Except — improbably — you can walk directly from Compo Road South to Compo Beach, without taking the long way on Soundview Drive or (even longer) Compo Beach Road.
Just pop through the gray wood gate, underneath a red brick arch.
It’s hidden in plain sight. But it was last week’s Photo Challenge (click here to see).
And it was quickly identified by more than a dozen readers, some of whom noted that they used it frequently.
Congrats to Bob Colson, Maureen Coogan, John McKinney, Joyce Barnhard, Missy Targowski, Kitty Graves, Dave Eason, Matt Murray, Nancy McKeever, Michael Szeto and Katie J. Phillis.
If we gave out prizes, you’d get a free beach sticker.
But obviously, you don’t need one.
Here is this week’s Photo Challenge. If you know where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below.
… and reminds us: “Birds, like all living things, need water. In these frigid temperatures, drinkable water is hard to come by.
“Agriculture-grade rubber pans do the job. They’re easy to find online.”
Tracy Porosoff spotted bird tracks in the snow, and adds: “Please remind people to sprinkle some bird seed, or fill their bird feeders.”
Today’s forecast is for a high of 16, though slightly less windy than yesterday. The low tonight will be 7 — still quite cold, but better than last night.
A bit of relief is in sight. Temperatures will climb to the 30s tomorrow and Tuesday. On Wednesday we’ll be roasting, at 42 degrees.
Speaking of the bone-chilling cold: It could have derailed Homes with Hope‘s annual “Soup-er Bowl” food drive.
The event — held every year the day before the Big Game — is sponsored by the Westport Police Department, and the Westport Rotary and Sunrise Rotary clubs. It’s an important event, timed during a traditionally down time for donations, to replenish the non-profit’s food pantry.
It would have been tough to have volunteers stand outside in single-digit temperatures. And to ask donors to linger outdoors too.
Stop & Shop’s manager quickly stepped up. He moved the group indoors, providing space in prime territory near the entrance.
Inside Stop & Shop …
We don’t know who will be tonight’s Super Bowl MVP.
But for yesterday’s Soup-er Bowl food drive, it’s Stop & Shop. And the winning team is the 2 Rotary Clubs, Police Department, and all who contributed goods and funds to Homes with Hope.
Yesterday’s 27th annual Westport Library Crossword Puzzle Contest sold out almost instantly.
Despite bitter cold — or maybe because of cabin fever — 200 cruciverbalists filled the Trefz Forum yesterday.
They spent the afternoon solving 3 New York Times puzzles, and competing in a word game hosted by the Times’ longtime and revered puzzle editor, Will Shortz.
The finals pitted 3 Westport contest veterans. In an unusual twist, the winner took the longest to complete a very difficult “Thursday” crossword.
Jan O’Sullivan zipped through it in a still-gob-smacking 9 minutes — 3 minutes slower than Claire Rimkus and Glen Ryan.
23 seconds into the final round. From left: Jen O’Sullivan, Claire Rimkus and Glen Ryan. Times puzzle editor Will Shortz is far right.
But those 2 spelled “Sacagawea” with a “j,” not a “g.” That’s acceptable — but not in a puzzle with a crossing word (“girth,” not “jirth”).
Slow — relatively — and steady won that race.
Kenneth Mukamal, with a certificate as one of 2 dozen competitors to complete all 3 puzzles correctly. He did not qualify for the final round — but, playing at his table, correctly finished that puzzle more quickly than the winner. (Photos/Dan Woog)
Freestyle skier Mac Forehand grew up in Southport. His father — Ray Forehand — was on the Staples soccer team in 1976. His uncle Jack Forehand was a football star there, more than a decade earlier.
Mac was on the 2022 US Olympic ski team. He’s on it again in Cortina, competing in both freeski slopestyle and big
He’s already advanced to the next freeski slopestyle round, finishing 6th. You can watch him on Peacock (all times Eastern):
Freeski slopestyle final: Tuesday, February 10, 6:30-8:20 a.m.
Freeski big air qualification: Sunday, February 15, 1:30-3:45 p.m.
Freeski big air final: Tuesday, Feb. 17, 1:30-3:05 p.m.
The Fairfield resident — who attended the Stratton Mountain Ski School — has won 3 X Games medals, and a silver at the 2025 World Championships.
He made history in 2019, winning the overall World Cup title in slopestyle at just 17 years old. It was his first full season on the World Cup circuit.
Alert “06880” reader David Squires reports that his parents were shown on NBC’s coverage of the slopestyle qualification on Thursday.
BONUS RUN: For a 2016 lifestyle publication story on the Forehands’ life in Vermont, click here. (Hat tip: Dan Donovan)
Mac Forehand
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Attention, college students interested in hands-on experience in land conservation: Aspetuck Land Trust is accepting applications for a pair of paid summer internships.
Interns work flexible schedules for 8 to 10 weeks, supporting trail and habitat maintenance, invasive species removal, community outreach, and conservation education projects across their preserves and in Bridgeport. Click here for more information, and application details.
For nearly 4 years, Ukraine has battled invading Russian forces.
For almost as long, Ukraine Aid International has been helping supply food, communications and medical equipment, portable heaters, clothing, toys and more, to Ukrainians in hard-hit areas.
The non-profit was co-founded by 2009 Staples High School graduate Marshall Mayer. He and his brother Brian — the other co-founder — were instrumental too in helping Westport develop its sister city relationship with Lyman, in the embattled Donetsk oblast.
This week, Marshall was in Kyiv. He reports:
It was 10º in New York this weekend. I bet most New Yorkers stayed home if they could. They huddled by their radiators, watched a good movie, and maybe read a book. Many made coffee with their Keurig, or a mug of hot chocolate.
Cold days like this are terrible if you have to go outside, but they can be a joy to sit through in the comfort of your home.
I am writing to you from Kyiv, Ukraine. Today it is a chilling -7º, with wind chill pushing that even lower.
Marshall Mayer (far left), in frigid Kyiv.
But most residents of Kyiv do not have a warm home to go back to. There’s no working radiator, no soft light to illuminate that novel, and no coffee maker. In the worst winter in more than a decade, Russia has seen to it that Kyiv, and many other cities across Ukraine, have not had any respite from the cold.
Every power station in Ukraine has been hit by Russian missiles or drones — at least 5 times each.
With power stations hit, streetlights are off.
The landscape is ever shifting in Kyiv, but high-level statistics tell the humanity of the situation. In just one district of the city, out of 1,500 residential apartment buildings, only 28 have heat.
98% of the district is as cold inside the walls as outside. Most residents across the city are without power more often than they have it. Rolling blackouts have given way to rolling “power-ons.”
Lack of electricity is now the rule, not the exception. The situation is far more dire than a headline can convey.
I’m stopping for a lunch meeting today at a wonderful café in the Arsenalna area of the capital, a neighborhood named after the Russian Empire-era Arsenal Factory that used to be here.
Europe’s deepest subway station is 350 below our feet. It takes 6 minutes of escalators just to reach the platform. The escalators aren’t working today, but neither is the metro, so at least nobody has to hike the 600 steps up or down — except if they need to use the station as a bomb shelter.
A long way to walk, when the subway escalator is out.
The door to the café is adorned with cute, laminated icons welcoming you: free Wi-Fi, hot coffee, pet-friendly, and delicious food.
Inside, the reality is starkly different. The room, while beautifully furnished, is cold. The lights are off; the kitchen is nonfunctional.
The “lunch” part of our meeting will not materialize. Two pre-brewed towers of warm coffee are all they can serve, prepared earlier in the day during a period of power.
In true Kyiv fashion, the choice is between an Ethiopian and a Rwandan blend. Even at war, Ukrainian hospitality prevails.
We have been out all morning, delivering aid to an orphanage in Bucha, so as we leave the café several of us need the bathroom. No luck; the water in the neighborhood is shut off, which means the toilets cannot flush.
We try 5 different places. Nobody has a working toilet. Two of our group find a tree behind a corner; the rest of us hold on until our next stop.
I’m one of the lucky ones. I don’t live full-time in Kyiv; I get to come and go. My hotel is one of the fortunate ones with a working generator. It has reliable power and some electric heat (the radiator is ice cold).
But several members of UAI’s team do live here. They, like many of Kyiv’s residents, have spent the last several weeks alternating between friends’ and family’s homes, crashing on couches or sleeping on floors, following the warmth wherever it’s available.
Marshall Mayer, in Lyman.
This morning we learned that the brother of a UAI volunteer was killed this week on the front lines. It’s not our first devastating loss. But we hope, as always, it will be the last.
This is daily life here. Ukrainians suffer, mourn, and keep fighting.
Despite all this, Kyiv soldiers on. Kyivans know it can be worse. They could be living near the front lines of this terrible war. One regional city leader gave this analogy: Kyiv’s situation in comparison to Donetsk is like comparing Las Vegas and Afghanistan.
At least in Kyiv, city services (mostly) continue, for now. At least in Kyiv, food is not scarce, for now. Fuel for generators is plentiful, for now.
In Donetsk — Lyman’s oblast — and in all the frontline regions in which we operate, none of these are a given.
Ukraine’s capital city is dark.
And though the intention of the Russian attacks is clearly to terrorize, torture and demoralize Kyiv’s residents, spirits remain high.
If the intent is to push the capital to give up, the reality is the opposite. Citizens have dug their heels in. Few things can bond people more strongly than suffering under an oppressive regime’s terror tactics.
Everyone is more determined than ever.
In times like these, UAI looks everywhere for ways to help. We are currently in discussions with several municipalities in Germany to provide matching public funds to support electrical generation and heating facilities.
Our first goal is to raise $5,000, which will be matched 10:1 to support the purchase of nearly 1 megawatt of generator capacity, with delivery possible within days. This would restore emergency power and heat to nearly 3,000 Ukrainians, helping them survive the cold expected to last well into the spring.
When successful, we plan to replicate this pilot project to support more purchases of the same for Kyiv and other cities.
As the weather warms, infrastructure attacks become less effective, and Ukraine slowly repairs its grid, we will move these generators to wherever they’re most needed.
(Here’s another way to help. On March 5, the Westport Country Playhouse hosts “Keys for Resilience.” The evening of classical music — a fundraiser for Connecticut’s sister cities in Ukraine — featuresRuslan Ramazanov, an extraordinary Ukrainian pianist and refugee now based in the US, and Ukrainian-American soprano and bandurist Teryn Kuzma. Click here for tickets, and more information.)
Yesterday, his family released an obituary for the native Westporter, Staples High School graduate, longtime volunteer, generous philanthropist, and beloved friend and neighbor.
Peter Romano died Tuesday, at Greenwich Hospital. He was 70 years old.
After Westport schools, Pete earned a bachelor of science in civil engineering at Roger Williams University. He spent his career in that field, including nearly 30 years as the principal and owner of Landtech in Saugatuck.
Pete was heavily involved and invested in the Westport community. He led the Sons of Italy and Festival Italiano for many years.
He followed in the footsteps of his father and mother, PJ and Joan Romano, as a driving force in the Westport PAL, supporting youth athletics and upholding their motto: “It’s for the kids.”
Pete devoted himself fully to local projects, including Wakeman Town Farm, the Westport Weston Family YMCA, and many athletic fields around town.
He also dedicated countless hours in support of local causes like Al’s Angels. to provide for families in need.
Pete was consistently recognized as a community leader. He was honored at the Westport YMCA Faces of Achievement dinner alongside his father, and was named an :06880″ Unsung Hero.
He also served Westport’s youth as Santa Claus for many years at Longshore, the VFW, and by boat in Saugatuck Center.
Pete lived for hosting parties and entertaining others. He made every celebration one to remember, and enjoyed connecting people. He never missed an opportunity to hold the microphone.
More than anything, Pete showed up for the people in his life. He would do anything to help a friend or stranger.
Pete was a devoted son, father, grandfather, and brother. He is survived by his mother, Joan Romano; daughters Christen Romano Lert (Jordan) and Mary Kate Romano; sister Pamela Gorman (Robert), and grandchildren Olivia and Roman Lert.
A funeral is set for Friday, February 13 (11 a.m., Assumption Church). Interment will be private. A celebration of Peter’s life will be announced at a later date. Condolences in memory of Peter may be left online here.
In lieu of flowers, donations in Peter’s name may be made to Westport PAL. Click here, or mail to Westport PAL, PO Box 3222, Westport, CT 06881.
Sharp-eyed viewers of yesterday’s Winter Olympics opening ceremony may have spotted former Staples High School cross country coach Larry Sidney marching with Israel’s athletes.
But there is much more to the story than meets the eye.
Larry Sidney (left), at the 2026 Olympics opening ceremony.
After leaving Westport, Larry moved overseas. He was a dual athlete, competing in skeleton from 2014-18, and curling from 2018 on.
In 2024 — at 46 years old — he qualified for this year’s Olympics.
Then he was diagnosed with cancer. Almost exactly a year ago today, his right leg was amputated below the knee.
But there Larry was yesterday, walking proudly as an Olympic administration for his country.
Professionally, he’s a holistic financial advisor. He graduated from the University of Connecticut, then earned an MBA at the University of California-Berkeley.
Click here or below for an inspirational 2024 TEDx talk by Larry, on the power of pursuing audacious dreams. (Hat tip: Richard Fogel)
The Board of Selectpersons has a full agenda for its Wednesday meeting (February 11, 9 a.m., Town Hall auditorium; click here for the livestream).
Among the 17 items:
♦ Approving policy changes recommended by the Parks & Recreation Commission, including”
— Change of dry stall first launch date from May 1 to April 1.
— To allow the sale of alcoholic beverages, with the exception of THC products, at the Longshore golf course by approved vendors only.
— To continue to offer, and add 1 additional, firepit rentals on South Beach at Compo Beach.
— To require parking emblems at Canal Beach from May 1 to September 30.
— Fee increases, for golf cart rentals (9 holes, to $15 from $14, 18 holes $22 from $20; Camp Compo resident $325 from $265, non-resident $350 from $285; RECinc Crew resident $400 from $315, non-resident $425 from $335).
♦ Appointing 2 alternate members to the Board of Assessment Appeals: Thomas Bloch and Robert Bass.
♦ Approving contracts for work at the Imperial Avenue lot, an for the replacement of the Levitt Pavilion stage.
The Select Board is expected to approve replacement of the Levitt Pavilion stage. The Tedeschi Trucks Band was one of many acts to play there last year. (Photo copyright DinkinESH Fotografix)
Screen time — and how to navigate it safely –– is all over the news.
It’s one thing for youngsters to hear strategies from parents and teachers. It’s another — much more important — thing to learn from almost-peers.
Recently, 6th graders at Coleytown and Bedford Middle Schools took part in iMentor. The initiative is facilitated by the Westport Youth Commission, using trained Staples High student mentors.
The high schoolers lead engaging, age-appropriate discussions that encourage middle schoolers to think critically about their online behavior and digital decision-making.
The interactive topics include civility and kindness, digital footprints, safety risks, identifying trustworthy sites and managing screen time.
iMentors also emphasize the importance of speaking with a parent or other trusted adult about anything concerning online.
iMentors in action, at Coleytown Middle School.
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The next generation of business leaders took over the Westport Library on Thursday.
The first-ever Mini Moguls Marketplace youth business fair drew (very) young vendors in grades 5–8, and plenty of shoppers.
Founded and organized by Staples High School junior Aanya Gandhi, it featured over a dozen student businesses, ranging from handmade crafts to collections of gently used books and games.
Each “mini mogul” offered a poster board, outlining pricing strategies and marketing plans.
A financial literacy keynote presentation emphasized the benefits of understanding money management at a young age.
Long Lots Elementary School students Leo Rubin and Luke Capolupo made their first necklace sale to superintendent of schools Thomas Scarice. (Photo/Phil Rubin)
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11 Beachside Commons — the 1970s contemporary home with 5 bedrooms, 7 1/2 bathrooms, a floating staircase, periscope skylights, rainbow glazing purple carpet and a 150-foot multicolored tile pathway that “meanders” through the house, and which was the home of the late biotech entrepreneur/investor/ scientist Alan Walton and his wife Elenor — will be demolished soon.
An estate sale is set for today and tomorrow (Saturday and Sunday), from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
It’s a chance to buy some very interesting items.
And to see one of Westport’s most stunning homes, before it meets the wrecking ball.
Inside 11 Beachside Commons. (Hat tip and photo/Cindy Nigro)
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Chryse Terrill was “buzzing” with excitement during a recent visit to Caroline House in Bridgeport.
The Wakeman Town Farm educator brought a lesson on bees. The preschoolers were eager to learn about their lifecycles, honeycombs, and the importance of bees as pollinators. They also loved the honey from WTF’s hives.
The program is part of Wakeman’s new “Farm on the Go” initiative. It expands equitable access to nature-based education for children facing financial, transportation or other barriers.
With a grant from Town Fair Tire and the motto “Grow Your Food, Know Your Food,” the initiative helps students understand where their food comes from, how natural systems work, and why environmental stewardship matters throughproject-based learning delivered by WTF educators.
To suggest a school that would benefit from the “Farm on the Go” program, email info@wakemantownfarm.org.
Exploring a honeycomb, through WTF’s “Farm on the Go.”
Some of today’s artists capture winter, in all its frozen, white glory.
Some look ahead, to the bright colors of spring.
Others get their inspiration elsewhere — everywhere from politics to the mirror.
All make up this week’s online art gallery. Take some time on this cold day to wander through it, and admire the many diverse works.
As always, we invite you to be part of next week’s exhibition. No matter your age; the style or subject you choose — and whether you’re a first-timer or old-timer — we welcome your submissions. Watercolors, oils, charcoal, pen-and-ink, acrylics, mixed media, digital, lithographs, collages, macramé, jewelry, sculpture, decoupage, needlepoint — we want whatever you’ve got.
Just email a JPG to 06880blog@gmail.com. And please include the medium you’re working in — art lovers want to know.
“I Love My Snowman” — oil on canvas (Mary Madelyn Attanasio)
“Cold Spell” (Dayle Brownstein)
“A Winter’s Day” (Patricia McMahon — Available for purchase; click here)
“Friday Frost on our Window” (Copyright Ted Horowitz)
“Footprints” (June Rose Whittaker — Available for purchase; click here)
“Silence on the Saugatuck 1” (Tom Kretsch — Available for purchase; click here)
“Yawn” (Jerry Kuyper)
“Beached” — Dead sea fans on a pure white sand beach in the British Virgin Islands (Nancy Breakstone — Available for purchase; click here)
“Thinking of Spring” — impasto acrylic (Dorothy Robertshaw — Available for purchase; click here)
“Bluejay and Bluebird” — watercolor (Eric Bosch)
“La Vie en Rose” — acrylic on canvas (Melissa Benedek — Available for purchase; click here)
“Shadows Visions Memories, Escape” (Tom Doran; Available for purchase; click here)
“Yearning to Breathe Free” (Mark Yurkiw — Available for purchase; click here)
“Customized Bookmarks” — paint pens on paper (Will Luedke)
“You’ve a frog in your throat? I got a snake in mine!” (Mike Hibbard)
“These Days There is Always an Elephant in the Room” (Steve Stein)
Untitled (Lawrence Weisman)
“Self-Portrait 2026: Happiness is a Feeling, Not a Destination” (Bill Fellah)
(Entrance is free to our online art gallery. But please consider a donation! Just click here — and thank you!)
The initiative aims to reduce single-use plastics, and expand water-filling stations around town. The goal is to “turn shared intention into measurable, community-wide change.”
Once a month, we’ll help them highlight an area of daily life where single-use plastic is most common, along with practical ideas to use. This month, we head to the bathroom.
The bathroom is one of the rooms where single-use plastic shows up the most. From shampoo bottles and toothpaste tubes to disposable razors and cleansers with microbeads, much of this plastic is hard to recycle.
How many of these plastics are in your bathroom?
It can make its way into waterways, where microplastics accumulate in rivers and Long Island Sound, harming our wildlife and ecosystems.
This February, Sustainable Westport invites you to “Pledge to UnPlastic” by starting with simple bathroom swaps. Small changes at home can make a real difference for our waterways. Which will you try first?
Start using bar soap or bar shampoo
Select cleansing products without microbeads
Replace plastic toothbrushes with bamboo or replaceable heads
Try refillable or concentrated products
Opt for a natural loofah (you can even grow your own!)
Last night, the Board of Education approved the Westport Public Schools’ $158 million budget for the 2026-27 school year. The result: a 4.98% increase over the current year’s budget. “06880”‘s John H. Palmer reports:
The budget was approved after a motion to reduce the total bottom line by $750,000. It will be replaced with money from the district’s healthcare reserve funds, to keep the full increase below 5 percent.
The budget — if approved as recommended — will contain funding for a new assistant of facilities and security director, a behavioral specialist in the elementary schools. and $95,000 to provide athletic uniforms for high school sports.
The budget now goes to the Board of Finance. It has until late April to conduct workshops and make any changes, before sending it to the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) for final adoption in May or June.
The unanimous vote came during a busy meeting for the board. The session also included the next step toward forming a building committee to replace Coleytown Elementary School, and the first look for board members and the public of a survey to be distributed to parents, students and staff later this year. It would determine a baseline of how technology is used for instruction and homework.
The board also voted unanimously to recommend forming a building committee to oversee construction of a new Coleytown Elementary School.
In recent years the school has been plagued with progressively worsening structural problems, including humidity control issues and mold, forcing officials to consider whether to renovate the current building or replace it.
Superintendent of school Thomas Scarise said discussions with prospective architects led to the decision to completely rebuild. The project will take several years.
“We have a very positive learning environment and a safe facility, but it is most certainly a building that is aging and we are seeing that,” said Coleytown Principal Safiya Key. “It’s mostly the ceiling, the roof and things that are aesthetic. But we are starting to age in a way that makes the learning environment vulnerable, and we’ve had to displace classrooms based on that.”
The Board of Selectpersons will now oversee the process of forming the building committee.
Coleytown Elementary School
Meanwhile, the board discussed the technology survey — the second of a 3-prong audit process started by the district in October, to explore how to maximize the power of AI in school instruction, while minimizing overall wasted screen time.
The first step was an ongoing technology audit. The next will be to engage teachers and administrators in auditing curriculum materials and instruction tactics to determine how technology is used in the classroom.
The proposed survey will be reviewed by teachers during professional development time February 13. It is expected to be distributed to parents and students after winter break.
Each grade level will have an option to opt out of the paper and pencil survey.
The survey will be given to students in grades 3 and up. K-2 students will not take the survey, but it will be given to those parents with students in those grades.
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The unanimous vote came during a busy meeting for the board. The session also included the next step toward forming a building committee to replace Coleytown Elementary School, and the first look for board members and the public of a survey to be distributed to parents, students and staff later this year. It would determine a baseline of how technology is used for instruction and homework.
