Monthly Archives: February 2021

Roundup: Chiller Island, State Street, Senator Blumenthal, More

Posted on February 23, 2021 | 10 comments

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Wendy Crowther helped create the Sherwood Mill Pond Preserve, at the site of the old Allen’s Clam House. She thought she knew everything about that amazing area.

But the other day on Google Maps, she saw a reference to “Chiller Island.”

That’s the tiny spit of land — not an island at all — near the tidal gates leading out to Compo Cove. There were once 3 small homes there. One was destroyed by a 1950s storm. The other 2 were demolished a few years ago, after being damaged beyond repair in another storm.

The area is now a pocket park. Should we call it Chiller Island Park?

If so, we’d need some history. If you know where the name came from — and when and why it fell out of use — click “Comments” below.

Christmas tree at the pocket park on “Chiller Island.” (Photo/Amy Schneider)

Of course, that’s not the only throwback name Google Maps uses in Westport. Some sections of the Post Road are still called “State Street.”

That was changed in the 1970s. Right around the time Sergey Brin and Larry Page — the founders of Google — were born.

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The Westport Library is slowly reopening. Hours are still limited, and restrictions apply.

The Library’s digital services, meanwhile, are available to cardholders 24/7/365.

Popular books, magazines, audiobooks, music and movies — it’s all there.

You don’t have to be a technical wizard to access it. Staff members can help, with everything from setting up accounts to choosing and selecting materials.

Click here for details. And don’t overlook the little blue “Help” button on the bottom right.

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Do you have a question for Senator Blumenthal? Go to Instagram, and DM @DaveBriggsTV.

Westporter Dave Briggs — former CNN, NBC Sports and Fox News anchor — interviews him on IG Live at 4:30 p.m. today (Tuesday).

You can catch the conversation @GreenwichMag.

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Snow has canceled several Red Cross blood drives. The pandemic has made collections even slower.

There are several drives upcoming. Appointments can be made on the Red Cross blood donor smartphone app, at RedCrossBlood.org or by calling 800-733-2767.

Click here for a full list of sites. Among the local drives:

FAIRFIELD

  • Feb. 23 (today): 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Scandinavian Club, 1351 South Pine Creek Road
  • March 3: 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Scandinavian Club, 1351 South Pine Creek Road
  • March 8: 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Black Rock Church, 3685 Black Rock Turnpike
  • March 8: 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., Black Rock Church, 3685 Black Rock Turnpike

NORWALK

  • Feb. 23: 8 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., St. Philip’s Church, 25 France St.
  • March 3: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., St. Philip’s Church, 25 France St.
  • March 12: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., United Church of Rowayton, 210 Rowayton Ave.

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And finally … Peter Fonda was born today, in 1940. He died in 2019.

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Posted in Beach, Library, Media, Politics

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Craig Bergamo: Westport Kids’ Best PAL

Posted on February 23, 2021 | 10 comments

Craig Bergamo has quite a back story.

He grew up “everywhere,” he says — in and out of shelters. He and his brother were shuttled from place to place.

When Bergamo was 17, his parents died. He wanted to join the military, but for his brother to keep Section 8 housing, Bergamo had to live there as his dependent.

During tough times, police officers had always been nice to Bergamo. He looked up to them. To give back, he studied criminology in college.

Craig Bergamo

In 2006 — just 22 years old — he was hired by the Westport Police Department. His duties include overseeing the car seat program, motorcycle instructor and field training.

Bergamo won the Medal of Valor, for his actions in the Westport force’s first shooting in 30 years.

He also earned a Community Service Award for his fundraising with LivFree, a pediatric cancer support group.

Giving back is a key part of who Bergamo is. He coached in Norwalk’s Pop Warner football program for 6 years.

Early in his Westport police career, PAL athletic director Carmen Roda suggested he get involved with the local program. He became head football coach for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders, then volunteered as secretary and vice president.

Now he’s in charge of the entire Westport PAL.

Earlier this month, Bergamo succeeded Ned Batlin as president.

It’s a big job. PAL serves thousands of youngsters through football, lacrosse, basketball, wrestling, rugby, track and cheerleading programs.

PAL also runs a robust scholarship program, the ice skating rink at Longshore — and Westport’s annual Independence Day fireworks.

Plenty of (pre-COVID) action at the PAL Rink at Longshore.

“This is an amazing organization,” Bergamo says. “The motto is ‘All about the kids and community.’ It’s safe and friendly. There are not many Police Athletic Leagues still out there. But ours is going strong.”

Bergamo is already planning new fundraising efforts — like a car show, digital events, perhaps a gala “when things are normal.”

Wrestling is one of Westport PAL’s many programs.

For someone who grew up in shelters, and lost his parents as a teenager, offering hope and activities to youngsters is crucial. In addition to his PAL efforts, he coaches his daughters in softball.

“When I see 3rd graders I coached move up to high school, and then graduate. I get chills,” Bergamo says. “I’ve had great interactions with them, and their parents. That’s what PAL is all about.”

(To learn more about Westport PAL — and participate in the See’s Candy Shop fundraiser — click here.)

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Posted in Children, Organizations, Police, Sports, Teenagers

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Pics Of The Day #1407

Posted on February 22, 2021 | 2 comments

Don’t worry, Lele — it’s not even March! (Photo/Lauri Weiser)

Bonus Pic: Rare February rainbow over Compo (Photo/Marc Frankel)

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Lamont Vaccine Plan Adds Age Groups, Educators — But Removes Pre-Existing Conditions

Posted on February 22, 2021 | 8 comments

Governor Lamont announced today that he is expanding eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine, based almost entirely on age.

Here are the age groups, and the date on which they can schedule an appointment:

  • Ages 55 to 64: March 1
  • Ages 45 to 54: March 22
  • Ages 35 to 44: April 12
  • Ages 16 to 34: May 3.

In addition, preK to grade 12 teachers and staff, and professional childcare providers, can receive the vaccine in March, at clinics set up especially for them.

Lamont said that this was the least complex and confusing scenario for vaccination, and one that would not exacerbate inequities in distribution. He said he is working with the state Department of Public Health to ensure that vaccines will go to people in the highest-risk communities.

Healthcare providers and medical first responders were included in the first group of recipients, followed by those 75 and over, and then 65 and over.

Not included in the rollout: people who underlying medical conditions, and those considered “essential workers” in other states, like transportation, grocery and agricultural workers.

Lamont’s decision drew a quick response from one “06880” reader. He says:

As a 33-year-old living with type 1 diabetes, I feel left out to dry after multiple reassurances from the governor about vaccination efforts for people with pre- existing conditions.

My timeline is in May, with the largest and youngest bracket. People need to ask why people with pre-existing conditions (who are at the most risk) are being delayed for arbitrary age brackets. Did the governor and his team just assume that most of these conditions will be “mostly” covered in the elderly age brackets?

People living with these conditions have put their lives on hold. Some of us were just told our lives don’t matter because of age.

For more information on Connecticut’s COVID vaccination plan — including how to schedule an appointment — click here.

 

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Posted in Environment, Politics

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Roundup: Gelato, Vaccine, Tyler Hicks, More

Posted on February 22, 2021 | 7 comments

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What’s better than one gelato shop opening on Main Street?

Two.

Hot on the heels of news of Cold Fusion moving into the former Papaya Papyrus space next to Chase Bank in May, a sign in what was once Lucky Brand — across the street, and closer to the Post Road — announced the arrival “soon” of La Fenice.

Like its sister locations in Greenwich and Rye, it will serve gelato, crepes, pastries and coffee. Click below for a look at the Rye shop:

It’s not quite like the days when there was a frozen yogurt store on every Westport corner.

It’s better.

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First “06880” reported that St. Vincent’s was closing their Long Lots Road COVID testing facility on March 1.

Then we reported that it was remaining open.

This morning, a reader reports that his wife just phoned St. Vincent’s. She was told they are closing their Long Lots testing as of March 1.

St. Vincent’s Health Center testing will soon be in the rear mirror. (Photo/Adam Stolpen)

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It’s not just New York Times readers who appreciate Tyler Hicks’ work.

The 1988 Staples High School graduate just won 1st place in a new category — COVID-19 coverage — from Pictures of the Year International. It’s the oldest and most prestigious photojournalism program and competition in the world. This year’s awards were the 78th annual.

The honor — which follows many others, including multiple Pulitzers — is for Hicks’ photos of the pandemic’s devastation in the Amazon.

COVID in the Amazon (Photo/Tyler Hicks for New York Times)

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MoCA Westport and Up|Next Teens are partnering to present a Winter Lights Festival at MoCA. It’s set for this 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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The Fairfield County Directory — the “Yellow Pages” that is dumped in driveways and by mailboxes — will be distributed between February 25 and April 13.

The Selectmen’s Office says that residents with questions or concerns regarding the distribution of the directory should e-mail RealYPResolutions@thryv.com.

You may request directories or opt-out of future phone book deliveries by clicking here or here.

Let’s hope that works better than the national Do Not Call Registry.

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A group of swans is called a “flock” or a “wedge.”

Matt Murray spotted this flock/wedge — aka “a whole lot” — yesterday, at Sherwood Mill Pond.

(Photo/Matt Murray)

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And finally … Today is the 41st anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice.” The US Olympic men’s hockey team came from behind to beat the overwhelmingly favored Soviet team 4-3, at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. Al Michaels memorialized the moment on ABC: “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!!!!!”

That game was not, however, the final. Two days later the Americans clinched gold, with a win over Finland.

Westport connection: After a disappointing NHL career, goaltender Jim Craig worked for a marketing firm on Riverside Avenue.

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Posted in Downtown, Environment, Local business, Media, Organizations, Restaurants, Staples HS

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Barnes & Noble Opens Wednesday

Posted on February 22, 2021 | 19 comments

The new Barnes & Noble opens in the old Restoration Hardware this Wednesday (February 24).

A press release touts this as “the first to show the new design direction now taken by Barnes & Noble for its bookstores,” and “a radical change in appearance” from the former Post Road location, a couple of miles east.

The newly designed store is “light and bright, with bespoke oak shelving and custom designed tables curated with the Westport customer in mind.”

The new site of Barnes & Noble.

The opening includes a 10 a.m. ribbon cutting by local author Liv Constantine. This weekend features appearances by more area authors, like Rowan MacColl, Maria Scrivan and Jane Green.

The press release says that although smaller, the new “clever design holds almost same number of book titles” as the previous location. There is also a children’s section, and toys, board games and puzzles.

This is the first new Barnes & Noble in Connecticut in nearly 15 years. Though the pandemic has led to a surge in online sales, CEO James Daunt believes that “book lovers want to return to real bookstores.”

Barnes & Noble’s original Westport location was the former Pier 1 store on Post Road East, now occupied by BevMax. It moved to the Post Plaza Shopping Center more than 20 years ago. That location closed in December.

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Saugatuck Railroad Bridge: The Project No One Talks About

Posted on February 22, 2021 | 22 comments

Everyone is talking about the William F. Cribari Bridge. It’s over 130 years old. Should it be renovated, or replaced?

No one is talking about the Saugatuck River railroad bridge. It’s 116 years old. It too is nearing the end of its useful life.

Metro-North railroad bridge, looking south toward Long Island Sound.

The Metro-North span is one of 8 movable train bridges in the state. If it is replaced by a fixed structure — a project that could cost $75 million — what will happen to businesses upriver, like marinas, that depend on it being opened?

And if it is unable to open, what does that mean for the equipment — tugboats, barges, piledrivers — needed to dredge the river?

Railroad bridge over the Saugatuck River. (Photo/Patricia McMahon)

Speaking of which: When will the river be dredged?

The last major work was done in the 1950s. Before and after, barges traveling to and from the Gault oil tanks (around the site of what is now Saugatuck Sweets) sometimes scraped the bottom of the river. Those barges, and tugboats accompanying them, helped maintain the river.

The Gault oil tanks on Riverside Avenue, between the Cribari Bridge (left) and the railroad bridge, were not environmentally healthy for the Saugatuck River. But barge and tugboat traffic helped prevent buildup of silt on the bottom.

First Selectwoman Diane Farrell turned down funding for a dredging project, more than 20 years ago. Since then, the addition of businesses like kayak rentals and the Saugatuck Rowing Club has spurred an increased demand for recreational opportunities.

There are signs near the Levitt Pavilion that the river is becoming unnavigable. If a navigable channel is dry at low tide, it will no longer be maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Saugatuck River is becoming unnavigable at times far south of the Pavilion. (Photo/Lynn U. Miller)

What will that do to the waterway that once drove commerce all the way from Saugatuck to downtown — and which figures prominently in plans for a revitalization of downtown, with ideas like docks and a floating restaurant?

The other day, the Army Corps took some river samples, tied to possible work on the railroad bridge. They’re likely to find contamination in the area of that span, and I-95. Decades of train travel, and cars and trucks driving on the nearby highway, must have had an impact on the river below.

The railroad and I-95 bridges. (Photo/Brandon Malin)

Westporters should consider — and be talking about — the futures of both the Saugatuck River from Long Island Sound up to the Post Road bridge, and the Saugatuck River railroad bridge near its mouth.

The Cribari Bridge is important. But its just one part of an entire marine and transportation ecosystem that impacts our entire town.

The Saugatuck River, near Rive Bistro (Photo/Lauri Weiser)

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Posted in Downtown, Environment, Saugatuck, Transportation

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Pics Of The Day #1406

Posted on February 21, 2021 | 2 comments

Edge Hill Road looking west … 

… and east (Photo/Rowene Weems Photography)

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Photo Challenge #321

Posted on February 21, 2021 | 22 comments

Last week’s Presidents Day Photo Challenge fooled some of our most historic-minded Westporters.

Sure, in 1775 George Washington stopped (and slept) at the Disbrow Tavern, the site of the present-day Christ & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. He returned 5 years later.

A plaque marks the spot, by the elm tree where Church Lane meets Myrtle Avenue. But that’s not the marker that Kathie Motes Bennewitz’s image showed. (Click here to see.)

A similar plaque is partially hidden near the Christ & Holy Trinity (and Assumption Church) cemetery, on Kings Highway North. It’s across from the grassy area by Old Hill Road that, in Revolutionary times, served as a militia training and parade ground.

Elaine Marino, Bob Grant, Michael Calise and Morley Boyd all knew the correct location of this plaque.

Elaine also pointed out — to my great embarrassment — this was a previous Photo Challenge, in July 2018. (I really should read “06880,” right?)

During the Washington Bi-Centennial Celebration in 1932, the Compo Hill Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a bronze plaque at the base of the tree.

The plaque on Kings Highway does not indicate who placed it there.

The downtown plaque is more weather-beaten than its cemetery counterpart. It says: “George Washington stopped for refreshments at this tavern, June 28, 1775.” It also has the bicentennial dates: “1732-1932.”

That Disbrow Tavern visit — and the next — were not the only 2 times Washington stopped (and slept) here. As president, he spent the night of November 11, 1789 at Captain Ozias Marvin’s tavern, at what is now the north side of Post Road West, opposite Kings Highway South.

Sarah Marvin and her daughters cooked up a presidential feast: loaves of brown bread and pies, vegetables from their farm, huge roasts.

Yet Washington asked for only a bowl of bread and milk. To add insult to injury, he wrote in his diary: It was “not a good house, though the people of it were disposed to do all they could to accommodate me.”

No matter. For years thereafter, Marvin Tavern was known as the Washington Inn.

But enough about yesterday. Here is today’s Photo Challenge. if you know where in Westport you would see it, click “Comments” below.

(Photo/Molly Alger)

 

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Posted in History, Photo Challenge, religion

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Roundup: Minute Man Race, More

Posted on February 21, 2021 | 3 comments

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For 42 years, the Minute Man Race has meant many things. It’s one of the area’s top events. It’s a sure sign that spring is here. And it’s a great fundraiser for the Westport Young Woman’s League.

This year, it’s something else: virtual.

Participants can run any time between April 25 and May 2. And you can do it from anywhere. There’s no excuse not to support the WYWL — and the charities they help, throughout the area.

Last year, the WYWL gave $90,000 to local organizations. They’ve distributed over $4.3 million in grants since 1956. Click here for the full list of recipients. .

In addition to the usual 10K run and 5 K run/walk, there’s a new Minute Man Challenge. The fastest combined time for the 5K and 10K runs earns a prize. That’s in addition to the prizes for the top 3 finishers in each event.

Each registrant gets a Minute Man Race t-shirt, and a “digital runner’s packet” with swag from the race sponsors.

Click here for complete details, and registration information. NOTE: The WYWL offers discounts to essential works, students and others.

Questions? Email Minuteman@wywl.com.

The start of a Minute Man Race. This year’s virtual event may have more participants — but it will be less crowded.

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Today’s countdown-to-spring photo, from Webb Road …

(Photo/MaryLou Roels)

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But winter is hanging on. Spotted on Maplewood Avenue:

(Photo/Fiona Hodgson)

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And finally … Nina Simone was born on this day, in 1931 1933. The multi-talented singer, songwriter, musician, arranger (and civil rights activist)’s music spanned a broad range of styles, including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel and pop. She died in 2003, at 70.

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Posted in Organizations, Sports

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