As of last Friday, the percentage of Westporters receiving at least the first COVID-19 vaccination dose is:
Age 65+: 93%
Ages 45-64: 83%
Ages 15-44: 50%
These vaccination statistics are encouraging. It is recommended that all residents who have not received the vaccine do so as soon as possible. Click here to find a provider near you, and book an appointment. To register for an appointment via telephone, call 877-918-2224.
Given the success of Connecticut’s vaccine rollout, Governor Lamont recently announced significant easing of COVID restrictions.
Effective May 1, all restaurants will be allowed to remain open until midnight. Beverage-only service outdoors will be permissible, and the 8-person limit on outdoor dining will be lifted.
Effective May 19, all remaining gathering restrictions will be lifted; however, masks will continue to be required in all indoor public settings where social distancing is not possible.
Westport municipal buildings remain open to the public by appointment. Residents are encouraged to continue accessing town services online. Members of the public may also schedule appointments for in-person meetings or other services that require additional assistance.
Residents can make appointments for Town Hall business. (Drone photo/Brandon Malin)
Governor Lamont’s declaration for remote public meetings remains in effect through May 20. Town officials are monitoring changes to the declaration, and legislation that might allow in-person “hybrid meetings” (with both in-person and remote participation). In the meantime, public meetings will continue to be conducted via Zoom.
Planning continues for opening or expanding town amenities and activities:
The Senior Center and Toquet Hall are planning for possible outdoor and limited indoor programming in late spring or early summer.
As of May 1, parking emblems will be required on all vehicles to enter Compo and Old Mill Beach parking lots, and on May 29 for Burying Hill Beach. Parking emblem purchases must be made online at www.westportrecreation.com. Daily parking for non-residents will be allowed this summer at Compo Beach and Burying Hill Beach. Visit www.westportrecreation.com for daily parking rates.
The Parks & Recreation Department and Selectman’s Office continue to plan for a Memorial Day parade. July 4th fireworks are still under consideration, pending further guidance from the state.
Bill Vornkahl looks forward to a 2021 Memorial Day parade. (Photo/Carmine Picarello)
The Parks and Recreation Department is preparing to open its facilities, and plans to offer programs not available last summer due to COVID.
Longshore golf course is open for play, as are several tennis locations. The Compo Beach pickleball courts, skatepark facility, platform tennis, Compo basketball courts and playgrounds are open as well.
The Board of Selectmen approved the closure of Church Lane, for expanded outdoor dining.
The Levitt Pavilion is planning its season, to be held in compliance with COVID considerations related to outdoor venues.
Today, Progressive Diagnostics opened a same-day public testing site at the Saugatuck railroad station parking loto adjacent to Exit 17 on Saugatuck Avenue. Services are available weekdays (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and Saturdays (8 a.m. to 1 p.m.).
Plans for townwide reopening and a “return to normal” are encouraging, but we should be cautiously optimistic. According to the state Department of Public Health, 122 municipalities out of 169 (including Westport) remain in the highest COVID alert level (red). This is cause for concern, though more recent daily statistics indicate a downward curve in the spread.
It is also important to understand that being vaccinated does not prevent individuals from being COVID positive and transmitting the virus. Ccontinue to remain informed, and balance COVID safety with personal priorities for physical and mental well-being. This includes being empathetic to those around you, and the individual choices they make.
I encourage those who are vaccinated to be respectful of those who are not, or have differing opinions about the current guidelines and status of the pandemic. Westport town officials will continue to follow and employ science experts’ advice and guidance, so that all in our community will be safe and healthy.
Despite rising vaccination rates, masks continue to be important.
As Main Street enjoys a renaissance — gelato shops! Sundance! something to replace Banana Republic and Bobby Q’s! — it’s worth looking back at what our main downtown drag used to look like.
No, not half a century ago, with stores like Selective Eye, the African Room and Mark’s Place. I’m talking the turn of the century. Last century.
This 1901 Sanborn map was posted to social media by William Weiss. It describes what types of stores were where, as the 20th century began.
On the west side of Main Street — where the Saugatuck River lapped up against the backs of shops — there were a couple of laundries, several “meat” places, a paint shop, drug store, bakery, cobbler, flour and feed story, lumber store, and an enormous coal yard.
The east side of Main Street included a barber, tailor, and more butchers and grocery stores.
And that’s just in the block between the Post Road (State Street) and Elm Street. (Just like today though, a few storefronts sat vacant.)
Click on or hover over to enlarge.
The Riverside Inn was aptly named. It sat right on the river, about where Starbucks is now.
Across Main Street was the Westport Hotel (misspelled on the map). Two decades later that became the YMCA; today it’s Anthropologie.
The primary occupant of Church Lane was a horse shed. That later became a fire station. Now it’s Bedford Square.
Anyone predictions of what a Sanborn map of downtown Westport in, say, 2101 would look like?
Last night, the Planning & Zoning Commission approved new regulations regarding accessory apartments (units in a principal dwelling) and “accessory dwelling units” (those in attached structures).
As “06880” reported earlier this month, the new rules will open up our housing stock. They could add a small number of affordable housing units, and provide added income for residents going through life changes — the loss of a job, say, or divorce, or those whose children have moved away and who want to move into a smaller place on their own property, while renting out their larger home.
Also last night, Neil Cohn moved from alternate to full member of the P&Z, He replaces Greg Rutstein, who resigned Wednesday due to increased business responsibilities in a new job. Both are Democrats.
Rutstein praised chair Danielle Dobin, his fellow commissioners and Planning & Zoning Department head Mary Young. Noting that the board faces many important decisions, he said, “I want to make sure that I allow others who have the time to carefully consider these issues to serve the town that I love so dearly.”
Dobin said, “In 3 short years, Greg has had a meaningful impact on Westport. He worked tirelessly to make the P&Z more efficient — cutting through red tape, and saving residents and businesses time and fees. His insightful questions, positive energy and good humor will be deeply missed by all of us.
“We warmly welcome Neil Cohn, one of our longstanding alternate commissioners in Greg’s place. Through his work chairing the Economic Growth Subcommittee, which he founded, Neil is playing an integral part in ensuring P&Z regulations promote a vibrant Westport.”
Westport men and women can shop for CBD at 2 downtown stores literally around the corner from each other.
But what about man’s best friend?
We got that too.
Local resident Joseph Sequenzia just launched an all-natural hemp-derived CBD dog treat. YUP PUP is part of a growing interest in pet wellness. The CEO says that dogs experience anxiety relief from CBD — a chemical compound in cannabis — along with health benefits like joint pain, digestion and healthy coats.
His mission is to “treat our pets to the same health and happiness they treat us to,” Sequenzia says. YUP PUP comes in Tasty Bacon Treats, Peanut Butter Bites and Savory Salmon Snacks. For more information, click here.
Joseph Sequenzia and his family — including dogs Wally and Otto.
Yesterday was Earth Day. But New England Kelp Harvest Week runs all the way through Sunday.
Local restaurants and shops from Greenwich to Westerly, Rhode Island are participating in the first-ever event celebrating our region’s most sustainable crop: sugar kelp.
Kelp requires no fertilizers or fresh water to grow, and absorbs carbon trapped in the sea. Westporters can support local farms and restaurants, and fight climate change — all in one meal.
Food and beverages featuring kelp are available at The Whelk, Kawa Ni, OKO, Don Memo and The Cottage. To experiment in your own kitchen, buy local dried kelp at Fjord Fish Market.
The festival’s Instagram account offers food and beverage ideas, and information about kelp. Click here for a list of all participating restaurants, breweries, cafes and shops. Click here for links to virtual events. (Hat tip: Craig D.B. Patton)
Ospreys love Westport. But for years, the platform to the right of the Burying Hill Beach entrance road has been vacant. It’s been speculated that it is too low for ospreys’ tastes.
But at least one pair thinks it’s fine. The platform in the New Creek saltmarsh was busy yesterday, with new occupants building their nest.
Perhaps — like other newcomers to town — they realized that in a tight real estate market, sometimes you have to grab whatever property is available.
For decades, Walter and Naiad Einsel painted in their Victorian farmhouse, across from Greens Farms Elementary School. Two of Westport’s most noted artists, they documented their nearly 5-decade romance with clever “Art from the Heart” valentines.
Long ago, in 1947 — 6 years before they married – Walter painted Naiad’s portrait.
Bob and Karen Weingarten bought the painting in 2016. It hung in their Greens Farms home. Now they’ve donated it to the Westport Public Art Collections.
WestPAC works hang all over town. Perhaps this one is destined for Greens Farms El.
Westport resident Anne Boberski recently completed a video project for the Housatonic Museum of Art.
Available online, “See, Think, Wonder: Bridgeport” includes four 25-minute video episodes and a printable Teacher Toolkit. It’s designed to support curriculum in grades 5-8. Students examine maps, seals, artifacts and architecture, meet community leaders, and learn that history is local.
The art museum is on the Housatonic Community College campus. But anyone can click here to see “See, Think, Wonder: Bridgeport.”
And finally … today in 1985, Coca-Cola changed its formula. The reaction to New Coke was swift, strong, and overwhelmingly negative. The original formula returned less than 3 months later.
Social distancing, capacity limits and masks are on tap for the upcoming Levitt Pavilion season.
So is Bruce Hornsby.
For 45 years, the downtown complex offered over 50 nights of free entertainment a year. Funding comes primarily from sponsors, and one or two big-name ticketed concerts.
COVID knocked out last summer’s schedule. But the Levitt plans to be back this year. Schedules and precise policies will be announced on a rolling basis.
For now, here’s an event you can pencil in (and buy tickets for): Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers. The show is set for Monday, June 14 (7:30 p.m.).
The Noisemakers are the pianist’s newest group. He’s been a major figure on the music scene since 1986, when his band The Range’s “The Way It Is” went multi-platinum.
Bruce Hornsby (2nd from left) and the Noisemakers.
Since then Hornsby played keyboard for the Grateful Dead, wrote music for Spike Lee, and recorded jazz, bluegrass and contemporary classical music albums.
Tickets go on sale at noon on April 30, at the Levitt Pavilion website. They’ll be sold in pods of 2, 4 and 6.
Posted onApril 23, 2021|Comments Off on Nola Speaks. Her Clients Do Too.
Nola Beldegreen was a champion college forensics team member. “I won trophies for public speaking the way other people competed in tennis,” she says.
But not until she took a Dale Carnegie course — while working for Glamour magazine — did she really learn to speak for herself.
She became a Carnegie instructor. It was still her avocation — by now she was in sales, traveling the globe for Gourmet magazine — but Nola realized the importance of the spoken word in business.
Nola Beldegreen
After she left Conde Nast to raise her 2 daughters, Westport neighbors recognized her talents. She helped them prepare for wedding toasts, job interviews, and any other type of public speaking.
She’s turned that into a business. Nola works with executives and students, in areas like talking points, presence, delivery, messaging through inflection, intonation, pauses, tone and nonverbal language.
Specifically, Nola covers areas like using stories to inspire, leave voicemails that sound professional, lead without sounding “bossy,” remember people’s names, and speak with certainty.
She helps them listen better too. “When you listen well, you know what you’re going to say next,” she notes.
Nola worked with an executive whose mind went blank when she was asked spontaneous questions, a high school student whose mother worried that his avoidance of eye contact — and lack of personality — would hurt him in college interviews, and shy people, who want to become better conversationalists. With everyone, the key is to find a speaking style that’s right for them.
During the pandemic she shifted from personal sessions that taught clients how to feel comfortable in face-to-face meetings, to Zoom sessions that taught them how to feel comfortable Zooming.
Nola worked with people who had lost jobs, and now had to interview without picking up on the verbal cues and body language they’d always been used to.
Many of her clients are young. College students, and those just starting out in the business world, often lack the conversational skills of previous generations.
“The text world is so different from other conversations,” Nola points out. “They need to know how to organize their thoughts and ideas, before they go into a meeting.”
Young people often need to learn conversational skills.
Her goal is to give clients confidence and strength in their presence and speaking skills. It’s the same, she says, as gaining strength at the gym.
She usually spends 6 hour-long sessions with clients. That’s a lot less time than it takes to get physically fit.
And you don’t even need to shower.
(For more information click here, email nola@nolabeldegreen.com, or call 212-381-0856. Hat tip: Susan Wexler)
A year after Elvira’s reopened as Joey’s By the Shore — Featuring Elvira Mae’s Coffee Bar,” there’s more news from Old Mill/Compo’s favorite food spot.
The building is for sale. But Joey Romeo and Betsy Kravitz are not going anywhere. They’re keeping the business just as is — with great eats, an ordering window and a beachy vibe, 7 days a week from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. A long-term lease protects the business.
That’s the good great news. Now if only we had some good news about that long-halted home construction project on the site of the former Positano restaurant, a few yards diagonally across the street …
Betsy Kravitz and Joey Romeo, ready for another season.
Both myTeam Triumph-CT and Remarkable Theater support the special needs community.
It’s no wonder they’re partnering for mTT’s “Spring Into Action” season-opening event. On Saturday, May 1 (gates open at 6:30 p.m.; movie at 7:30), myTeam Triumph sponsors a showing of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” — the Marvel adventure film — at the downtown drive-in.
It’s not just that the Remarkable Theater employs people with disabilities for screenings at the Imperial Avenue lot. Or that myTeam Triump pairs children, teens, adults and veterans with disabilities with volunteers, who join them in triathlons and road races.
The volunteers are called “angels.” The special needs participants are called … “captains.” So the May 1 film is very fitting.
All proceeds from the event will be shared by Remarkable Theater and myTeam Triumph-CT.
For more information and to buy tickets, click here. To learn more and volunteer with mTT (you don’t have to be an athlete!), click here. To donate, click here.
Starting tomorrow, there’s another COVID testing center in town.
Progressive Diagnostics opens at 8 a.m. in Saugatuck railroad station parking lot #8. That’s the one off Saugatuck Avenue, between I-95 and the Exit 17 entrance/ exit ramp. They promise same-day PCR and antibody test results.
Weekday hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Looking for a special Mother’s Day gift? Head to the farm!
Wakeman Town Farm offers spring arrangements, through Hedge Floral. Options include a garden bouquet in twig-wrapped vessel ($95) and posies in upcycled tin cans ($30).
Hedge designs each arrangement with the best of what’s available in early May. That probably means Queen Anne’s lace, mustard, lilac, pieris, euonymus, viburnum, azalea, honeysuckle and spirea.
Click here to order. Deadline is noon on May 5. Pick-up is Saturday, May 8, 10 a.m. to noon at WTF.
And finally … Jim Steinman died Monday in Danbury. He was 73, and had been in poor health.
His New York Times obituary explains that Steinman “wrote all the songs on Bat Out of Hell, Meat Loaf’s operatic, teenage-angst-filled 1977 debut album, which remains one of the most successful records of all time.”
Meat Loaf was one of Westport’s many famous musician residents. When he wasn’t recording operatic, teenage-angst-filled songs, he played softball at Compo Beach and Greens Farms Elementary School, and coached it too.
Just another normal neighbor. (Hat tip: Adam Stolpen)
Last month hundreds of Westporters gathered in the rain, at the entrance to the Westport Weston Family YMCA. They were cheered on a very ill 6-year-old boy, whose fervent wish was to swim with his family, have a pizza party, and pet a bearded dragon.
Phoebe Nunziato was there. Her sign said simply: “You’re Amazing.”
Phoebe Nunziato
The other day, Phoebe’s father John included that cardboard sign among the recycling items he brought to the transfer station. On a whim he handed it to Gilberto, who manages the recycling stations at the Sherwood Island Connector site.
John took his photo.
Gilberto, with the recycled sign.
Gilberto kept holding the sign, as cars drove in. Drivers smiled.
This week John returned to the transfer station, with more items. He saw the sign proudly leaning against Gilberto’s booth.
Gilberto told John he puts the sign in the booth each night, and takes it out again the next morning.
It’s a bit tattered now. But, Gilberto says, it creates happiness. And the message is powerful.
“In this time of great stress, the smallest effort can bring joy — even at the transfer station,” John says.
But speaking of stress: That’s what David Meth feels when he stops by with his recyclables.
As he wrote earlier this month, he used to pick up discarded bicycles from the “metal” section. He’d take them to Cycle Dynamics, where owner Charlie Gander and his crew fixed and tuned them, then provided the like-new bikes to children through 3 Bridgeport charities.
Recently however, David has been prohibited from doing that.
Nearly 2 dozen readers responded to his story. They described transfer stations in other towns — including Darien and Redding — with designated spots for items that can be taken and fixed. The idea was met with great enthusiasm.
However, David says, there’s now a new sign:
“I understand the need for safety,” David says.
“But the suggestion in the last post was to set aside a small area for donations of items that can be reused. Why is that a problem?
“This is a small gesture of humanity for children and people who would repair and use the bicycles, as well as other things. Yet there seems no room at the transfer station for such generosity.
“And it’s not just one sign. There are two. We need a sign that says ‘Donations.'”
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