407-620-7777.

SNOW PLOWER NEEDED: Sharon Mountain. 407-620-7777.

Keep ReadingShow less
Legal Notices - December 4, 2025

LEGAL NOTICE

TOWN OF CANAAN/FALLS VILLAGE

Keep ReadingShow less
‘Les Flashs d’Anne’: friendship, fire and photographs
‘Les Flashs d’Anne’: friendship, fire and photographs
‘Les Flashs d’Anne’: friendship, fire and photographs

Anne Day is a photographer who lives in Salisbury. In November 2025, a small book titled “Les Flashs d’Anne: Friendship Among the Ashes with Hervé Guibert,” written by Day and edited by Jordan Weitzman, was published by Magic Hour Press.

The book features photographs salvaged from the fire that destroyed her home in 2013. A chronicle of loss, this collection of stories and charred images quietly reveals the story of her close friendship with Hervé Guibert (1955-1991), the French journalist, writer and photographer, and the adventures they shared on assignments for French daily newspaper Le Monde. The book’s title refers to an epoymous article Guibert wrote about Day.

Keep ReadingShow less
Nurit Koppel brings one-woman show to Stissing Center
Writer and performer Nurit Koppel
Provided

In 1983, writer and performer Nurit Koppel met comedian Richard Lewis in a bodega on Eighth Avenue in New York City, and they became instant best friends. The story of their extraordinary bond, the love affair that blossomed from it, and the winding roads their lives took are the basis of “Apologies Necessary,” the deeply personal and sharply funny one-woman show that Koppel will perform in an intimate staged reading at Stissing Center for Arts and Culture in Pine Plains on Dec. 14.

The show humorously reflects on friendship, fame and forgiveness, and recalls a memorable encounter with Lewis’ best friend — yes, that Larry David ­— who pops up to offer his signature commentary on everything from babies on planes to cookie brands and sports obsessions.

Keep ReadingShow less