Westport’s holiday miracle — the less-than-a-week project that ensured the Cribari Bridge will be lit again this year — is nearly complete.
The start of the stringing process, last night. (Photo/Andrea Moore)
The Public Works and Fire Departments, plus AJ Penna & Sons Construction, Kevin Ancker of Riverside Mobil and a corps of volunteers, unboxed, strung and tested hundreds of bulbs last night, on the 135-year-old Saugatuck River span. The Police Department added logistical support.
(Photo/Andrew Colabella)
The new lights worked perfectly. And tonight, the town celebrates.
The test worked! (Photo/Andrea Moore)
The gala bridge lighting is set for 5 p.m. today (Monday). Everyone is invited.
Westport PAL — one of the lights’ sponsors — will have collection boxes for the toy drive they run, with the Westport Police Department. Unwrapped toys can be dropped off at the bridge, and the Bridge at Saugatuck restaurant.
The restaurant will also offer half-priced wine and beer from 5 to 8 p.m.
(Photo/Andrea Moore)
PS: Lead sponsors are The Bridge at Saugatuck, Saugatuck Financial and Neat Lending.
Other sponsors include LandTech, Westport PAL, the Colabella family, and our very own “06880” blog.
Wheels2U — Westport Transit District’s on-demand transit program offering $2 shared rides between any Westport address and the town’s 2 train stations — has announced new upgrades.
They include:
● More comfortable vehicles. The new fleet of minivans (many of them wheelchair-accessible) provides a smoother, quieter ride than previous vehicles.
● A “greener” ride. The new vehicles are significantly more fuel-efficient as well.
● Longer hours. Morning service has been expanded by half an hour, from 5:45 to 10:30 a.m. Evening service is 4 to 9:30 p.m. weekdays.
● Improved booking. Users can request rides starting at 5:30 a.m. for a pickup as early as 5:45, and as early as 3:45 p.m. for a 4:00 pickup. They can request rides as late as 10:30 a.m. or 9:30 p.m. too.
The new vehicles are already in operation. They replace the entire old fleet.
Ukraine Aid International — the boots-on-the-ground organization making a difference in that war-torn nation, founded by Westporters Brian and Marshall Mayer — is hosting a holiday celebration this Sunday (December 8, 1 to 5 p.m., Redline Restorations, 2475 Fairfield Avenue, Black Rock).
And it’s free!
The afternoon includes antique cars, plus footage from UAI’s latest missions in Ukraine.
It’s a chance to celebrate the perseverance of Ukraine, with food and drink, holiday activities, and creative kids’ crafts.
A reminder: Westport is raising $56,000, to ensure that 200 children in our sister city of Lyman can attend a therapeutic camp this winter, away from the horrors of their country’s 3-year war.
Just click here. Under “Designation,” choose “Westport-Lyman sister city” from the dropdown menu. You can also choose a monthly or one-time donation. If you use the mail or Venmo option, please make a note: “For Westport-Lyman.”
Before Halloween, our Roundup included a photo of a Bayberry Lane stop sign, at Easton Road.
A very elaborate skeleton dangled beneath the red hexagon.
Bayberry Lane at Easton Road, before Halloween. (Photo/Sandy Rothenberg)
Another holiday is near. An “06880” reader writes:
“Someone has now twice cut down my holiday decorations outside my house. The neighbors and community love it. I get compliments and even ‘thank yous’ from passersby.
“I realize that I may not be allowed to hang stuff on the sign, but making my community happy surpasses that until I’m told by someone with authority that I cannot do it.”
Are private citizens allowed to hang decorations from a stop sign? If they are — or even if they’re not — are other private citizens allowed to take them down? Stay tuned …
Buffalo Rose — the hot folk/Americana band — returns to Voices Cafe this Saturday (December 7, 8 p.m., Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Westport).
WFUV’s John Platt calls the sound of the 6-person group “intoxicating,” hailing “the combination of their tight string band rhythm and supple harmonies.”
Voices Cafe concerts offer a choice of coffee-house style seating, tables or individually. Bring your own beverages and snacks; coffee and sweet treats are available for purchase.
Voices Cafe concerts support social justice programs through the UU. Click here for tickets, and more information.
And finally … in honor of the controversial Easton Road sign, at Bayberry Lane (photo above):
(Stop what you’re doing! It takes just a few seconds to click here, and donate to “06880.” We appreciate it — and you get a tax deduction too. Thank you!)
A reminder: For Thanksgiving, “06880” wants to share some of the things you — our readers — are thankful for.
Please email 06880blog@gmail.com today. Let us know what you’re thankful for this year. (NOTE: Do not post your thanks in the Comments section; just email them to us.)
Big or small; concrete or abstract; individually or as a family; here in town or anywhere else — we want to hear from you. And please let us know whether we can use your name, or if you prefer anonymity.
We’ll post your thankful responses — with our thanks — soon.
A 1941 Saturday Evening Post cover, by Westport artist Stevan Dohanos — 83 years ago.
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A relatively new, but very fun tradition, continues: The Wakeman Town Farm holiday tree lighting takes place December 6 (4:30 p.m.).
The family event includes cookies, treats and hot chocolate courtesy of The Porch and Sweet P Bakery, and a bonfire.
The tree will be lit by 1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker and Bill Constantino, a Wakeman family member.
The tree lighting is also a chance to give back. WTF will collect “pre-loved” Legos, as a part of Sustainable Westport’s project.
There”s a collection too of unwrapped toys for the annual Al’s Angels drive. And members of Staples’ AWARE organization are raising money for women and teens in need, through a bake sale.
But 159 Main — the successor to Rye Ridge Deli, which took over from Oscar’s — posted a note on its door saying, “We are closing for a few days to carry out necessary upgrades.
“It is our priority to continue to serve you in the best possible way during this time. We will be reachable through our platforms.”
A QR code brought up a form to submit an email address. A phone number was also listed, but a call to it went unanswered.
Eric Bosch writes: “If you walk along the cement sidewalk toward the canons on Compo’s South Beach, you can now see the remnants of a very old groin/jetty coming up out of the sand.
“These are easily seen at Burying Hill Beach, where there are 3 or 4 rows of them (they stick 4-8 inches above the sand there). Beach groins help deposit sands onto the beach, preventing erosion.
“The one in this photo clearly did its job for years, as it was completely covered up until recently. My guess is that the 8.8-foot exceptionally high tides that we just experienced with the full moon exposed this when the waters receded.”
Newly exposed groin/jetty at Compo Beach. (Photo/Eric Bosch)
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Another new appearance: this rock, painted recently on Easton Road between Coleytown Road and North Avenue.
(Photo/Sandy Rothenberg)
If you know the back story, click “Comments” below. If you dont: It will remain just another Westport mystery.
Westporter Joanie Gottlieb builds, redesigns and customizes dollhouses.
Joanie Gottlieb with her farmhouse dollhouse …
… and the interior.
And similar structures.
Right now, she’s working on a commission from a Manhattan client. He wanted a townhouse — not a dollhouse — complete with a rooftop bar and lounge, oirginal paintings, and a music room with a keyboard, guitar, amps and drums.
The music room, in Joanie Gottlieb’s “townhouse.”
Each one takes 2 months to complete. For more information, email joaniegottlieb52@gmail.com. (Hat tip: Toni Simonetti)
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Longtime Westport resident Mary Becker died last Wednesday, at home. She was 95.
The New York City native attended Sarah Lawrence College. She met her future husband Lester at a resort hotel in the Catskills. They married in 1951, and moved to Westport in 1963.
After raising 2 children, Mary turned her passion for global travel into a career. She spent many years as a travel agent.
Mary was an avid and skilled knitter, creating works and gifts that were treasured by family and friends. She also had a deep love for her garden, and for music, theatre and reading. She also doted on a long line of dogs and cats, the last of which, Archie, stayed curled up on her bed through her final days.
Mary was deeply involved in her children’s lives. She was well known and loved by the many classmates and friends who came through their home over the years, and she maintained close relationships with many throughout her life.
She is survived by her husband of almost 73 years; daughter Ann Moore of New York City; son Michael (Christine) of Los Angeles; sister Eve Lubin of Los Angeles and grandson Ellis Becker of Madison, Wisconsin.
Her family says, “Mary’s life was marked by courage and compassion, and in both life and death, she faced each moment with grace and supreme bravery. Her infectious energy, positivity and joy were an inspiration to all who knew her.”
A gathering for family and friends will be held at a date to be announced. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Mary’s honor to either rhe Westport Country Playhouse or the Pet Animal Welfare Society.
Mary Becker
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As birds fly south for the winter, we see empty nests all around town.
Wasps don’t migrate. But they too leave empty nests.
Johanna Keyser Rossi spotted this one — today’s “Westport … Naturally” feature — at the YMCA.
And finally … “Alice’s Restaurant” — Arlo Guthrie’s meandering, absurd — and pretty much true — song about littering, the police and the military draft has been a Thanksgiving staple since its release in 1967.
That’s because the events happened — the true ones, anyone — at a Thanksgiving dinner attended by (among others) Guthrie, a student at the Stockbridge School (and son of Woody), where Alice Brock was a librarian.
Alice — who also owned a restaurant (called not Alice’s, but the Back Room (along with a deconsecrated church) — died last Thursday, in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.
Fittingly, it was a week before Thanksgiving. She was 83, and suffered from chronic pulmonary obstructive disease. Click here for a full obituary.
(You can get anything you want on “06880.” Well, so long as there’s a Westport hook. Except for our song of the day. That’s random. You can also click here to support this hyper-local blog. We thank you!)
“I’m one of the parents who continues to walk their kids to school (Coleytown Elementary) every day on the sidewalk along the Easton Road ‘speedway,’ instead of adding to idling cars waiting for drop-off. Over the years, more and more families have decided not to walk. due to these issues.
“Our hope is to continue to do this. But it has become increasingly more dangerous.
“Easton Road is a poorly marked 25 mph zone, with cars during morning rush hour usually doubling that. To make matters worse, distracted drivers (often texting) have created a number of recent close calls for families (including us), and crossing guards who brave this dangerous stretch of sidewalk.
“Local parents and CES/CMS want more protection. But it’s a state road, and requests have gone unanswered for years.
“Things are getting worse. See this photo from the intersection of Easton Road and North Avenue, taken Friday morning:
(Photo/Ryan Faber)
That’s not all. Ryan sent along another photo, from August. It shows the aftermath of a car hitting a tree. Fortunately, he says, there were no pedestrians nearby.
In 1998, the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard — a gay University of Wyoming student — stunned the nation.
Two years later “The Laramie Project” — a play exploring both the crime and the town’s soul-searching reaction to it — shone a light on issues like morality, religion and humanity itself.
Dates are Friday and Saturday, November 18 and 19 (7 p.m.) and Sunday, November 20 (2 p.m.). Tickets are $25, available at the door. For more information, call 203-227-7205.
Cast of “The Laramie Project” (from left): David Smith, Bob Perry, Dayle Brownstein, Julyen Norman, Arnela Ten Meer, Tom Croarkin, Linda Hudson, Candace Clinger, Meg Jones, Sarah Bell.
The fall’s foliage has been spectacular. Among the beauties joining our “Westport … Naturally” gallery: This one at Staples High School. It’s courtesy of 10th grader Max Saperstein.
The state Department of Transportation’s announcement of possible work on the Route 136/Route 57 intersection — where Main Street, Weston Road and Easton Road meet in a confusing number of ways — is welcome news.
But it’s not the first plan.
Nor is it the second. Or even the third, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh.
Former 2nd Selectman Avi Kaner sends along a slew of previous solutions to the confounding confluence. All were prepared by ConnDOT, and discussed with town officials between 2004 and 2006.
Here they are. Click on or hover over each image to enalrge.
One envisioned 3 small roundabouts:
Another showed one large rotary:
Five others involved some combination of road widening, adding turning lanes, and eliminating or modifying the center island:
As the saying goes: Whatever goes around, comes around.
Or, in the case of the roads near Exit 42, whatever goes around may crash into whatever else goes around, unless everyone going around pays close attention.
Westporters learn to carefully navigate it. Visitors coming off Merritt Parkway Exit 42 are completely flummoxed by it.
At last — after decades of confusion — the Route 57 (Main Street)/Route 136 (Easton Road and Weston Road) cluster**** may get some improvement.
The state Department of Transportation has designed a plan. They’ll discuss it in a virtual public information program this Thursday (June 9, 7 p.m.), with a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session.
The meeting will be recorded. To access the meeting, provide comments or ask questions, click here (then scroll down to “Live Event Links”).
The plan includes replacing the existing flashing light with a full traffic signal, and widening the road.
The state Department of Transportation plan. Click on or hover over to enlarge.
Right-of-way impacts could include partial land acquisitions and easements.
The project is in the early stages of concept development. No funding or schedule has been identified. The public meeting is to discuss feasibility and solicit feedback.
It’s one of the first things you see entering Westport — getting off Merritt Parkway Exit 42, anyway.
It’s bad enough that the island at the Weston Road/Easton Road/Main Street intersection sends traffic in several confusing directions.
But ever since the demise of Daybreak Nursery it’s been a weed-filled, sign-covered mess.
Longtime Westporter Larry Perlstein decides to do something. Connecticut’s Department of Transportation allows islands to be adopted by companies for upkeep (many in Westport already are). He contacted DOT, to start the process.
Perlstein says it took 6 months of nagging — along with a poke by State Representative Jonathan Steinberg — to get action.
Finally, Northeast Horticultural is giving time (and plants) to maintain the island. They’ve done a first pass at cleanup and planting. They’ll do more this spring.
Weston Road/Easton Road traffic island looks a wee bit better. (Photo/Larry Perlstein)
Perlstein says, “This island is a gateway to Westport. Tons of traffic passes by. I remember what it looked like when it was well maintained, and I was embarrassed for the town it deteriorated so badly.”
Now, if we could only do something about signs for politicians, tag sales and sports sign-ups …
Posted onDecember 2, 2018|Comments Off on Check Out These Decked-Out Holiday Houses
It’s one of the most interesting — and oldest — places in Westport. I’ve lived here my whole life, yet never been inside.
Adams Academy — the low-slung yellow building on North Morningside — was the spectacularly named Ebenezer Adams’ private school from 1837 to 1867. He taught over 600 students — including (rare for the time) girls. Most of the graduates — male only, of course 🙁 — went on to Yale.
After Adams sold his academy, it served as a public school, town park, home for the needy and town offices.
Now restored, it’s back to a 19th century schoolroom.
Adams Academy (Photo/Michael Mombello)
It’s rarely open. But next Sunday (December 9), it’s one of 5 stops on the Westport Historical Society’s 32nd annual Holiday House Tour. Ebenezer and his daughter — well, WHS volunteers dressed as them — will be there to greet guests.
The tour offers a peek inside some of Westport’s most historic structures. It combines our natural voyeurism curiosity with our intrigue in our past — and our love for New England-style holiday decorations.
Each stop on the self-guided tour includes WHS docents, explaining how people of the period celebrated Christmas and New Year’s. Halls (and more) will be decked with boughs of holly (and much more).
The event begins at the Historical Society’s own Wheeler House home on Avery Place. Built in 1795, then remodeled in the 1800s in Italianate style, it’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Wheeler House — the Westport Historical Society’s Avery Place home — in a painting by famed local artist Stevan Dohanos.
Wheeler House — dressed in Victorian splendor — is complemented by the only octagonal-roof cobblestone barn in Connecticut. It will be open too, showcasing the fantastic, intricate wintertime train set that for years thrilled shoppers at Swezey’s Jewelers on Main Street.
The Goodsell-Grumman Toll House dates back to 1760. It originally stood on Catamount Road, but when a private highway — Easton Road — was built in 1817, it was moved to its present location there. It’s one of the few remaining saltbox-style homes in Westport.
The Goodsell-Grumman Toll House on Easton Road. (Photo/Michael Mombello)
Two other Holiday House tour homes are in Southport. A 1673 (!) colonial saltbox — one of the oldest still standing in Fairfield — features an original entryway staircase, exposed beams and massive fireplaces.
The John Osborne House, Kings Highway West in Southport. (Photo/Michael Mombello)
A converted barn, built in 1705, has original framing and reclaimed period wood for all walls and floors. This house sits atop a burial ground from the Great Swamp War. In the 1940s, it was used as an artists’ studio.
The Osborne Barn, Oxford Road, Southport. (Photo/Michael Mombello)
There’s a lot going on this season. It’s not easy to fit a House Tour into your schedule.
But there’s no better way to get in the old-time holiday mood.
Just ask Ebenezer Adams.
(The Westport Historical Society’s Holiday House Tour takes place Sunday, December 9, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Click here for tickets.)
Comments Off on Check Out These Decked-Out Holiday Houses
Alert — and cautious — “06880” reader Jeff Mitchell lives on Easton Road, bordering wetlands that abut North Avenue and stretch all the way to the Merritt Parkway.
Coyotes are now routine. He sees an occasional wolf, and at one point beavers lived in his brook.
In 25 years here though, he’d never seen a bobcat — until now. “That’s what happens when you don’t mow your lawn for 2 weeks,” he says.
A neighbor on Meadowview Drive South — the other side of Easton Road — said she saw the bobcat too. There’s a large field behind her house.
She saw it “within the last month,” so the bobcat seems to have made Westport home. Jeff hopes no one harms it.
He also saw raccoons in the area, another daytime rarity. He assumes the bobcat was hunting them.
(Photos/Jeff Mitchell)
While bobcats can be seen in Connecticut, they’re only in the far western areas (concentrated in the northwest).
Jeff notes that bobcats can leap 10 feet, and run 25 miles an hour. Wisely, he and his son Eli took this video from the safety of their deck:
Click here for everything you need to know about bobcats in Connecticut.
RTM member Mark Friedman’s District 3 includes the former Daybreak property, where a new 9-home development has been proposed. He writes:
I am in favor of smart development in Westport. However, with its horrific new traffic pattern, the proposed development at 500 Main Street is not smart. Having attended P&Z meetings and spoken with dozens of Westporters about this proposal, I have concluded that the proposed new traffic pattern adds significant danger to the lives of residents but fails to benefit the town.
Given the wide discretion afforded the P&Z in considering applications for Special Permits, the additional hazards presented by the proposed new traffic pattern serve as a moral imperative to deny this application.
The developer’s proposed traffic pattern poses new and additional threats to public safety — at an intersection haunted by dozens of accidents over the last few years and given the lowest possible grade by the town’s traffic consultant: an F.
To this clear and present danger, the developer suggests adding a new road that connects Weston Road to Main Street, roughly parallel to Daybreak Lane. In its current iteration, the new street would flow one way, southbound, from Weston Road to Main Street.
Unfortunately, this configuration would pose new safety issues on both Weston Road and Main Street.
Looking south on Weston Road. Easton Road is to the left; Main Street to the right. The proposed development is at the former Daybreak property, bordered by Weston Road and Main Street.
On Weston Road, the danger would be acute for those taking a left turn into the new road because cars accelerate in the other direction from the 4-way stop sign at Easton/Weston Roads.
The peril for cars exiting onto Main Street from the new throughway could be even greater when they try to turn left, towards town. This results from the blind corner and terrible sight lines for cars heading around the bend on Weston Road/Main Street.
An estimated 30,000 cars traverse this route daily at an average speed of 41 miles per hour; approximately half, or 15,000 cars, thus travel in excess of 41 mph, making the limited sight lines — and stopping distances — all the more perilous.
Moreover, cars exiting the proposed new road may have their own sight lines restricted further by northbound traffic on Main Street. A “no left turn” sign on the new road, while perhaps theoretically appealing, would likely be disregarded regularly, given the apparent convenience of a left turn when heading towards town.
Main Street, looking east at the Weston Road intersection.
Switching the flow of traffic to the opposite direction — which the developer originally contemplated — on the new proposed street creates new and different hazards.
There would be significant peril for cars turning left from the new street on to Weston Road, as there could be limited opportunities to enter this congested road Cars accelerating from the 4-way stop could t-bone a turning car.
The possibility of a car turning left inching onto Weston Road, thus backing up traffic to the 4-way stop and beyond, is high during peak traffic times.
Worse, if traffic flowed northbound on the new street, from Main Street towards Weston Road, then cars heading southbound on Main Street that want to enter the new road would frequently have to come to a full stop on that busy thoroughfare — immediately after a blind turn with extremely limited sight lines.
In a best case scenario, this increases traffic dramatically. In a worst case scenario, the stopped car gets rear-ended by one of the 15,000 cars a day that travels in excess of 41 mph around this blind turn.
Cost benefit analysis requires that the P&Z reject this special permit, and they have wide discretion to do so.
In the fall elections, voters resoundingly demanded that the town address traffic and safety concerns. Further, hundreds of residents have signed a petition protesting the traffic hazards that this proposed development presents with its new traffic pattern.
A 9-home development has been proposed for the former Daybreak Nursery property.
Town officials have a moral obligation to protect the health and safety of its citizens and a duty to listen to voters.
This is especially pertinent when the suggested benefits of a Special Permit application are so meager. The prospect of each Westport household “benefiting” from the 50 cents a month of incremental tax revenue this project might yield does nothing to change the calculation.
Nor does the suggestion that this proposed 55 and up development somehow qualifies as senior housing. While the town does need to consider senior housing alternatives, age 55 is hardly senior. Moreover, the perils of the proposed new traffic pattern are especially significant for actual seniors.
Finally, given the current real estate slump and overabundance of houses on the market, adding new supply — especially high density housing that is out of character of its neighborhood — actually damages the finances of every homeowner in Westport.
As citizens, we all know that the intersection of Main Street, Easton and Weston Road presents a clear and present danger. As a town, we cannot afford to approve a new traffic pattern that creates new perils.
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