Save the date! This year’s LobsterFest — the early fall fun-fest (and fundraiser) at Compo Beach — is September 20.
All the food and family-friendly entertainment features of past years return. The Westport Rotary Club promises a few new additions, along with new beverage options.
Right now, the Westport Rotary Club is signing sponsors. It’s a great opportunity to align with one of the town’s most lively and popular events.
It’s all for a great cause. The Rotary Club is celebrating its centennial with a major contribution to the Compo Beach playground renovation.
They awarded $385,000 to the project from last year’s Lobster Fest. Another $285,000 went to 46 local and regional causes — and $100,000 more to support international projects. The largest is outfitting a new dental and vision building in rural Uganda.
To learn more about sponsorships, click here.
PS: Tickets go on sale next month. Be sure to watch “06880” for an announcement — and then pounce. They go fast!
Save the date — September 20 — for the Rotary Club LobsterFest. (Photo/Dan Woog)
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It’s not easy capturing lightning (on camera, of course).
But Meredith Holod was in the right place, at the right time — and a safe distance away — Monday.
Here’s her view during the quick but intense storm, from Compo Beach.
(Photo/Meredith Holod)
But lightning did strike twice, elsewhere in Westport. The Fire Department responded to 2 incidents.
One struck a home on Joanne Circle, igniting a fire on the second floor. Crews swiftly contained the fire before it could spread further. No injuries were reported.
Meanwhile on Bayberry Lane, lightning struck a pet “invisible fence.” The surge caused electrical damage, and posed a risk to the property.
“Summer storms can be dangerous, and things can go wrong quickly,” says Fire Marshal Terry Dunn.
“Electric pet fences are especially vulnerable, because they’re wired underground and usually connected to your home’s electrical system. If lightning strikes nearby it can travel through that wiring, damage your home, and potentially start a fire. It takes just a few seconds to unplug the system when a storm is on the way. It’s a smart precaution.”
The Westport Fire Department urges residents to take precautions during thunderstorms:
- Unplug electric fences.
- Use surge protectors for important electronics; unplug non-essential devices.
- Avoid using wired appliances or electronics during a storm.
- Stay indoors and away from windows when thunder or lightning is present.
For more safety tips and emergency updates, visit www.westportct.gov/fire.
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Saturn — the wildly successful calendar app for high school and college students, which began as a Staples High venture when Class of 2017 member Dylan Diamond was a teenager there — has been acquired by Snap.
The new owners — the company behind Snapchat — did not disclose terms of the day. But most of Saturn’s 30 full-time employees will join their new owner.
Engadget, which first reported the news, says: “It’s not clear what exactly Snap has planned for Saturn, but … the calendar app will continue to operate as a standalone service.”
Saturn may help introduce calendar-related features into Snapchat.
Saturn is available at more than 17,000 high schools. And Snap is used by more than half of US teenagers.
Click here for the full Engadget story.
Dylan Diamond
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John McCarthy was the most recent “06880” reader to send a photo of the camera mounted at the Longshore entrance, and wonder why it’s there.
(Photo/John McCarthy)
“Seems a little out of place,” he writes.
Not really. Parks & Recreation Department director Erik Barbieri explains: “This is a license plate recognition camera, for cars entering Longshore.
:There have been break-ins in the past, but the cameras in the parking lot couldn’t always catch the plates.
“This helps us know who came in, if there are any other issues in the future. A good recommendation from the Police Department.”
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For years, Staples High School Class of 2024 graduate Ethan Walmark entertained Westporters, with his many musical talents.
But not just us.
Ethan was on the “Today Show.” He helped Yoko Ono flip the switch to light the Empire State Building blue for World Autism Awareness Day. His performance of “Eminence Front” rocked a Who show. He sang the national anthem in front of 25,000 fans at Red Bull Arena.
As a 12-year-old Coleytown Middle School student, Ethan followed Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Billy Joel and Elton John at the 1st-ever Autism Awareness Gala Fundraiser at the Kennedy Center in Washington.
Now — a rising sophomore at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music — Ethan is back in town.
Tonight (Wednesday, 6 to 9 p.m.), he performs outside the Spotted Horse — on keyboards, and electric and acoustic guitar.
He won’t sing all of the 3,000 songs in his repertoire. But you’ll recognize many of your favorite Beatles, Billy Joel, Elton John, Motown, John Mayer, Simon & Garfunkel and Four Seasons favorites.
And Ethan will take requests.
Ethan Walmark
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Speaking of entertainment: Country music rocks the VFW this Saturday (July 19, 8 p.m.).
Grady McAuliffe — with his new single “On the Edge” at #4 on the Hot Disc/All Country Radio chart — and his band bring their high-energy, country grit, Southern Soul and rock-infused sound to the Riverside Avenue venue.
The bar features specials sponsored by Bubba’s Whiskey and Spacecat Brewing Company. Click here for tickets ($15 in advance, $20 at the door), and more information.
Grady McAuliffe
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Mitchells held their annual Compo Beach party last night, for company members and their families.
As always, it was first class: lobster and shrimp, Colony Pizza, hot dogs and much more.
Jack and Bill Mitchell — the second generation, after their parents Ed and Norma — were joined by their sons and daughters-in-law, and their kids. The 4th generation is well on its way to making its mark on the Westport store — and those in Greenwich, Long Island, on the West Coast, and now Dallas.
The fifth generation was there too. Their time will come!
Of course — befitting two Westport town jewels (Mitchells and Compo) — the weather was perfect.
Bill Mitchell, at the company picnic. (Photo/Dan Woog)
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Today’s spectacular “Westport … Naturally” image comes from Michael Chait, via the Saugatuck River:
(Photo/Michael Chait)
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And finally … on this date in 1935, the world’s first parking meter was installed. The site was Oklahoma City.
(Don’t follow leaders … but please support “06880.” Just click here — and thank you!)
We are told by some that local issues aren’t partisan. Potholes, etc. I largely agree with this when it comes to the standard stuff of Westport town business: zoning, public works, education, etc.
But now that the town has decided to get into the business of surveiling its “Crown Jewels” in an era of what many (myself included) believe to be excessive and illegal actions by the federal government, I think this issue is different.
To Jen Tooker, Don O’Day and Kevin Christie, can you answer the following question here?
“Would you comply with a request from ICE to turn over surveillance video from Longshore and any other properties surveilled by the town?”
It is not a far fetched question. It addresses a situation being faced today by mayors and town leaders all over the country. It’s not a partisan question
I think it is a fair question and one I will be asking anyone I might vote for in November.
Camera’s are omnipresent and are very helpful. If there was an issue, many of us have no issue turning the data over to the State or Fed’s. It for the greater good.
John is quite the drama queen and a prolific presence on all town blogs/news sites.
It’s tiring….
Love ya David.
Lobster Fest happens to fall on the same day that the Staples Class of 1965 is having its 60th reunion.
Apologies to those who don’t want to read anything further from me. Please just ignore.
Back in 2008, Police Chief Al Fiore asked the town for $24,000 to purchase Tasers for the police force. As the expenditure was over $20,000 it had to be approved by the RTM. As part of his presentation to the RTM Chief Fiore said that he could have easily reduced the expenditure to less than $20,000 and avoided having the expense vetted by the RTM. He said that he did not go that route because he believed that it was an important issue for the RTM and the town to be fully briefed on. He said he would not bypass the RTM on a matter of such importance.
So the RTM and the public had two lively evenings of discussion on whether the police force should have tasers. Statistics were discussed, data deployed, emotions were displayed and a thorough vetting of the subject was had. I was on the RTM at the time and I found the process fair, open and educational. I ultimately voted against the purchase of tasers. I was in the minority and the majority of the RTM voted to purchase them.
Why didn’t a similar discussion take place at the RTM or Parks and Rec Commission for the installation of surveillance cameras at Longshore? Where was the public review of local crime statistics which might have been used to justify installing the cameras? (come to think of it, where does the PD keep and publicize local crime statistics?)
Who decided that public debate and discussion on serious matters of policy are no longer desired or required?
This is another example of how this town government has pushed aside public input and education in favor of authoritarian dictate. This is democracy as it is dying. Its not just a national thing.
You’re giving me flashbacks with the Tazer vote. This was rubber stamped until it was coming before RTM and I fought tooth and nail against the expenditure. Initially, RTM delayed the expenditure but some months later (after I had left RTM), RTM approved it.
IIRC, the first use of Tazers was on a fox that was on the boat docks at Compo.
I enjoy all of your comments John. You are not afraid to say or write what many, many, of us feel.
Consensus must be respected, and it is not. Not in Washington, and not in this town.
Authoritarianism has no place here, or at the core in Washington.
Transparency and due process are, or should be, a fundamental right. They used be.
They ought to be the “least” we demand/expect.
Clearly in front of our eyes that right has been 💩 upon.
While I do not object to the cameras at Longshore IF they are being used to solve crimes, I do question what used be, the slow and deliberate erosion of our constitutional rights. Now it’s on a very fast track. And it is dangerous.
When we have masked bounty hunters getting paid purses of $1500 per “arrest”, or kidnapping, undocumented or not, we must all take stock.
Oh and $ 40,000 bonuses, rewards for just detaining.
When grandmothers married to American citizens for 47, (yes she is in her seventies) years are being hunted in their gardens, we must take stock.
When we watch children born here – American citizens, who have cancer, being deported, we need to wake up !
These are not criminals.
Not even remotely.
They are AMERICANS.
Who is going to work the farms in the 90 degree baking sun ?
Who will harvest the food we eat. WHO ?
I do not know a single AMERICAN, who will do that job.
Who will do all those jobs ?
Not Americans ! Not in a month of Sundays.
So the far right or morally bankrupt folks who suddenly want to kick everyone out need to remember, who will fill those jobs.
Thank you John, for being stand up and speaking out.