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Claims have been made that the proposed new library could bring in $6.6M to local businesses. I just discovered the economic impact study behind that number is posted on the Town’s web site. It makes for interesting reading. One issue is that $6.6M is the high estimate; the low estimate is only $346K. A bigger issue is that there is a major flaw in the logic, making the results meaningless. The report summarizes how they arrived at the number. Here’s the gist of it: Basically, they did a survey of library patrons in June-July 2019. Survey questions asked if they patronized other local businesses or activities while in town for their current/last trip to the library (58% said ‘yes’) and, if so, which businesses (generically; the survey provided a long list of types of businesses) and approximately how much did they spend at each of those businesses. The New Canaan Library automatically tallies the number of people entering the doors (800-1000 daily, no elimina ....