Last week’s Photo Challenge was interesting — both the image, and the answers.
Nearly a dozen readers quickly checked in with the correct response: Bruce McFadden’s shot of big beams and heavy machinery indeed showed the swing turntable underneath the William F. Cribari Bridge over the Saugatuck River, connecting Bridge Street and Saugatuck Avenue. (Click here to see.)
But then several others all said it was the underside of the I-95 Saugatuck River bridge, or perhaps another on the same highway.
Fortunately, the I-95 span does not swing open. Imagine the traffic jams if it did!
Congratulations to Morley Boyd, Alfred Herman, Jonathan McClure, Tom Risch, Jim McKay, Diane Silfen, Ken Runkel, Abby Gordon-Tolan, Seth Schachter, Craig Clark, Ann Bacharach, Micheal Simso, Ralph Balducci, Andrew Colabella, Matt McGrath and Howard Potter. You know your undersides of bridge machinery!
Here’s a nice late-summer one challenge. If you know where in Westport you’d see this peaceful scene, click “Comments” below.
(Photo/Patti Brill)
(Here’s a challenge: Please support your hyper-local blog. Click here to donate. And thank you!)
This November’s Board of Education election is very important. In the next 2 years, members may vote on everything from new buildings and redistricting to students’ access to library materials.
To help Westporters understand more about the BOE, the League of Women Voters of Westport will host 3 current members. The trio will discuss how the BOE operates.
Chair Lee Goldstein, secretary Neil Phillips and member Dorie Hordon are panelists for the September 6 event (7 p.m., Westport Library).
There is no sign on the door of the restaurant, located in the same mini-plaza as Joe’s Pizza and Le Rouge Chocolatier. Tables remain on the patio. The answering machine still describes its hours of operation.
But inside, furniture is piled high, ready for removal. Fans of the small spot, with an eclectic menu, will be heartbroken.
(Photo and hat tip/Sal Liccione)
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For veterans, September 11 is a solemn day.
This year, it’s especially important.
Catch a Lift — the national organization that helps post-9/11 combat-injured veterans recover and rehabilitate, physically and mentally, through physical fitness, motivation and support — will hold its 2nd annual Connecticut golf and pickleball outing.
The event, at the Patterson Club in Fairfield (10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.), also includes cocktails, dinner, raffles, and the chance to hear inspirational accounts from veterans about their journeys.
Emerson, Beckett, Aja and Jada Rhimes set up a stand at a busy intersection near their home. They wanted to raise funds for Westport Volunteer Emergency Medical Services.
“They help so many people. And they do it through donations. We wanted to help,” the girls said.
Did they ever!
Before running out of cups and lemonade, they raised $1,817. Their proud mother matched it.
An anonymous donor, impressed, added another $500.
So that’s $4,134 for WVEMS, from one lemonade stand.
Well done, girls!
A very successful lemonade stand. (Photo/Shonda Rhimes)
Time to get back to business — in more ways than one.
The Westport Business Networking International chapter’s Quarterly Visitor’s Day is September 7 (United Methodist Church, 7 a.m.).
Westport BNI has 50 members, with only one per category. Current open classifications include printer, salon/spa, restaurant, security systems, HVAC, photographer, travel agent, caterer, florist, event planner, home inspector, moving company, electrician, dentist, personal trainer, auto repair, cleaning service, physical therapy, cosmetics/skincare and promotional products.
Jamie Walsh is chair of Westport’s Shellfish Commission.
He’s concerned about the crabbing and other activities in Sherwood Mill Pond — which, since “06880” first reported on it last month, has become even more intensive. He writes:
On Friday night Barry Lytton, vice chair of the Westport Shellfish Commission and Jonathan Goldstein, owner and operator of Sherwood Island Oysters, discovered 40 to 50 individuals in the Mill Pond both crabbing and poaching large quantities of shellfish.
I also passed by, and was taken aback by the density of individuals with nets and buckets. These are restricted beds, leased for commercial shell fishing only as of right to Sherwood Island Oysters.
Barry was there for several hours. He says, “about 40 were strictly crabbing, but 10 or so were clamming and doing plenty of it. I saw 2 groups with about 200 to 400 clams each. I tried to tell them they could get sick, and called both the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and police, with no response. DEEP dispatch said they’d send somebody, but hadn’t for 2 hours.”
One bucket of clams — among money — at Sherwood Mill Pond Friday night. (Photo/Barry Lytton)
Aside from the light pollution and disruption to the neighbors who live around the pond, shellfish resources are being poached illegally.
It seems difficult for our police to enforce, as this activity occurs at night, they are not always familiar with the regulations, and many times a language barrier exists.
DEEP conservation officers are spread very thin, and do not have the budget for enforcement.
Sherwood Mill Pond crabbers and clammers, July 2023.
We have discussed this issue recently with Colin Kelly, Westport director of conservation. He is looking into enforcement options available to us. We need to protect our resources, and this area is strictly prohibited.
Westport has wonderful open recreational shellfishing beds located in the triangle off Cockenoe. Those areas are not restricted.
Allowing this illegal activity to continue only encourages permissive illegal behavior. This is something our commission plans to address immediately.
Click below for a video of Friday night’s activity. It was filmed by Barry Lytton; the voice is Jonathan Goldstein’s, owner of Sherwood Island Oysters.
(“06880” reports often on the environment — including our beaches and Sherwood Mill Pond. Please click here to help us continue our work. Thank you!)
Speaking of music: Yesterday’s “06880” preview of CLASP‘s “Rockin’ Halloween Bash” (October 20, Fairfield Theatre Company) — a benefit for the organization providing group homes and other services for people with autism and intellectual disabilities — included incorrect information about the music.
CLASP now says that the danceable, great rock from artists like Tina Turner, the Rolling Stones, Journey, Led Zeppelin, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and more will be provided by Stephanie Harrison (powerhouse leader of the band Fake ID), Anthony Gadaleta, Crispin Cioe (Westport saxophonist who toured with the Stones), Pat Marafiote, Marcos Torres Jr. (Cosmic Jibaros), and Rob Fried, Band Central founder.
The pre-party starts in the FTC gallery at 6:30 p.m., with light bites. Click here for tickets, and other information.
MDSolarSciences is a Westport sunscreen and skincare brand.
On Tuesday (August 22), CEO Renee Plato and employees will travel around Fairfield County, to donate sunscreens to lifeguards, fire and police departments, and others. They’ll also offer advice and tips on sunscreen application techniques, and the role sun protection plays in maintaining healthy skin.
The event begins in Westport.
MDSolarSciences says: Sunscreen is important!
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On Wednesday, members and guests of the Y’s Men of Westport & Weston toured Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza and Prospect Park. It was part of the group’s New York historic walking tour series.
Tomorrow (Sunday, August 20, 2 p.m.), high school sophomore and Connecticut Entomological Society member Lukas Keras leads a bug walk in Sherwood Island State Park’s West Woods.
Lukas looks forward to inspiring visitors to love the natural world as much as he does. Entrance to the state park is free for vehicles with Connecticut license plates.
Jerry Moss — the “M” in A&M records, the label behind the Carpenters, the Police, Janet Jackson, Peter Frampton and (the “A” in the name) Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass — died this week in Los Angeles. He was 88.
Many of today’s online art gallery submissions are photos.
They’re (as always) gorgeous. As always too, they circle the globe.
But let’s not slack off, all of you who work in other mediums!
Watercolors, oils, charcoal, pen-and-ink, acrylics, lithographs, collages, macramé, jewelry, sculpture, decoupage, needlepoint — whatever you’ve got, email it to 06880blog@gmail.com. Share your work with the world! (PS: Please include the medium you’re working in — art lovers want to know.)
Age, level of experience, subject matter — there are no restrictions. Everyone is invited to contribute.
“Poppy” (Ken Runkel)
“Sailing in My Dreams” (Tom Doran)
“The Whaleship Charles W. Morgan Returns Home” (Peter Barlow)
“Sunflower in a Sunflower” (Linda Doyle)
“Bee All That You Can Be!” Photographer Bonnie Scott Connolly took this image of a cone flower (echinacea) at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.
Untitled (June Rose Whittaker)
“Wyoming” (Rowene Weems)
“It Is So Hot The Trees Are Melting” — western US (Mike Hibbard)
Untitled — swan family on the Lieutenant River estuary, Old Lyme (Susan Lloyd)
“The Hat” (Karen Weingarten)
Untitled — artist Eric Bosch explains, “Every 5 years, the Babson side of my family (200+) gathera at the Babson museum in Rockport, Massachusetts. The organizers requested art, so I did this painting for the occasion earlier this month. The Babsons got off the Mayflower and built a stone cooperage to make oak barrels. The center portion of my painting remains to this day.”
“A Brown Sheep.” Artist Steve Stein explains, “Sheep can be domestic or wild. Their colors range from pure white to spotted, piebald and dark chocolate, depending on a gene that controls melanin.”
“Flat Out” (Lawrence Weisman)
(Entrance is free to our online art gallery. But please consider a donation! Just click here — and thank you!)
They sponsor the mammoth New York City Marathon — and dozens of other races, nearly every weekend throughout the year.
Their 77,000 members include 42 from Westport. CEO Rob Simmelkjaer is a Westporter; so is director of safety and medical logistics Nicole Donovan.
Rob Simmelkjaer (Photo/Benjamin Norris for New York Times)
But since its founding in 1958, NYRR has never done anything in Connecticut.
Next month, that changes.
The club has partnered with the Westport Weston Family YMCA to offer group training.
The program — begun in New York in 2016 — offers coaching, camaraderie and inspiration to runners of all levels.
The Tuesday and Thursday sessions begin September 12, and run through November 2. (NOTE: Though all ability levels are welcome, this is not for slackers. The hour-long program begins at 6:30 a.m. at the Y or near Longshore.)
One group is for runners at a 7:15 mile or faster past; the other is slower.
Each workout begins with a warm-up, and covers running technique, and workouts like intervals or tempo runs. They end with strength and flexibility.
Roberto Mandje
Roberto Mandje — a 2004 1,500-meter Olympic runner and a 7-year Road Runner training veteran — will lead the sessions.
Fleet Feet owner Dave Wright, Fleet Feet coach Jenny Day, and Ironman competitor Sarah Caputo assists Mandje.
Simmelkjaer is excited about the partnership. He’s been a Y member since he moved to Westport 10 years ago. (He sometimes runs the half-mile there, from his home.)
“I see a lot of Westport folks at the finish line of our Road Runner races,” he says. “I know people here run with us after work in New York too.
“There’s a strong running culture in Westport, thanks to Fleet Feet and people like Laddie Lawrence.
“We see people running all over town. But a lot of them run by themselves. Running with others makes a big difference. You tend to be more motivated and accountable.
“It’s very exciting for me to bring New York Road Runners here to Westport.”
(For registration and more information about the New York Road Runners group training at the Westport Y, click here.)
(If you like “06880”‘s work, you don’t have to run anywhere. Just click here to support your hyper-local blog. Thank you!)
As the Westport Inn bites the dust, and a new college football season looms, longtime “06880” reader and amateur historian Fred Cantor suggests a confluence of those 2 events for our Friday Flashback.
Fred found this fascinating ad from the October 3, 1960 Yale Daily News:
At that time the Yale football team attracted large crowds — including folks who drove up from the tri-state area.
Owners of Westport’s then brand-new “motor hotel” figured they could snag some of the traffic, on the way to and from New Haven.
Back view of the New Englander Motor Hotel. In the front, the Post Road is not visible; beyond it is an artist’s rendition of Long Island Sound, actually a couple of miles south.
The copywriter was right about both bowling (the Backiels’ Westport Lanes was a few hundred yards down the Post Road; it’s now the site of the Bevmax shopping center) and skating (a rink was nearby in the opposite direction, though it was hardly “beautiful”; it remains today, as the indoor Westport Tennis Club, behind the new Tacombi restaurant).
I’m pretty sure though that the lounge was not “famous.”
And — even allowing for less traffic then than now on the “Connecticut Turnpike” (I-95) — there’s no way to make it from Westport to the Yale Bowl in 20 minutes.
As for “Dine well!”: Westport had its share of restaurants.
Among them, right next door to the New Englander was Bob Charpentier’s Bantam:
What a menu: Steaks. Chops. Lobster. And frogs [sic] legs!
Bantam Restaurant.
A few years later, Bantam became Chubby Lane’s — Westport’s first $1 hamburger place.
Bob Charpentier opened a butcher shop across the street. He supplied the great meat for those great Chubby’s burgers.
Charpentier’s Butcher Shop is now Border Grille.
And the Bantam/Chubby Lane’s/Ocean House (and other restaurants)?
Today it’s the site of Willows Pediatrics.
(If you enjoy our Friday Flashback feature, please consider a contribution to “06880.” Any amount — in 1960 or 2023 dollars — is welcome! Just click here. Thank you!)
The on-scene investigation of the “untimely death” of a 56-year-old woman — found yesterday at 11 a.m. — was completed at 12:45 this morning by the Westport Police Detective Bureau, assisted by the Connecticut State Police Major Crime unit. The investigation remains active.
The woman was identified as Jennifer Lindstrom, of 3 Oak Ridge Park. Westport Police responded to the residence after a housekeeper found her unresponsive at the bottom of a staircase leading to the basement.
Among the hidden-in-plain-sight treasures of Westport: Frazier Forman Peters houses.
Between 1924 and 1936, the architect designed and built over 40 distinctive stone homes in Westport (and more in surrounding towns).
On November 5 Histoury — a non-profit dedicated to significant buildings — offers a bus tour of 20 Frazier Forman Peters houses. Experts will offer commentary on their designs and histories. Several interior tours will be included.
Tickets are $75 for adults, $49 for students. Click here to purchase. For more information on Frazier Forman Peters, click here.
A Frazier Forman Peters house on Riverview Road with fieldstone facades, slate roof and copper gutters.
Here’s our first Halloween-related story of the year. (No, it is not Dunkin’s pumpkin lineup — although it is already available.)
This is about CLASP‘s “Rockin’ Halloween Bash.” Set for October 20 (Fairfield Theatre Company), it features lite bits from Little Pub, and live music from Band Central — the popular group made up of clients at the organization providing group homes and other services for people with autism and intellectual disabilities.
The 6th annual Westport Library event — the largest literary event in Connecticut — has just secured Stephen Graham Jones as moderator for the keynote conversation with Neil Gaiman.
Tickets are available starting at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, August 22. Click here to order. The event is free, but seats are limited.
In addition, Eric LaRocca will cap a full day of Saturday events with a staged reading of his new play, “Gentle Hacksaw.”
Tickets for LaRocca are $20, and are available now. They include a reception with StoryFest authors, small bites and a cash bar.
From left: Stephen Graham Jones, Neil Gaiman, Eric LaRocca.
A bit earlier than October — Sunday, August 27 — MoCA sponsors “Kaleidoscope,” a 1-day exhibition featuring works from MoCA Gives Back Healing Arts, as well as Camp MoCA Westport participants. Food trucks will be on site.
Oliver Bub is rowing his boat — all the way to Serbia.
Or at least, in the Balkan country.
The Staples High School 2014 Biology Student of the Year is part of the men’s eight team that will represent the US at the World Rowing Championships next month in Belgrade. He was an alternate on last year’s squad.
The 6-6, 205-pound Dartmouth College graduate was Saugatuck Rowing Club’s 2015 Most Valuable Oarsman. He lives now in Oakland, and rows for the California Rowing Club. (Hat tip: Lisa Marriott)
“Monarchs in Motion” — a free September 7 (6 p.m.) event at Earthplace — does not refer to King Charles’ recent ascension to the throne.
It’s about “understanding how insect movement and dispersal ecology informs conservation planning.” Speaker Dr. Kelsey Fisher is an “insect movement ecologist.”
There is space for 100 people. Click here to register, and for more information.
Earlier this month, the Westport Sunrise Rotary Club honored 34 members with Paul Harris Society awards.
They’re presented to Rotarians who give $1,000 to the Rotary Foundation. New fellows include Holly McCarthy, Mike Hibbard, Gail Lavielle, Jeff Cohen, Helen Garten, Anil Nair, Liz Wong, Tim Wetmore, Jacquie Masumian, Karen Klein, Jen Tooker, Bruce Paul, Ron Holtz, Yvonne Senturia and Barbara Levy.
Those honored for donating $2,000 were Tom Ayres, Jane Ross, Linda Bruce, Eileen Flug, George Masumian, Mark Mathias and Carole Rubenstein.
Donors at the $3,000 level were Bill Harmer, Ann Lloyd, Steve Violette, Joe Renzulli and Arnold K. Wolgast.
Sheilan Keenan contributed $4,000; Hal Levy and Rick Jaffe gave $5,000; Bob Galan, $6,000; Brian Strong and Arlo Ellison, $8,000, and — topping the Paul Harris Society list — Eric Zielinski and Martin Burger, at $9,000.
Tessie DeMattia — a chef who worked for over 40 years with her brother Frank DeMace, the founder of Mario’s Place — died Tuesday.
Tessie is survived by her daughter, Linda Voulgarakis (John) of West Haven; son James of Dummerston, Vermont; grandchildren Dawn Blinn, Libby Mazzella, David Aronson, Nikki Voulgarakis and Harry Voulgarakis, and 4 great-grandchildren.
In addition to her husband Liberty Michael DeMattia, she was predeceased by her daughter Sandra Blinn; siblings Dominick, Frank, Michael and Joseph DeMace and Marie Wallacem and granddaughter Jacqueline Perez.
A funeral service will be tomorrow (Friday, August 18, 11 a.m., Shaughnessey Banks Funeral Home, Fairfield). Friends may greet her family one hour prior to the service. Interment will follow in Oak Lawn Cemetery.
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