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Community Honors James McArdle
By Paul Silverfarb L a st Thu rsday, cou nt le ss r e s i d e n t s f r o m t h e Tow n o f Greenwich and surrounding areas gathered at Audubon Greenwich to honor lifelong resident and business owner James McArdle. McArdle, fourth-generation owner of McArdle’s Florist and Garden Center, was honored by the Greenwich Sentinel for his dedication and devotion to the Greenwich community. “It had a heavy impact on my heart,” McArdle said. “Greenwich is more diverse than we give it credit for. To see so many different people from different avenues of life is amazing. I love that. I was so touched and moved from all the support.” During the July 1 event, Jim Himes, U.S. Representative for Connecticut’s Fourth District, and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, spoke about McArdle’s passion for helping the Greenwich community and making the town a better place. Fred Camillo, a member of t he Con ne c t ic ut Hou s e of Representatives for Greenwich’s 151st District and also a candidate for the Greenwich First Selectman position, believes that McArdle was the perfect choice for the 2019 Greenwich Sentinel Award. “The Sentinel hit a home run by way of putting together a great event and with the selection of a terrific honoree,” said Camillo. “James McArdle embodies all that the Sentinel believes in and promotes in our wonderful town. Hats off to both.” Also coming up to the podium to speak about McArdle during the 2019 Greenwich Sentinel Award was Stanwich Church senior pastor Nathan Hart. “[The Sentinel] organized a great evening that showcased all the best of Greenwich: community, n a t u r a l b e au t y a n d s e r v a n t leadership,” said Hart. Last year’s Sentinel Award winner, Susan Wohlforth, was in attendance and was impressed with the turnout for McArdle. “What a great night for the Greenwich Sentinel and James
McArdle,” said Wohlforth. “The Audubon was a terrific choice for venue, which was greatly enjoyed by everyone who attended. But the best part of the entire evening was honoring James McArdle and the Greenwich Sentinel. Both James and the paper are true ‘Sentinels’ for our community for all that they do on behalf of all of us. It was a pleasure to witness and an honor to help celebrate them both.” The newspaper’s first Sentinel Award recipient, Greenwich Police Chief Jim Heavey, was also on-hand during this year’s event at Audubon Greenwich and spoke about how much McArdle has done over the years both personally and through his family business and how he has done so with little fanfare. “The crowd of nearly 200 people was a great cross section of our community, and it was a true testament of Jim’s significant contribution to making Greenwich such a special place to live and work,” said Heavey. “Thank you to the Sentinel for recognizing Jim McArdle as this year’s Greenwich Sentinel.” As guests mingled throughout the rooms of Greenwich Audubon, they enjoyed beverages from Val’s Putnam Wine & Liquors, snacks served by Greenwich Staffing and viewed exotic animals courtesy of the Beardsley Zoo. “It was very moving,” McArdle said. “I was just very touched by the amount of support from the community. While I was proud of the moment, there were so many people there that were so caring and supportive, it compels me to want to give more because we have such a great community.” While McArdle was humble about how the community came out to support him, the fourthgeneration owner said that he was equally moved by how much t he com mu n it y supp or ts t he newspaper that honored him. “There are so many people that believe in the paper and see the purpose that it’s serving,” McArdle said. “We really need the Sentinel to bring our neighborhoods together and the people at the event want to see the paper succeed. It brings so
much value to the community.” For McArdle, it has always been a l l a bout the customer. That’s what makes his business so successful. He said that every customer has a different need and that it’s important to listen well to what the customer is looking to accomplish. “We don’t take any customer for granted,” McArdle said. “We have to earn their business, despite being around for 109 years. We have to still prove ourselves every time, and we strive to accomplish that. Whatever the customer wants is what our goal is. It’s about having the empathy of meeting people where they are and trying to help them find a solution.”
From the top: Will, Christine and honoree, James McArdle; Jennifer Graziano and Fred Camillo, Sabrina Forsythe; Sentinel columnists Icy Frantz and Jim Knox (from the Beardsley Zoo.) With our thanks and gratitude to Bob Capazzo for coming to the event and taking these wonderful photos! For more photos, visit www. GreenwichSentinel.com.
Ahneman Kirby: at Forefront of Advanced Technology The sky is the limit for Ahneman Kirby. Literally.
By Richard Kaufman Following the Civil War in the 1860's, the importance of land records skyrocketted. In 187 1, Joseph Andrew Kirby founded J.A. Kirby Co., an engineering company, in nearby Port Chester, N.Y. At the end of the 19th century, J.A. Kirby's surveys, sewer designs, road designs and stormwater designs helped shape the Village of Port Chester. Fast for wa rd nea rly 1 30 years, and the company is now k n o w n a s A h n e m a n K i r b y, a f te r T hom a s A h ne m a n a nd Ahneman Associates purchased the business in 1998. The business offers services related to civil engineering, structural e n g i n e e r i n g a s we l l a s l a n d surveying. Roughly 50,000 of J.A. Kirby's plans are located in Ahneman's office in Riverside, and many of them are still used today. But as Ahneman Kirby carries on the legacy of J.A. Kirby, it is doing so with a revolutionary technology that is becoming a game changer for surveying. Lu m i na L i DA R ( L ig ht Detection and Ranging) r e con na iss a nce u s e s r emote
sensing equipment, either through terrestrial, aerial (drones) o r m o b i l e s c a n n i n g , to g i ve institutional and municipal clients highly detailed and accurate 3D models of properties, structures or roads and highways. "This is a new technolog y we've invested heavily in. It's a great technology," Ahneman said, noting that there are only a handful of firms in the United States with this kind of capability. "A lot of our clients are still living in a 2-dimensional world, and LIDAR gives us 3-dimensional c a p a b i l i t i e s . We ' r e i n t h a t transition at this stage. I see the world going 3D, but it's going to be a slow evolution." One scan from a drone that's anywhere from 75-200 feet in the air above a roadway takes 45 seconds, and can collect up to 40 million points down to two centimeters in precision, to show intricate, detailed images of things like roadbeds, signs, guardrails, utilities, foliage and exit ramps. "It's a lot of fun. You always get to meet people when you're out f lying the drone. Everyone wants to come say hello. We've flown a lot of interesting projects locally," he said, pointing out the
Presbyterian Church in Rye, N.Y., and the Colum ns Building in Greenwich. Ahneman noted that it's mind
a staff and take shots manually. project for Sikorsky, which has The safety of being able to sit on a helicopter factory in Stratford, the sidewalk and scan and get Conn. the entire roadbed without ever Sikorsky wants to put a spray booth on their factory f loor, and they want to know the most costeffective location for it where they can ventilate it through the roof. "They need a good accurate existing conditions survey of their facility, so they hired us. We'll give them a 3D model so they can position their spray booth and get through the roof in the most cost effective manner without relocating a bunch of utilities," Ahneman said. Ahneman recently opened an sending anybody in the roadway office in South Carolina, and said is important," Ahneman said. LiDAR can be used for the historic "There's less manpower, too. The preservation of buildings in cities scanner [device] never calls in like Charleston. sick, never asks for vacation days. "Once you capture a scan, it's It just wants to make sure its good for a lifetime," Ahneman batteries are charged." added. "The LiDAR can capture If Ahneman were to survey the t he ac t ua l bu i ld i ng , ex ist i ng Cos Cob project the old fashioned conditions, then if you have to way, he'd have a finished product match those existing conditions, in 60 days. Now, after a scan is you would have an exact replica taken, it's filtered out and refined. that you can work off of. That's A f inal CAD Drawing, or point why the scalability and accuracy cloud, is ready within 2-3 weeks. is so important, especially if you're The technology is also more working on a historic preservation c o s t- e f fe c t i ve . For e x a mp l e , project." Ahneman Kirby is going to do a Ahneman can also help the
The technology is also more cost-effective. bog gling how technolog y has changed since he f irst started surveying with his father, f irst growing up in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., and later in Greenwich where he moved at the age of 16. He added that the technology is safer for his team and clients. As the on-call surveyors for the Town of Greenwich, Ahneman and his team will have to scan a section of the Post Road in Cos Cob and some of the flood prone areas. "The nice thing about the Post Road is we don't have to set up and run guys across the road with
Department of Transportation as a consultant on various projects. "They may not be making the investment in equipment, and in training and software, because it would take an enormous amount of capital for them to get up and running. What we're trying to do is help them with their 3D inventory as consultants," he said. "We're sort of the recon team. We ref ine it, we package it, so that they can use it. We're sort of facilitating the process." LiDAR can also be used for Emergency Operations Centers to show town officials and residents damage from severe storms. Going forward, the sky is the limit for Ahneman Kirby. Literally. Ahneman received his pilot's l i c e n s e i n 2 0 0 8 a n d ow n s a Bonanza aircraft. He's currently working with Ohio University to outfit LiDAR on a fixed wing airplane. "The gameplan is to f ly my own plane with LiDA R on it," Ahneman said with a smile. "That would be a lot of fun." For mor e i n for mat ion o n A h n e m a n K i r b y, g o t o ahnemankirby.com.
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