Westport officials have declared a Local Civil Preparedness Emergency, in advance of the predicted major winter storm.
The declaration activates the town’s Local Emergency Operations Plan, and authorizes coordination of all emergency response assets.
The Town’s Emergency Operations Center will open at approximately 5 p.m. under a partial hybrid activation, with Chief Nicholas Marsan and Deputy Chief Matthew Cohen present to coordinate operations.
Updated Storm Forecast
Timing: Snow begins approximately 1 p.m. today (Sunday), and continues through Monday evening.
Accumulation: 18–24 inches of heavy, wet snow is forecast.
Winds: Gusts of 60 to 70 miles per hour; strongest along the shoreline.
Coastal Flood Warning: Midnight to 5 a.m. Monday. Moderate coastal flooding is possible during the early Monday morning high tide.
Travel: Major impacts expected; travel may become dangerous or impossible at times.
Public Safety Directives
Parking ban: Effective noon Sunday. Residents are strongly encouraged to park in driveways and other off-street locations whenever possible.
If you must park in the street, then park only on the side of the street that corresponds with the calendar date.
Even house numbers end in 0, 2, 4, 6, 8.
Odd house numbers end in 1, 3, 5, 7, 9.
– Sunday: Park on the EVEN-numbered side
– Monday (2/23): Park on the ODD-numbered side
Stay off the roads: Travel should be avoided once snowfall intensifies.
Prepare for power outages: Hazardous winds and snow may delay restoration efforts.
Generator safety: Operate generators outdoors only, and away from structures.
Prepare for prolonged cold: Extended cold temperatures are forecast following the storm.
Sign up for alerts: Text “06880” to 888777 to receive emergency notifications via Nixle.
The photo (taken by yours truly) shows a photo (by Richard Frank) that hangs in the Westport Library stairwell nearest the cafe. It’s part of the Westport Public Art Collections. (Click here to see.)
But there’s another print of the same image. You’ll find it at Gold’s Delicatessen.
It might be in some private collections in town too. It captures the powerful, yet playful, Muhammad Ali perfectly.
Lynn Untermeyer Miller, Les Dinkin, Robert Mitchell, Clark Thiemann, Jilda Manikas and Larry Bartimer all checked in with the Library answer.
Adam Starr, Larry Weisman and Tom Feeley said Gold’s.
Just like Ali: You’re all champs.
In keeping with the winter weather that’s not going away, here is today’s Photo Challenge. I think it’s hard. Your mileage may vary.
If you know where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below.
(Photo/John Maloney)
(Every Sunday, “06880” hosts this Photo Challenge. We challenge you too to support your hyper-local blog. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)
The good news: In less than 2 weeks since its debut, our new “06880” AI widget has field hundreds of questions.
The less-than-good news: Many readers are using it like Google search, rather than the much more robust engine it is.
Queries like “geese,” “Players,” “Staples,” “Hamlet” and “library” are not the best way to interact with our AI widget.
To get a much deeper answer — one that scrapes all 17 years of “06880” content, as designed by Westport-based Thought Partnr — you should ask things like:
“How do they manage geese at Longshore?”
“What is Staples Players known for?”
“Why was the Hamlet at Saugatuck plan rejected?”
“What activities are planned for VersoFest?”
Here’s a great example of a query from yesterday: “I’m thinking of moving to Westport with a young family. What are the pros and cons I should consider?”
Think of it as a conversation starter. The widget will respond; you can then continue the conversation, refine it, or simply walk away more knowledgeable about a local subject.
We’re all used to typing in a word or two in a search engine. We get a list of links that we then plow through.
But that’s not our AI widget. It responds in complete paragraphs, and invites an ongoing dialogue.
Bottom line: Take a few extra seconds to frame your question — just as you would with a friend. Give your AI buddy enough information to offer a complete, detailed response.
The more you use it, the better you’ll get.
And the smarter our AI widget will become too.
PS: Coming soon: AI for our “06880” app.
The arrow points to our AI widget.
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Emmy, Grammy and 6-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald returns to the Westport Country Playhouse May 19, for an encore evening of music
The singer/actor — a National Medal of Arts recipient, and one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People — last appeared here in February of 2024.
For 4 hours yesterday morning, volunteers from the Saugatuck Congregational Church Missions Board, the Westport Rotary Club and Westport Sunrise Rotary unloaded supplies at the church, then packed 12,500 shelf-stable meals — with oatmeal/apple/vitamin packets — for a program run by EndHungerNE.
Norwalk and Wilton Rotarians helped too, along with other Westporters.
Then, they delivered the cases: 22 to the Gillespie Center, 20 to Open Door in Norwalk, and 14 to a food pantry in Norwalk.
At a time of rising food insecurity, they will fill a great need. (Hat tip: Mark Mathias)
Assembly line volunteers, at Saugatuck Church. (Photo/Katie Phillis)
Yesterday’s Roundup included an item about a new bird flu in the tri-state area. It’s killed more than a dozen geese, at Compo and Burying Hill Beaches.
That’s not all. A dead red-breasted merganser was found in a yard near Compo.
The disease does not seem to affect humans. But be careful out there!
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Longtime Westport teacher and women’s issues volunteer Patricia MacBride Hendrickson died peacefully at her Maine home in June. She was 95.
After graduating in 1952 as a biology major from Brown University, she worked in microbial genetics at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. After traveling solo in Europe, she married Donald Hendrickson, a chemical engineer, in 1955. They lived in Westport for 40 years before moving to a retirement community in Topsham, Maine in 2006.
For 2 decades, Pat taught advanced biology and ecology courses at Staples High School. She was enriched by her students, and her passion for the subject inspired many to choose careers in the sciences.
She received honors for her work as regional director of the Brown University National Alumni Schools program.
After retiring in 1991 Pat was active in politics, serving as president of the Democratic Women of Westport. She was one of 6 founders of the Women’s Campaign School at Yale. She served on the board for 6 years, including positions as vice president, president and admissions director.
A passionate believer in women’s personal liberty, she initiated in 1993 an all-volunteer security escort service for the Summit Women’s Center in Bridgeport, and coordinated the effort for a decade.
She received awards and recognition from CT Naral, CT NOW and the National Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
In 2003, she was co-founder and president of the Rosie Fund, the first abortion fund in Connecticut, which supports needy women’s right to choose. She was a longtime board member and then the President of the Y’s Women of Westport, a large women’s group in Westport.
Pat enjoyed travel, the natural world, wildlife, birding and botany. She traveled extensively, including Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands, Africa, Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Asia, Europe, Alaska and the Virgin Islands.
After the death of her husband in 2012 she remained engaged in national and local politics. She traveled to visit family, hosted friends and family at her home, and took excursions and vacations to beautiful locations in Maine.
Pat is survived by her children Andrew, Laura Hendrickson (Rupert Stasch) Rupert Stasch and Julia, and granddaughter Madeleine. She was predeceased by her husband Donald, fraternal twin sister Pamela MacBride Colgate, and a brother, Roger MacBride.
A private burial will be held at the family plot on Cape Cod. Contributions may be sent to The Brown University Elise Lea MacBride Memorial Book Fund, Office of Planned Giving, PO Box 1893, Providence, RI 02912.
And finally … today marks the actual birthday of George Washington.
The Father of Our Country was born on this date 294 years ago — in 1732.
For decades, Americans celebrated this as a federal holiday. It has since morphed into Presidents Day, on the third Monday in February. The idea is to honor all Presidents (including Abraham Lincoln, born February 12) — and give everyone a 3-day weekend, while goosing sales of mattresses and cars.
An instrumental piece called “The President’s March” was composed by Philip Phile in 1789 to honor Washington’s inauguration. Joseph Hopkinson added lyrics in 1798. The song became very popular, and was often performed at official events.
He was born 30 years after those legendary concerts (and many others).
But the 2016 Weston High School graduate is a huge rock ‘n’ roll fan.
And to paraphrase the Byrds — another great band that played here — he wants to be a rock ‘n’ roll star.
Bradley is well on his way.
Jack Bradley
For the past few years, the guitarist’s band The Thing has drawn attention — and sold out shows across the US and Europe — with their music.
It mixes the Kinks, Grand Funk Railroad, Pink Floyd and garage and psychedelic bands of the 1960s and ’70s, with newer artists like The Black Keys.
This Friday (February 27, 8 p.m.), they kick off the Westport Library’s 5th annual VersoFest.
The actual 4-day music and media extravaganza takes place March 26-29. But The Thing will be on a national tour then. So the Library snagged them for this show. It will be the opening date of that tour.
Before he was a rocker, Bradley was a producer. Not many teenagers were as obsessed as he was with rock. So he created a makeshift studio in his Weston basement, recording and producing rappers.
But during a stint at Millbrook — after Fairfield Country Day School, and before Weston High — he’d met Michael Carter and Zane Acord. They bonded over their love for music their parents loved.
They stayed in touch after Bradley left. They scattered across the country — he went to Berklee College of Music in Boston Zane headed South, and Mike to the Pacific Northwest. When the pandemic hit, they reunited in a big farmhouse in Sharon, Connecticut.
They recruited a drummer, recorded there, then moved to Brooklyn. They won a Battle of the Bands at Our Wicked Lady — the famed (and now closed) music venue there — which kick-started their career.
Jack Bradley and The Thing.
The Thing was invited to South by Southwest. They bought a van, and for the past 2 1/2 years have played over 300 shows.
Thursday’s will be their first in Westport, though.
The route to the Library began in late 2024, when the band played at Fairfield Theater Company.
Bradley met Dick Wingate there. The longtime music industry executive and Westport resident — a key figure in past VersoFests — made the connection for this year.
Bradley is familiar with the event. Gang of Four kicked off their “Long Goodbye” tour at it last year. He was there, and met the band.
The Thing and friends, at Flushing Meadows Park.
Bradley looks forward to their own tour kickoff. He expects a crowd like many of their US shows: teenagers and grandparents. (Their European audiences tend to include “the whole town.”)
He hopes there will be plenty of fans in between. His own parents will be there, for sure. (His mother is very proud that Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon features The Thing often, on his Sirius XM show.)
From last year, Bradley knows what it’s like to hear and play music in a library. He’s not sure his bandmates do.
“If you haven’t been there, you don’t realize how cool” the venue is, he says.
But, he warns: “We’re loud!”
Also cool: the opening act.
Fever Dream is a 5-person group. Staples and Weston High musicians Seamus Brannigan, Griffin Delmhorst, Ari Sklar, Harry Schultz and Ezra Schwartz play covers of their favorite classic/alternative rock and grunge songs, along with originals they’ll release soon.
Fever Dream. Three members (top row) performed in Staples Players’ “Les Misérables” last fall.
Jack Bradley didn’t have a band, when he was in high school.
This Thursday, a large VersoFest crowd will see that once again, it’s The Thing.
Westporters know a blizzard is coming. A few minutes ago, the line at Trader Joe’s wound all the way to the milk and orange juice cases on one side, and nearly to the bananas on the other.
The parking lot — and entrance from the Post Road — was crazier than ever. That’s saying something.
Trader Joe’s, noon today. (Photo/Dan Woog)
Meanwhile, the Westport Office of Emergency Management says:
We are closely monitoring a major coastal storm expected to impact the area from Sunday morning through Monday afternoon. The National Weather Service has issued a Blizzard Warning for coastal Connecticut.
Residents should prepare for dangerous conditions, including heavy snow, strong winds, coastal flooding, and power outages.
Expected Conditions
Heavy Snow: 13 to 18 inches are likely. Snowfall rates may exceed 2 inches per hour Sunday night.
High Winds: North/northeast winds of 30 to 35 miles per hour, with gusts up to 55.
Coastal Flooding: Widespread moderate coastal flooding is possible during Sunday night and Monday morning high tides. Inundation of 1.5 to 2.5 feet above ground level may occur in vulnerable low-lying areas.
Power Outages: Heavy, wet snow combined with strong winds may result in downed tree limbs and power interruptions.
Required Actions for Residents
Stay Off the Roads: Travel will become dangerous and may be impossible during peak storm conditions. Keep roadways clear for emergency vehicles and snow removal operations.
Parking Advisory: The Department of Public Works strongly urges residents to remove vehicles from roadways prior to the onset of snowfall. If vehicles cannot be fully removed, residents should follow alternate side parking based on the calendar date (odd/even schedule). Clearing streets is critical to allow plows to operate effectively and to ensure emergency access.
Protect Property: Move vehicles from flood-prone and low-lying waterfront areas where coastal flooding may occur.
Prepare for Outages: Fully charge electronic devices and ensure flashlights and extra batteries are readily available.
Check on Neighbors: Monitor elderly or vulnerable neighbors who may require assistance during the storm.
Report Emergencies: Call 911 for life-safety emergencies. Report power outages directly to Eversource (800-286-2000).
The Department of Public Works anticipates a prolonged event lasting approximately 36 hours, and will have crews on station beginning at midnight to support continuous snow removal operations. Residents should not expect sidewalks to be fully cleared until well after the storm concludes, particularly if snowfall accumulations reach projected levels.
The Westport Fire Department remains fully staffed and prepared to respond to all emergencies. Residents should complete storm preparations by Saturday evening, and remain indoors during peak storm conditions.
The town has released the bid document for a new food and beverage concessionaire at Compo Beach and Longshore.
Parks & Recreation Department director Erik Barbieri tells “06880” that he will visit all applicants, to see how they operate their current businesses.
His hope is for the new concessionaire to be ready to operate this summer. If not, interim arrangements will be made for food and beverage services.
It’s a time for “reflection, self-love, and ending relationships that are no longer working.” (That’s what Google says, anyway.)
Sustainable Westport knows a thing or two about breaking up, too.
They’ve rolled out a community-wide initiative to reduce the town’s use of plastics — especially single-use — and expand public water-filling stations.
As part of the “Un-Plastic” movement, they’ve begun a social media campaign to help Westporters “break up” with the synthetic material.
It’s pretty clever. You may recognize several neighbors in the video (click here or below). It’s also available on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Parents: Want to know more about “Today’s Weed and Teen Mental Health”?
That’s the title of a session led by Dr. Amy Swift, who oversees in-patient services at Silver Hill Hospital. The event is co-sponsored by Positive Directions and the Mid-Fairfield Youth Cannabis Prevention Project.
It’s this Wednesday (February 25, 7 p.m.), with both in-person (New Canaan High School) and virtual options. Click here for more information.
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After weeks of sold-out houses, standing ovations and enthusiastic word-of-mouth, this is the final weekend for the Westport Community Theatre production of “Looped.”
Performances are set for today (Saturday, 7:30 p.m.) and tomorrow (Sunday, 2 p.m.), in the lower level of Town Hall.
The play is set during a 1965 recording session, where Tallulah Bankhead must re-record (“loop”) a single line of dialogue for a film. What should take minutes stretches into hours as the star clashes with the weary film editor and practical studio manager.
Sharp wit gives way to honesty, revealing the vulnerability beneath the bravado while turning a hilarious backstage story into something unexpectedly moving.
We always showcase a variety of artists in our Saturday online art gallery.
They always span an impressive spread of mediums, styles and subjects.
But this week’s offers the widest range of ages. We’ve got a first-time submission from a 4th grader — and another first-time offering from a 97-year-old.
Can we ever beat that?
Hey: We can try! 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.
“Mill Pond Foggy Foggy Night” (Michael Chait — Available for purchase; click here)
“Hey There From Emilia-Romagna, Italy” — digitally painted original photograph (Michael Tomashefsky — Available for purchase; click here)
“Running in the Rain” (Salit Kulla)
“Charleston, SC” (Tom Doran — Available for purchase; click here)
“Bitter End Knots” — Bitter End Yacht Club, Virgin Gorda (Nancy Breakstone — Available for purchase; click here)
“Flowers Peeking Through the Ice” — 21 x 21 oil and acrylic on aluminum (Dorothy Robertshaw — Available for purchase; click here)
“Spring Forward” — acrylic and resin (Patricia McMahon — Available for purchase; click here)
“Gold Wave, $5 an Ounce” — Dutch-pour technique on canvas (Eric Bosch)
“Seeing Spots” (Allison Arth, grade 4, One River Art student)
“Shadows of my Former Self (Officer, Golfer, Pickleballer” — triptych photo (Tom Lowrie, age 97)
Photographer Mike Hibbard says, Earthquake hits Kathmandu City. Millions of pieces in this puzzle. AI can help rebuild the temple.”
“A Type Setter’s Nightmare” — watercolor and pencil (Steve Stein)
“Lion Around” (Martin Ripchick — Available for purchase; click here)
“What’s it All About?” (Lawrence Weisman)
“Allison” — pencil on paper (Bill Fellah)
“Jan. 6th” (Mark Yurkiw — Available for purchase; click here)
(Entrance is free to our online art gallery. But please consider a donation! Just click here — and thank you!)
Peter Tauck is a lifelong Westporter. He has lived in the Old Mill Beach neighborhood for decades. He and his children are frequent customers of Old Mill Grocery & Deli. and its predecessors. (His kids’ photos were among the dozens that the owners of Elvira’s kept under glass at the front counter.)
Now retired, Peter is a former CEO and board member of Tauck, the family-owned worldwide travel business. He is still part owner of the company.
Arthur was a humble but committed steward of Westport history, culture and traditions. He never fought majority sentiment for personal victory or gain.
He always supported the little guy, the underdog. Old Mill Grocery would have been just the type of place he supported.
Old Mill Grocery: a community hub.
He would have enjoyed the picnic tables as he valued human connection and storytelling, as an enabler of a healthy community. As I reflect now, my motivation to support the store for over 20 years came from lessons I learned from my dad.
When Nick and Stacey first took over the store, they were all smiles — yet struggling. There was a rotted picnic table outside, supported by cinder blocks.
I arranged to have a new table and umbrella delivered in the night. No one ever knew where it came from, until now.
I remember thinking “that’s how dad would have done it.” It felt good. Reading how the picnic tables have become such an issue is difficult for me.
Picnic tables at Old Mill Grocery. (Photo/Dave Dellinger)
I have supported Soundview Empowerment Alliance, both in the purchase of the store and their ongoing legal battles with a group that has included a family member. While I respect the group’s right to their opinion and voice, I want to be clear that to my knowledge, no other family member actively supports the actions taken against the store. In addition, our business is in no way involved in any of these efforts.
I hope that the supporters of OMG continue in their resolve to keep it viable and vibrant. As a neighbor, and someone whose 4 children so enjoyed the store in their youth, I will continue to stand with the supporters.
Respectfully,
Peter Tauck
(“06880″‘s Opinion pages are open to all. Please send submissions to 06880blog@gmail.com.)
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