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How many Westporters have been vaccinated?
As of February 1, 2,289 Westport. That’s 8% of our total population.
According to Westport Patch, we have 2,094 residents over the age of 75 — the first group in line for the vaccine (along with medical personnel and first responders). Nearly 54 percent — a total of 1,095 — have received their first dose.
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Westport has plenty of small, independently owned liquor stores. Nearly every Westporter has a favorite.
Now a “superstore” has entered the mix.
Yesterday, trucks delivered supplies to BevMax’s new outlet in the former Pier 1 store — the Julien’s Pizza shopping center on Post Road East. In other words: directly opposite Castle Wine & Spirits.
BevMax has 8 locations in Fairfield and New Haven Counties, plus a nationwide shipping office in Stamford. There’s a BevMax in Norwalk, near Stew Leonard’s.
They bought the license of Saugatuck Grain + Grape, which had relocated from Railroad Place to Post Road West. The owner of a liquor store can move anywhere in Westport that zoning allows.
Last year, plans were underway to convert the entire Julien’s shopping center — except for the Bluepoint Wellness medical marijuana dispensary — into medical offices. The plaza has since reverted to retail use.

(Photo/Jack Krayson)
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The other day, “06880” posted a few “sizzling real estate” statistics. Here are a few more:
January saw a continued swift pace, despite the decrease in months of supply in inventory. Here is a quick snapshot of this past month:
- $70,956,000 total sales, vs. $33,796,846 total January 2020 sales — a more than 100% increase.
- 40 single-family and condo units sold in January; 25 single-family and Condo units sold in January 2020 — up 60%.
- $1,318,000 was the median home sales price; in January 2020 it was $1,012,500. That’s more than a 30% rise.
- The home inventory supply was 2.4 months; a year ago it was 9.3 months. That’s a 74% decrease.
The highest sale in January was a 5-bedroom, 8-bathroom home listed with Brett and Jean Lieberman at 4 Bluewater Lane: $5,125,000. (Hat tip: Jody Peters, the Riverside Realty Group)

4 Bluewater Lane
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Seven Staples High School athletes signed letters of intent yesterday to play sports at NCAA Division I universities.
Congratulations to (from left in photo below): Kevin Lynch, University of Massachusetts lacrosse; Julia DiConza, Lehigh University lacrosse; Carter Kelsey, Seton Hall University baseball; Autumn Smith, Marist College soccer; Laine Ambrose, Boston College field hockey; Shira Parower, James Madison University lacrosse; Sam Milberg, College of the Holy Cross football.
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Speaking of Staples: Composting has come to the high school cafeteria. It’s an initiative of the school’s Zero Waste Committee. Students will serve as monitors.
Composting is already underway at several Westport schools.

Greens Farms Elementary School offers 3 choices for waste. The same options are now available at Staples High.
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MoCA Westport and Up|Next Teens are partnering to present a Winter Lights Festival at MoCA. It’s set for Saturday, February 27 (noon to 6 p.m.).
The Festival features a maker and crafts space in a large outdoor tent, with supplies and step-by-step instructions for families to work together to create winter-themed decorations. The decorations will be incorporated into a walk-through Light Path, to be lit at sun down. The public can view the experience through the following weekend.
Also planned: live performances by high school musicians, food from The Melt truck, and hot cocoa.
The Festival includes free entry to MoCA ’s exhibition “Hindsight is 2020,” showcasing nearly 200 high school student artists from across the region.
Click here for tickets.
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And finally … happy birthday to Alice Cooper. He was born on this day in 1948. In other words, he’s no longer 18.
Dan: I appreciate that you need to call this the “Julien’s Pizza Shopping Center” for identification purposes. But you and I are both old enough to know this is and always will be the “Bowling Alleys”. Jack Backiel reads your blog!!!
FYI there is also a BevMax in the Gateway Shopping Center in Wilton on Rte 7
Let us all hope that BevMax soon replaces the uniquely ugly sign they have chosen to blast out their presence….what a thoughtless assault on the town.
Please support your local independent package (liquor) store.
A much greater threat to Castle and other fine small “package stores”: a bill in the CT legislature proposes allowing supermarkets and other big-box stores to start selling wine
Starting with Pequot Wine (just over the town line in Southport) and running to Compo Road, we had eight retail liquor stores on the Post Road prior to the BevMax chain store arriving.
We didn’t need BevMax before and we don’t need it now.