For years, Westporters have been distressed watching Coastal Link bus riders standing on the side of the Post Road.
Employees of local businesses are there in broiling heat, freezing cold, torrential rain and driving snow.
Two new shelters should provide some protection.
Measuring 6 by 12 feet, with roof solar panels for light, electric heat and a small computer screen displaying bus arrival times, they’ve been built on Post Road West.
One is in front of Schulhof Animal Hospital. The other is across the street.
Each shelter costs $60,000. Funding is shared by the state and town (through an ARPA grant).
On the westbound side of Post Road West …
… and across the street. (Photos/Amy Schneider)
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At the other end of town, Big Y took a big step toward its opening.
The logo is up over the supermarket, in the former Barnes & Noble building.
(Photo/Arthur Hayes)
A soft launch is set for October 24.
Meanwhile, they’re hiring in the bakery, meat, seafood, deli, produce and floral departments, along with cashiers, overnight stock clerks, and assistant management and management positions.
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Sometimes the wheels of government grind exceedingly slowly.
Other times they work at warp speed.
On Sunday, a Westporter — frustrated he could not find a map of Representative Town Meeting districts on the town website — emailed RTM moderate Jeff Wieser and 1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker.
Couldn’t it be somewhere much more visible, he wondered? Like, in the main menu on the RTM page?
Voilà!
By yesterday afternoon — the first day back at work, after Sunday and the Labor Day holiday — the link was right there, just below “Members/Contact Information.”
Click here to see. Or just look below:
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Speaking of government: “A Public Conversation on Marxism in CT, Trafficking in America, Rank Choice Voting, and Election Integrity” is the title of a September 18 event (7 p.m., VFW Joseph J. Clinton Post 399.
The event is sponsored by Connecticut Centinal.
Panelists include Lt. Gen. Rod Bishop, USAF Ret., chairman of STARRS.us; Joe Oltmann, host of the Conservative Daily podcast; Connecticut State Senator Rob Sampson, and Linda Szynkowicz, founder of Fight Voter Fraud.
In-person tickets are $30 ($100 premier). Livestream tickets are $25. A percentage of the proceeds will be donated to VFW Post 399 to fund infrastructure development.
Click here for tickets, and more information. (Hat tip: Sal Liccione)
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The bad news: Next Tuesday (September 10), the Starbucks near Carvel closes for a month, for renovations.
The good news: For 4 weeks, we can all drive safely on that stretch of the Post Road.
(Photo/John McKinney)
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On August 18, “Paulie” set out on his fourth “Push.”
The former flight attendant is honoring the heroes of American Flight 11, the first aircraft hijacked on September 11, 2001.
Paulie left from Boston’s Public Garden 9/11 Memorial. He’s pushing an airline beverage cart 210 miles, to the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum at New York’s Ground Zero.
This morning (Wednesday), he’ll come from Fairfield through Westport. Around noon, he’ll stop at Westport Fire Department’s Post Road East headquarters.
Keep your eye open for Paulie, as he “pushes” his way through town.
“Paulie” pushes his cart through Westport, on a previous journey.
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If you’ve never been to an Artists Collective of Westport pop-up exhibition: You’ve missed some of the most creative shows in town.
The opening receptions are especially fun.
The next one is set for Thursday, September 19 (6 to 8 p.m., Westport Country Playhouse barn).
It runs Friday and Saturday, September 20-21 (noon to 4 p.m.), with an artists’ talk on Sunday, September 22 (4 p.m.).
Exhibiting artists include Peter Mendelson, Lisa Silberman, Lois Goglia, Rosalind Shaffer, Melissa Newman, Lucienne Buckner, Erin Nazzaro, Elizabeth DeVoll, Andrew Graham, Nancy Woodward, Miggs Burroughs and Susan Lloyd.
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Sara Deren — yesterday’s Westport Rotary Club lunch speaker — has a unique job, and a moving story to tell.
She is founder and CEO of the Westport-based national non-profit, Experience Camps. They provide a free week of sleepaway camp for 1,300 children a year who are grieving the loss of a parent, sibling or caregiver.
Deren noted that the camps don’t try to “fix” the grief. Instead, they ameliorate the sense of isolation it causes, by teaching youngsters how to talk to the staff and with other youth in the same situation.
That, and the support of others, gives them the tools they need to move on with their lives in a positive way.
Sara Deren, at the Westport Rotary Club. (Photo/Dave Matlow)
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Norwalk native Mike Camacho headlines this Thursday’s Jazz at the Post (September 5, VFW Joseph J. Clinton Post 399; shows at 7:30 and 8:45 p.m.; dinner at 7 p.m.; $20 music cover, $15 for veterans and students).
The drummer will be joined by pianist Ben Rice, bassist Alec Safy, and saxophonist Greg “The Jazz Rabbi” Wall. Click here for tickets.
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Nature photographer Lou Weinberg took today’s very compelling “Westport … Naturally” image. It shows a green sweat bee on Autumn Joy Sedum, at the Westport Community Gardens.
(Photo/Lou Weinberg)
Lou explains: “The green sweat bee gets its name from the fact that is attracted to the salt in human perspiration. (Don’t worry — it won’t sting unless it is really threatened; even then, its sting is mild.)
“These beautiful critters live in the soil and feed on the nectar from flowers and a sweet ‘honeydew’ created by little bugs called aphids. They store ‘pollen bread’ for themselves and their young.
“Green sweat bees add to the incredible biodiversity found in the Long Lots Preserve surrounding the Community Gardens. They are one of over 300 species of native bees found in Connecticut. Native bees are incredible pollinators, more efficient than the European honeybee.
“They have innate habits adept at pollinating hundreds of important native plants — the same plants (trees, shrubs and wildflowers) that have been planted in the Long Lots Preserve.
“As habitat loss and decreasing plant biodiversity are the primary sources of native bee population decline, it would be incredibly disappointing to destroy the Long Lots Preserve as well as the Westport Community Gardens.
“Populations of dozens of other species are being brought back by the native plantings reestablished there. When you disturb the soil, you destroy the bees.”
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And finally … in honor of our new bus shelters:
(Politics, art, business … just another day at “06880.” If you enjoy our daily Roundups — or anything else we do — please click here, to make a tax-deductible donation. Thank you!)
Really? The Connecticut Centinal? Newsmax and Daily Wire not putting anything on this month?
Funny. After all that sturm und drang over the size of the Amazon Fresh sign that was supposed to go there, the Big Y sign is positively teeny.
Perhaps I am not aware, but I would imagine the spot in front, and across the street from, Shuloff Animal Hospital has to be one of the LOWEST need places for those who rely on bus transportation. One would think that a shelter near Stop N Shop, Fresh Market (and all the other nearby stores) or the Main Street intersection would provide much more benefit for the investment? Who am I to question the good analysts in government?
The bus shelters are finally appearing after years of effort by a small group of citizens and advisors who grew tired of watching those who commute to Westport to serve us waiting for their buses in the rain.
What seemed to be a simple task
metastasized as the volunteers met on Zoom, interacted with DOT, obtained easements from generous property owners and researched costs, options and availability of shelters.
But the real heroes of the tale are Pete Ratkiewich and his colleagues at Westport DPW who took charge, put pen to paper, put out contracts and got the job done.
All in all, the shelters are tangible evidence of what can be done when private citizens and the Town cooperate to bring a good idea to fruition.
Am I the only one that thinks that up to 10 more bus shelters at $60K each would be a better use of the $650K that is going to be spent on the beach playground vanity project?
Again, not my money, but which would be more reflective of the values that Westport likes to portray to the world?
‘…reflective of the values that Westport likes to portray to the world?’. You answered your own question. In 06880 it’s, you’re here to serve us, not be one of us.
Get your head out of the Compo dirt John.
Thanks for the important safety tip.
Dan, I love it when you include YouTube links of the various musicians who perform at Jazz at The Post! Discovering new musicians weekly! Thank you 🤗