Everyone* complains about traffic, pedestrian and bicycle safety.
Someone is listening.
Actually, several someones.
Every Thursday this spring, there’s a public meeting at Town Hall. Members of the Police, Public Works and Planning & Zoning Departments set up a mic, then listen as the public provides input about the worst spots, and (sometimes) suggests fixes.
The meetings are organized by RTM district, so the focus is hyperlocal.
This past Thursday, I went to my own District 9 meeting. 1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker and Police Chief Foti Koskinas were in the audience, along with our 4 Representative Town Meeting members.
RTM District 9 member Kristin Schneeman addressed the traffic and safety meeting. In the row next to her are fellow RTM reps Nancy Kail, Lori Church and Sal Liccione.
With the Post Road, Route 136 and 33, several major roads and the Saugatuck River crisscrossing our district, we have special challenges.**
Residents described issues with traffic lights, lack of sidewalks (North Compo), speeding drivers (and boaters), noise, and not enough police enforcement
As each speaker mentioned an area, Google Street View showed the problem on a big screen.
When a speaker mentioned safety issues on North Compo Road, members of the Police, Public Works and Planning & Zoning Departments listened — and looked.
Solutions are not easy. Many District 9 roads — and others throughout Westport — are controlled by the state. Something as simple signage and changing traffic light cycles takes time; adding sidewalks involves taking private property and knocking down retaining walls. Town and state funds are limited.
But town officials were attentive. They took notes. They answered questions.
And — when possible — they offered immediate solutions. If vegetations obscures a sign or inhibits sight lines, for example, call Police or Public Works. They’ll take care of it.
“Thanks for active listening,” one District 9 resident said. Her neighbors nodded in agreement.
Three meetings remain. All begin at 7 p.m., in the Town Hall auditorium. Click here for a map of RTM districts.
District 2: May 5
District 3: May 12
District 5: May 19
*Including some of the worst offenders.
** I know, I know. Every other RTM district is special too.
The Great Duck Race returns this year. But — just as ducks migrate — so does the popular Westport Sunrise Rotary fundraiser.
From 2008 to ’19, thousands of yellow ducks bobbed in the Saugatuck River. COVID forced it into a virtual format the past 2 years.
On July 9, the Great Duck Race will be run as a giant water sluice on Jesup Green. Tomorrow (Sunday, May 1), the Rotarians will see how it works as a duck race track. AJ Penna is providing a truck and front loader. Water comes from the Westport Fire Department.
Everyone is invited to watch tomorrow. “Ducks” in full costume will pose for photos.
Also on Jesup Green: The Westport Library Book Sale.
It opened yesterday, with the usual packed crowd. It continues today (Saturday, April 30) until 5 p.m. Tomorrow (Sunday, May 1, noon to 5 p.m.) all items are half price. On Monday (May 2, 9 a.m. to noon), fill a bag for $5, or purchase individual items for half-price.
The Westport Library Book Sale yesterday. (Photo/Dan Woog)
Kindness is always on the Porch menu. Everyone feels comfortable at the Cross Highway café.
Tomorrow through May 15, they’re running a “Kids Kindness Contest.” Everyone in grades K-12 is invited to share a story of how they are kind to friends, strangers or within the community.
The K-2nd grade and 3rd-5th grade winners each earn an ice cream social with 9 friends. The middle and high school winners each get a fun lunch with 3 friends.
Forms are available at the Porch, or by clicking here.
Want to surprise the woman in your life the day before Mothers Day?
Take her to “Supper & Soul” next Saturday (May 7).
It’s a great event, with lots of reasons she’ll be thrilled. The 8 p.m. concert — remember live concerts? — features Cris Jacobs. He’s back in Westport, after a searing show at the 2018 Blues Views & BBQ Festival. The opening act is Gnorm.
The show is at the Westport Library, where the new, state-of-the-art sound system will blow you away.
Tickets ($90) include a 3-course dinner at a downtown restaurant (6 p.m.; list below), including tax and tip (though drinks are on you). $40 concert-only tickets are available too.
Participating restaurants include:
190 Main
Amis
Arezzo
Basso
Capuli
De Tapas
Don Memo
Manna Toast
Spotted Horse
Wafu
Walrus Alley
And … after the show, your ticket is good for happy hour pricing on drinks at any of the participating restaurant. Try a different one than dinner!
Click here for tickets and more information. Click below to see Cris Jacobs. The event is sponsored by the Westport Weston Chamber of Commerce, and the Westport Library.
There may be no free lunch. But there was a free sapling giveaway yesterday.
Dozens of Westporters took advantage of the Arbor Day gift at Town Hall, courtesy of the Tree Board.
Residents Robert Sohmer and Debbie Fisher showed up — then offered to help. They’re shown in the photo below, as Tree Board members Alice Ely and Monica Buesser prep saplings.
Speaking of nature: Recent reports of the Fresh Market ospreys’ demise are premature.
Carolyn Doan reports: “All is well with the pair. They are incubating now, which means they sit very low in the nest and are impossible to see.
“They are really a really strong pair, and are co-parenting. They give each other breaks while one is in the incubating position. They call out to each other when one needs a break or is hungry.
“Yesterday I watched the female sit at the top of a dead tree behind Terrain. and preen herself for 45 minutes. After faint calls from the nest, she went back. Then the male popped up. He went to a nearby perch and preened.
“The ospreys returned a week early this year, so chicks may come sooner than usual.”
A Fresh Market osprey, yesterday afternoon. (Photo/Carolyn Doan)
29 Staples High School students and 6 adults returned recently from 10 days in Spain. It was the first overseas trip for a large group in a decade.
The packed itinerary included visits to Granada, Cordoba, Seville, Madrid and Barcelona. Highlights included Alhambra, scavenger hunts in cities, an olive farm, guided city tours, a flamenco lesson and show, the Prado Museum, a churro breakfast and cooking class, Sagrada Familia, Las Ramblas, a Good Friday religious procession, and the first women’s soccer match ever played at Camp Nou — with a crowd of 91,000.
Future trips planned by Staples’ World Language Department include Germany next spring, and a February journey to Panama focusing on STEM topics.
Cheering for the Barcelona women’s team at Camp Nou.
Services have been announced for Charlie Capalbo. The former Fairfield Ludlowe High hockey player battled 4 cancers before succumbing last week, one month before his 24th birthday. He is the grandson of Westporters Richard Epstein and Ina Chadwick; his mother Jennifer Wilde Capalbo is a Staples High grad.
Charlie’s wake is Wednesday, May 4 (2 to 8 p.m., Penfield Pavilion, 323 Fairfield Beach Road, Fairfield). A funeral mass is set for Thursday, May 5 (10 a.m., St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, 1719 Post Road, Fairfield). Burial will be private.
Today’s New York Times carries one of its most harrowing stories ever on the war in Ukraine. It begins:
The wind carried the smell of death across the street. The body of the dead man, burned, mutilated and barely recognizable, was taken from the refrigerator and laid on a metal gurney. The coroner smoked a cigarette and unzipped the black bag.
It was a beautiful spring day. There had been no shelling that morning. And Oksana Pokhodenko, 34, gasped, blinking, at the charred corpse. That was not her brother, she told herself, that was not Oleksandr. That was barely a human.
Her brother lived once. The family patriarch for 20 years since their father died, he called his sister every day after the war started as he fled with his family to a village, Husarivka, wedged between rolling wheat fields. He kept calling — “Hello, Little One. We’re good. How are you?” — but never mentioned that the Russians had overrun the village where he was hiding.
Ms. Pokhodenko, in black jeans, a black jacket and barely laced sneakers, struggled to keep looking at the body. Her brother had taught her how to ride a bike and had loved to watch cartoons for hours with his son. To his sister, he was a “stone wall.” This was a charred husk. Half of the man’s skull was gone, and his chest cavity was splayed open.
The photos are as chilling as the writing. They’re all by Tyler Hicks, the 1988 Staples High School graduate and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. Click here for the full story, and Tyler’s images.
Some of Tyler Hicks’ latest photos, illustrating atrocities in committed in Ukraine. (Photos/Tyler Hicks for the New York Times)
And finally … on this day in 1803, the US purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. We spent $15 million — and more than doubled the size of our nation.
Mothers Day is a week from tomorrow. Get shopping!
Ellin Spadone gets a jump on the holiday, with her contribution to today’s online art gallery. After shopping, all you painters, photographers and other artists can get cracking on a contribution to next week’s gallery.
We appreciate everyone’s submissions. This feature is open to all readers. Whatever your age and level of experience — professional or amateur, young or old. In every medium. On every topic (not just Mother’s Day).
All genres are encouraged. Watercolors, oils, charcoal, pen-and-ink, acrylics, lithographs, macramé, jewelry, sculpture, decoupage and (yes) needlepoint — whatever you’ve got, email it to dwoog@optonline.net. Share your work with the world!
I am a Ukrainian, American, Odessian and Westporter, all at the same time. This is my story.
My family left our home in Odessa and came to United States about 2 years ago. Back in Ukraine my husband had an office job as a tariff broker. I was raising our 2 sons, preparing to return to my career in telecommunications.
We thought we had a good life, but we also had a feel it could be over. It was scary to leave all behind and come to the US, but we did it for our boys, for the future, for a better life. We embraced the American dream so many seek.
Olga and her sons.
We arrived in the US in the middle of the COVID pandemic with no language, jobs, or home of our own. Even though it has not been an easy journey, we were incredibly grateful to begin a new life in such a diverse and compassionate community as Westport.
Olgla and her husband, in the US.
Within a week my husband joined a construction crew, even though he had no idea how to handle tools. I have been helping our boys with the cultural transition and learning English. Not long ago, I began babysitting to contribute to our family income.
As challenging as it has been for us, we struggled to accept that our home, Ukraine, would be engulfed in war soon after our departure. Our families have been forced to leave their homes and communities, and lost all sense of safety and security. Their children live in constant fear and confusion. We have been trying to help them any way we could.
As if navigating these events weren’t enough, on April 23 we found ourselves staring at our own home in Odessa being televised on fire, and posted on every social media platform. It was destroyed when an errant missile slammed into the side of our apartment building.
One view of the bombed apartment building in Odessa …
You may have seen the news that a little baby girl and her family died in that building. They were our neighbors.
More people died who the news did not cover. Even more are out of their homes. Close to 200 people don’t have a place to live.
… and another.
Our hearts are breaking for our neighbors whose lives were lost or changed, and for the reality of homelessness for our nephew and his girlfriend who miraculously escaped.
We consider ourselves lucky to be here and alive, and desperately want to help in any way we can. But we have very limited resources. With humility, we ask you to please consider donating anything you can. This money will go directly to the families of the victims, and toward rebuilding a place we used to call our home.
Thursday, July 21 is the day for our annual “06880” blog party.
It’s fun. It’s social. It’s chill.
Longtime resident or newcomer; old or young; frequent commenter or lurker — all are welcome.
Meet neighbors and strangers; politicians and normal people. Put faces to names you’ve only read about. And do it all at a place dear to every “06880” resident’s heart: Compo Beach’s South Beach, near the kayak launch.
Westperters have long known and loved Popup Bagels — well, at least since 2020, when our neighbor Adam Goldberg took advantage of COVID downtime, his love of baking and his creativity to come up with what some argue is the Best. Bagel. Ever.
Compact, crusty and generously coated with seeds, they draw raves wherever they’re sold. But they’re sold only in pop-up — that is, pickup — locations.
I may have been the first media outlet to write about Popup Bagels. Since then, he’s expanded to Redding and Greenwich.
And, occasionally, New York.
Traditionally hard-to-please bagel lovers there have embraced Adam’s creations. So has Brooklyn BagelFest, where he won the People’s Choice award. It was a stunning victory for a Fairfield County upstart.
Now comes another prize: a writeup in the New York Times. Today’s Food section contains a mouth-watering review (and photos).
Click here for the full story. Click here for the website to order — but good luck with that.
You shoulda thought of it sooner. (Hat tip: Sharon Fiarman)
A few of Adam Goldberg’s many bagels. (Photo/Jen Goldberg)
The closing of Church Lane to vehicles has brought excitement — and outdoor dining — to that small street downtown.
But with no dinner menu, Manna Toast could not capitalize on the fun.
Now they can. The restaurant — whose loyal customers love its plant-based, non-GMO, artisanal, organic, locally-sourced eat-in, takeout and delivery menu — has added “Manna at Night.”
Available at heated tables and indoors until 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays (with more days to come soon), chef Jason Wiener offers shared plates (the roasted brussels with gingery soy and cashew coconut crunch is great), bowls (ditto the Thai curry), sliders and desserts, along with cocktails, wine and beer.
Manna Toast has rolled out the dinner options quietly, working out the kinks while maintaining the café and caterers’ high quality.
Now the word is out: Manna is much more than breakfast, lunch and toast.
(Manna Toast is open Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Click here for more information.)
The last time I posted a story about a musician asking for help in the Stop & Shop parking lot, I learned it was a scam.
This one seems more legit. But I can’t vouch for sure.
Nn “06880” reader (and shopper) writes: “I came out of Stop & Shop, and heard the most beautiful music. This family moved here from Romania 6 months ago, and are living out of their car.
“They said they are connected with Family & Children’s Agency (their English was not great, so I think that is what he said). The father (playing/pictured here) was an electrician in Romania, but said he can/will do any kind of work. He learned to play music from his grandmother.”
Rockwell Dance Center in Trumbull got to know Charlie Capalbo through his cousin Harrison, who danced there.
Every year, RDC organizes a benefit concert. Charlie — the Fairfield Ludlowe High School graduate/hockey goalie, and grandson of Westporters Ina Chadwick and Richard Epstein — was battling cancer for the 4th time.
When RDC asked Charlie if they could do this year’s concert in his honor, he said yes — provided the proceeds went to 2 local pediatric cancer charities that helped him and his family. He chose Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer, and LIVFREE.
Charlie died last week, a month before his 24th birthday. The concert — this Saturday (April 30, 7 p.m., Trumbull High School) — will celebrate his life.
The dance community and hockey community will come together for Charlie. The Fairfield Co-op, Fairfield Prep, Trumbull High and St. Joseph hockey teams will open the concert with a “stick tap for Charlie.”
The concert includes song and dance. Tickets are $20, and are available at the door (cash, check or Venmo), or through Venmo now (@theparkerproject).
MoCA Westport’s Family Day will have something for everyone.
Even the world-famous Piglet.
The June 18 event (noon to 2 p.m.) features the blind, deaf pink puppy of that name. He’s inspired a global movement for acceptance, inclusion, empathy and kindness. Veterinarian Melissa Shapiro — author and co-creator of “The Piglet Mindset” — will share his story, and talk about her new children’s book “Piglet Comes Home.”
The day also includes healing art activities, mural painting, music by Dustin Lowman, an ice cream truck, meet-and-greet with dogs from Westport Animal Shelter Advocates, homemade doggy treats from Earth Animal, and free admission to the exhibit of Westport student artwork. Click here for tickets.
Posted onApril 29, 2022|Comments Off on Good Vs. Evil: Staples Students Decide
March Madness was so last month. The other day, Staples High School crowned a winner in its annual Book Bracket tournament.
Modeled on the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball events — but without the betting — it’s a chance for students and staff to weigh in on their literary favorites.
They vote for each round. Winners advance, their progress tracked on large posters and email updates from organizer Katherine Hocking of the English Department.
Every year there’s a theme. Two of the most popular: Favorite Book Ever (To Kill a Mockingbird was the champ) and Best Book to Movie Adaptation (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone).
This year’s theme: Literary Heroes and Villains. Jenn Cirino, Nicole Moeller and the library staff created a bulletin board display near the cafeteria with QR codes to vote.
Among the most interesting matchups: in the Heroes bracket, #13 Odysseus vs. #20 Matilda; #5 Atticus Finch vs. #28 Harry Potter. On the Villains side: #3 Sauron vs. #30 Pennywise, and #14 Hannibal Lecter vs. #19 Lady Macbeth.
Would good triumph over evil? Or were villains more fun to root for?
And the winner is ……………..
……….. Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games) prevailed over Lord Voldemort (Harry Potter). The “girl on fire” won handily, 78-38.
Score one for the good guys!
Katniss Everdeen: Book Bracket champion!
Comments Off on Good Vs. Evil: Staples Students Decide
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