It looks like a simple legal notice. But it’s a big step.
The first agenda item for the July 5 Flood & Erosion Control Board reads:
Parker Harding Plaza / WPL-11724-23; Application of Keith S. Wilberg, Town Engineer, on behalf of the Town of Westport, to revise the existing roadway and parking lot, build sidewalks, a riverfront boardwalk, and park areas, and to relocate trash and recycling dumpsters. The proposed activity is within the WPL area of the Saugatuck River.
Click here to view the application materials.
The agenda also includes this:
Upon completion of the Public Hearing, and time permitting, the members of the Board will have an open discussion reviewing the boards efforts to assist The Town of Westport in controlling flood and erosion. The open discussion will include the members of the Board with the opportunity to express their thoughts and recommendations on what can and should be done to help The Town of Westport further control flooding and erosion.
Sounds like an important meeting. It will be held via Zoom. Click here for the link. The meeting ID is 813 1215 9695; the passcode is 236833. The phone-in number is 646-876-9923.
The Flood & Erosion Control Board will discuss plans for Parker Harding Plaza on July 5.
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LymanAID — the huge July 9 party celebrating Westport’s sister city of Lyman, Ukraine — just got a big boost.
It came from our friends in Marigny, France — our first sister city, and the impetus for our relationship with Lyman.
Sunday, July 9 is LymanAID (1 to 7 p.m., Ukrainian-American club — just past the I-95 Exit 19 northbound entrance ramp in Southport).
The food, drinks, music and other entertainment is free. But there will be plenty of chances — raffles, Yankee auction, plant sale, book pulls, etc. — to help the men, women and children of Lyman.
Several of those auction items come from our Marigny amis. They include:
- 3 copies of “601 Towns & Villages in La Manche” — a 700-page book, with a special inscription
- 3 sweatshirts, which say “Westport/Marigny-Le-Lozon/Lyman
- 1 bottle of “hors d’âge” calvados” — a drink enjoyed by American GIs in Marigny, during World War II.
To RSVP for free admission, purchase VIP tickets and for more information, click here.
And to our friends in Marigny, who will be with us in spirit: Merci!
The Marigny book and dedication flank a bottle of calvados. All are gifts from our sister city of Marigny, as prizes at the July 9 LymanAID event for other city in Ukraine.
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David Grann returned to Westport last night — and was greeted by over 100 people.
The author — a member of Staples High School’s Class of 1985 — spoke about his new best-seller “The Wager.”
He also sold plenty of copies. The line for autographs was long, and enthusiastic.
David Grann, at the Westport Library. (Photo and hat tip/Dave Matlow)
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Speaking of autographs at the Library: Fairfield County basketball fans are already excited about Chris Paul’s upcoming event there.
Now there’s another reason to head to the Trefz Forum next Tuesday (June 27, 8 p.m.). After his discussion about his life and new memoir with journalist, Fox Sports anchor and Westport resident Lindsay Czarniak (she’ll be live; he’s remote), and questions from the audience, copies of his book “61: Life Lessons from Papa, On and Off the Court” will be on sale.
And they’re all autographed.
The free event will be livestreamed and recorded as part of Czarniak’s podcast, “Lunch with Lindsay.”
Click here to register for a seat at the Library event. “61” can be ordered through the same link.
Chris Paul
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Tomorrow, Westport celebrates jUNe Day.
That means the flags of dozens of United Nations countries will fly on the Ruth Steinkraus Bridge.
Early today, town crews were replacing the dozens of American flags on the span.
It’s a small gesture of welcome. But it’s been part of our town’s tradition, for over 60 years.
Getting ready, on the Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Bridge. (Photo/Dave Matlow)
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A reader told me there’s a “For Lease” sign outside Ulta Beauty & Hair Salon.
Does this mean they’re closing? I called to find out.
The very long phone message (including “curbside pick-up hours” — does anyone really still do “contactless” shopping?) finally gave me 2 options: Press 1 to make an appointment; press 4 (!) for all other inquiries.
I pressed 4. “Nothing was selected,” the voice said, and sent me back to the long message.
I listened again to all the shopping hours, plus curbside pickup. This time I pressed 1.
“Nothing was selected,” the voice said again. Again, I was sent back to the start.
So they may be closing. Or maybe not.
I couldn’t find out. Perhaps everyone was in back, dealing with shoplifters.
For lease?
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Two local residents were honored last week, at Aspetuck Land Trust’s 57th annual meeting.
Bill Kutik of Westport was named Conservationist of the Year, for saving a key property in the 705-acre Weston Wilton Forest Reserve from development. (It is now called the Bill Kutik Honey Hill Preserve.)
Kutik has been an ALT member since 1999. The first editor of Backpacker magazine, a newspaper reporter, magazine editor and technology impresario, he has written for the Boston Globe, New York Daily News and New York Times. He is a hiker and trail steward, and has donated hundreds of hours to the Land Trust, as an editor and writer.
Michelle Fracasso is the Native Landscaper of the Year. She has planted hundreds of pollinator-friendly plants and shrubs, attracting bees, butterflies and birds (100% pesticide-free).
Fracasso is a long-time supporter of Fairfield County farms. Her own — Wells Hill — is the last working family farm with livestock in Weston. She has been active with Aspetuck Land Trust’s farmland initiatives, and a volunteer and advisor for their homeowner engagement program and native plant sales.
Bill Kutik and Michelle Fracasso
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Charly Bliss has a new single. “You Don’t Even Know Me Anymore” is the band’s first new song since 2019.
What makes that “06880”-worthy is that Charly Bliss is an all-Staples group. Eva Hendricks (lead vocals, guitar), her brother Sam (drums), lead guitarist Spencer Fox and bassist Dan Shure all graduated from the high school.
The new single “celebrates personal growth,” says Rolling Stone.
Eva Hendricks “looks back on a bad breakup that left her wrecked and realizes she doesn’t feel the same as she once did. Instead, she has come to realize that the person she cried over doesn’t know her the way she thought they did.”
Click here for the full Rolling Stone story. (Hat tip: Kerry Long)
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Winslow Park Animal Hospital doesn’t miss a holiday.
But July 4th is a big one. So the display in front of their Post Road East office is even bigger, more creative — and more colorful — than usual.
(Photo/Ed Simek)
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A bunny bopping amid bachelor buttons captures our attention, in today’s “Westport … Naturally” feature.
(Photo/Amy Schneider)
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And finally … there are 2 “birth flowers” for the month of June: roses and honeysuckle. So:
(“06880” is your hyper-local blog — and a non-profit. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)
So it doesn’t matter that the Main Street merchants don’t want it … it doesn’t matter that over a thousand residents have taken the time to say we don’t want it … the town is just going to go ahead and change Parker Harding for the worse?
Yet one more day when I bemoan Jonathan Steinberg’s loss by fewer than 60 votes.
Congratulations and thank you to Bill Kutik and Michelle Fracasso for their efforts!
The Parker Harding plan,as currently designed is a losing proposition for all of Westport. There are ways to clean up Parker Harding without resorting to such drastic moves as getting rid of over 40 parking spaces and the cut-through road. Why is the First Selectwoman pushing this so hard, despite overwhelming opposition from citizens and merchants? Has anyone, aside from those on the committee, said that they are willing to accept such a drastic re-routing of downtown traffic for this project? Before it gets to the P&Z in the form of an 8-24 application, this needs to be derailed and re-directed.
Is anyone able to run an intervention with the First Selectwoman and her committee?
Board of Finance and RTM members, if this continues down the road, you will be asked to fund this project. It will be a big issue come election season, both this year and in 2024. Before it gets to that point, you need to make sure you fully understand the wide-ranging traffic and economic implications for the plan. And let the people of Westport know where you stand.
I finished The Wager last night. A very compelling story. Staples (and Connecticut College!) alumni can be proud of David Grann.
Rumor has it that The Wager was actually ghostwritten by Dan who you may be aware is a Brown University (and Staples) alumnus.
The meeting is zoom!?
Cowards
Big step, might be mis worded.it’s not really a big step.
It’s another element of the grasping at straws being done here to try and push forward an agenda virtually nobody wants.
It’s another funny attempt by the administration and DPIC, and downtown association who are proving their usefulness is at sell by date.
No element of this plan can fix flood control.
It was never intended to but is conveniently being used as the stick to beat us with now that thoughtful folks have become involved.
Nope. The plan won’t change flooding. As for public safety and fire, which I note have been suddenly thrown into the cluster, with a redesign of flow these can be addressed..
I believe we have also have a paving alternative which we will save for another day.
The bottom line is this plan is not going to work for anyone who lives in the affected area. It will not work for residents watching their roads turned into highways.. it will not work for residents struggling to find parking and it will not work for the traffic congestion which will be the result.
It will not do a single thing for flooding that could not be otherwise implemented without the plan.
At this point it is clear that the DPIC and downtown association are bound and determined to try and implement this catastrophe..
and with that in mind many of the merchants and residents are seeking legal council.
So far the general consensus of the effected residents and merchants is to prepare and get ready an injunction which will stop this plan in its tracks.
After all the processes have been exhausted that injunction will be implemented and court proceedings will start.
My comments I believe speak on behalf of the vast majority of residents and merchants in this effected area.
Ciara Webster .
How is it that the Parker Harding plaza plan is continuing to move forward?!!? You have many residents and Main Street business speaking up in opposition to this plan – does it NOT matter what your town residents and business owners want? Traffic is already AWFUL in and near downtown. Additionally, do you really think shoppers and diners are going to walk all the way from the Imperial Ave lot? Is this what happens when there is no longer local newspapers? 1st Selectwoman – are you listening at all?!?!
Jen takes a great picture and has a smile that melts the coldest heart. Listen??? Not so much.
Merri, we hear your frustration..
no! It appears she does not care what the residents and merchants think. Let alone merchants who are residents. Although I see no difference… anyone willing to lease space here is a friend.
Good thing about that is that in the end deep pockets speak volumes and we are going to sue whoever tries to “get away” with this travesty
End of story… we will put up with and go through this painful process but we will let a judge in the end decide parker Harding and jesup greens fate.
We don’t care about imperial. It’s not a town based parking lot.
Too far away .. quite honestly they can do whatever they like with imperial.
There are so many people so far up the selectman’s a.. on that parking lot it’s not even funny. Between farmers market and remarkable I can’t even imagine the head spinning.. it might be time we call bs on that doling out of town residentially zoned land too.
Every time I see a post about the farmers market it’s Jen or Foti with a bag behaving like it’s their grocery shop of the week…
Please…. I guess she/they think if they keep a vocal farmers market quiet then we will all just disappear… lmao… again… the putting one’s money where one’s mouth is… and we will.
I did not invest 2.5 million dollars of my money on Main Street to get screwed.
Not by some DPIC plan that was never going to work anyway.
It ain’t over til the fat lady sings.
Ciara Webster.
For those that are following this, I am petitioning to get this topic on the RTM agenda on September 5th. Need 20 registered Westport voters to sign in order to get it on the agenda. That should be easy. If you want to sign, I will be at GG&Joe from 9:30-10 AM tomorrow, Saturday. The petition reads:
“In the interest of having a full and transparent public discussion on the Downtown Plan Implementation Committee’s goals, process and proposed plan for Parker Harding, we request that the RTM add to its September 5, 2023 agenda the following item: A review of the DPIC’s goals, process and proposed plan for Parker Harding, to be led by the lead petitioner, with an invitation to the Chair of the DPIC to present if desired, with time reserved for RTM member and public comments following the review. “
If they make Main Street two way again,… before parker harding main street went both ways, so… logic is missing…
This DPIC plan…came about in 2019 when a lot of residents highlighted/complained a lot of store fronts were empty, and student enrollment was dropping. Traffic? Still an issue. Saugatuck, Post Road, Greens Farms in morning rush hour or at end of the day was bumper to bumper.
There is not much you can do to mitigate flooding in a man made parking lot that is built on fill. You might be able to raise the sidewalks, drainage, pitch of road a little, but it does not help or fix flooding. Flooding will happen in irregular high tides and massive downpours like we had in 2018/2019.
I am asking DPIC to present another option, keeping the thorough-way, and 47 spots.
My vision: repave the lot, restripe the lines, fox the islands and curbs, inspect and repair any catch basins or drainage, improve curb appeal grass areas, and call it a day.
Having traffic let alone single vehicles to enter a parking lot to get through or around Main Street is asking for higher risk of injury or accident.
It’s not broken, therefore it does not need to be fixed.
Put that money towards capital projects such as a new police station with EMS, redoing Long Lots & Coleytown Elementary, Barons Property.
Just my opinion 🙂
As the current plan stands I do not support it.
Andrew, Thank you. You wrote “I am asking DPIC to present another option, keeping the thorough-way, and 47 spots.” Most, if not all, of those who spoke out in opposition to this at the last DPIC meeting said exactly the same thing. And we were apparently not heard, as the town is now bringing the exact same plan to Flood & Erosion. No one is listening. That is why we will be sending a petition from over 20 Westport electors to the town clerk and RTM moderator on Monday. The petition is to allow a review of the DPIC plan in front of the full RTM so that fuller transparency can be reached and average citizens and merchants can be heard. Yes, I know that the RTM will only have a role to play here if/when money needs to be appropriated. But there is no other way for our voices to be heard. Consider this to be 20 Westporter’s attempt to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
For those playing along at home, the petition we are submitting could have hundreds of signatures, but we only need 20 to get this on the RTM agenda. No one should think only 20 people care about this. The online petition, with well over a thousand signatures, attest to the widespread oppostion to the current DPIC plan.
I’ll be looking forward to this matter and hope that DPIC listens to the many individuals that have spoken for or against it.
20 signatures is all you need yes, but the more the better always.
One final thing. This project has a $6 million price tag. Would make a great down payment in a new school.
Unconscionable.
And if the roughly 50 parking spaces had to be replaced in a parking garage (wait for it!) the construction cost would be at least $20,000 apiece… does this administration think Westporters are made of money?
Oh, sorry, goes without saying.
I’m all for green spaces but are people going to town for Green Space or to shop and/or eat? There’s a lot of Green Space in the town already that people can go to. If need to develop the Green Space in town do it along the river across the street near the library and take away a few of those parking spaces.