In 2011 — after years of court battles — town officials and neighbors reached an agreement to add lights to the Staples High School football field.
The court-ordered settlement precluded lighting other Westport fields, besides PJ Romano (behind Saugatuck Elementary School), and the Greens Farms Elementary School softball diamond.
The agreement expired a couple of years ago. On Monday — after long negotaitions — the Planning & Zoning Commission approved 5-1 (with 1 abstention) a text amendment to allow lights at other sites.
Each proposal will be reviewed by the P&Z. Among the requirements:
For 25 years, traffic agent Jerry Waldron has been a Westport Police Department staple.
Commuters and residents see him directing traffic at the Route 1 and 33 intersection and by the Cribari Bridge, or patrolling the railroad station and downtown parking lots.
Not bad, for a 90-year-old.
Yesterday, the WPD celebrated Jerry’s milestone birthday, at police headquarters.
Friends, family and officers — current and retired (all younger) — threw him a surprise party.
Jerry was surprised, and grateful.
But he’s not slowing down. He will be back at work tomorrow, directing lunch hour traffic at 1 and 33.
If you see him, wish him a belated “happy birthday.”
Maybe — considering all that traffic — a wave is better than a honk.
Happy 90th, Jerry Waldron!
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In addition to Jerry Waldron’s birthday, this is also Eating Disorder Awareness Week.
In its honor, Lift Wellness Group hosts a hot chocolate pop-up bar today (Wednesday, February 26, 11 a.m.) at their 8 Myrtle Avenue office.
They hope to shine a light on eating disorders, which have the second highest mortality rate of any mental illness.
And, of course, to offer a nice, tasty treat. The public is invited.
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The Compo Beach playground renovation is about to begin.
As “06880” noted yesterday, the Playground Committee has ensured that anyone who bought a fundraising picket during the last rebuild — 19 years ago — can claim it as a souvenir.
Jennifer Seideman offers more good news about the beloved site. She writes:
“While walking at Compo Beach yesterday, I noticed the project has begun. Of course it makes me nostalgic, as my twins were newborns when the last one was installed. We have many fine memories at that playground.
“I saw that the workers were thoughtful enough to gather together some shoes they uncovered while digging up the old playground.
“They created a ‘lost and found’ space on top of a garbage can near the boardwalk. Here is a photo that may help some families with missing shoes.”
“I will look forward to watching the transformation of the playground, seeing many families enjoy it and make it part of their special experiences in Westport as my children did,” she adds.
For 3 weekends next month, Weston’s Lachat Town Farm becomes a Brooklyn restaurant.
That’s the setting for “Seared,” a comedy that brings audiences into a kitchen.
First produced off-Broadway in 2019, the show earned Outer Critics Circle Awards. As garlic and onions sizzle on stage, the play explores conflicts between artistic passion and the pressures of the business world.
“Seared” is produced by Diana Muller, formerly of Play With Your Food lunchtime theater.
Show dates are March 7 through 23: Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m. Click here for tickets, and more information.
Voices Café often attracts interesting artists, from up and down the East Coast.
On April 5, one of them is a homegrown talent.
In fact, very talented.
Dustin Lowman — a 2011 Staples High School graduate, now making his name as a New York-based singer/songwriter — opens for Lucy Kaplansky.
Dustin says: “In the years since leaving Westport, I’ve forged an unconventional path, using the tools that growing up there afforded me.
“The path has been winding — from Vermont to Nashville to Chicago, and lately to Brooklyn — but its ineluctable root is Westport. I think at 32 that I’m too old for the title ‘The Prodigal Son’; nonetheless, returning to Westport to perform is like the most wonderful version of show and tell: showing the people who gave me so much what their gifts have done for me, and telling them the story of what I’ve tried to do with them.”
Click here for tickets about the show at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Westport, and more information.
Right now, 3 athletic fields in Westport have lights: Staples’ Paul Lane Field, Greens Farms Elementary School, and PJ Romano Field behind Saugatuck Elementary School
Will there be more?
The Planning & Zoning Commission’s Recreation Sub-committee meets December 4 (12 noon, Zoom), to review and discuss a draft text covering lighted athletic fields on town-owned public school property.
The public may comment during the meeting. To comment before the session, email PandZ@westportct.gov.
The nighttime crowd at this fall’s Staples Homecoming football game. (Photo/Luca Caniato)
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Amng the items on the agenda of a joint meeting of the Representative Town Meeting Finance, Parks & Recreation, Transit and Public Works Committees (November 26, 7:30 p.m., Zoom):
A request by the director of Public Works to approve a $110,000 appropriation for the analysis, design and preparation of construction documents for traffic signal and pedestrian improvements in Saugatuck, between Bridge Street and Charles Street.
The proposal includes replacement of the Saugatuck fire station traffic light, and bicycle and pedestrian improvements.
Neighbors and Newcomers of Westport has partnered with Wreathing for Community.
Volunteers created over a dozen handsome winter wreaths. They’ll be donated to local organizations, charitable events and individuals in town, as recognition for for their kindness and good deeds.
Who gets them?
“06880” readers can nominate an organization or community member to receive a wreath. Email Faith Sargent: whimsicalredheadcrafts@gmail.com.
You can also email her to donate materials for future projects, or arrange an event for your organization or group.
Neighbors and Newcomers take a break from wreath-making.
Club203 was “on strike” last night. Members of Westport’s social group for adults with disabilities made pre-Thanksgiving “turkeys,” with a party at Nutmeg Bowling in Fairfield.
Friends, volunteers, fun and food had everyone ”rolling” in new friendships.
Next up: Club203’s holiday bash, December 11 at VFW Post 399. For more information, click here.
Ukraine Aid International — the non-profit founded by Westporters Brian and Marshall Mayer, which has spent nearly 3 years delivering supplies and services to residents and officials in besieged cities in that war-torn nation — has planned a holiday celebration.
It’s both an action-packed evening, and a fundraiser. Proceeds will be earmarked for Ukrainian children, as another harsh winter begins.
The December 8 event (1 to 5 p.m., Redline Restorations, Black Rock) includes food and drinks, holiday activities, kids’ crafts, antique cars, and updates from Marshall Mayer’s recent trip to the front. Click here for details.
Ukraine Aid International
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Westport Police made 5 custodial arrests between November 13 and 20.
A 58-year-old Waterbury man was arrested for larceny and criminal mischief. he allegedly entered Kai Yoga, stole money, then removed the security camera. He was arraigned on a $175,000 bond.
A 36-year-old Bridgeport man was charged with identity theft and violation of probation, following an investigation into a fraudulent check for $6,613.32, drawn in December 2020. He was held in lieu of an $80,000 bond.
A 34-year-old Stamford man was charged with larceny, criminal mischief and simple trespass, on a complaint by Bank of America of theft of parts of the exterior irrigation system.
A 53-year-old Bridgeport man was arrested on an active re-arrest warrant, after being stopped for a motor vehicle violation.
A 28-year-old Bridgeport woman was charged with failure to appear, after an active re-arrest warrant was discovered following a stop for a motor vehicle violation.
Westport Police also issued these citations:
Failure to comply with state traffic commission regulations: 13 citations
Failure to obey traffic control signals: 6
Operating an unregistered motor vehicle: 4
Traveling unreasonably fast: 3
Operating a motor vehicle without a license: 2
Operating a motor vehicle without minimum insurance: 2
Failure to halt possession of alcohol by a minor: 1
Speeding: 1
Failure to renew registration: 1
Failure to obey stop sign: 1
Failure to drive in the proper lane: 1
Failure to display lights: 1
Improper stop: 1
Improper use of markers: 1
One arrest this week was for an adult who failed to halt possession of alcohol by a minor.
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Barbara Young, a former Westporter and noted athlete, died last week in Massachusetts. She was 91.
She achieved tremendous success in a variety of sports, including tennis, field hockey, baseball, basketball, platform tennis and golf.
Barbara played for the Chicago Colleens and Kenosha Comets in the All-American Girls’ Professional Baseball League, later made famous in “A League of Their Own.”
She is a member of 3 Halls of Fame: at Dean Junior College (for tennis), the Connecticut Golf Association HOF, and in a “Women in Baseball” exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Barbara also won the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance Gold Key Award.
Barbara was a New England girls champion tennis player, and went on play #1 on the Dean Junior College men’s team. She was also a Westport women’s champ.
At Dean, she also played field hockey. In the 1960s, she played semi-pro basketball.
She was ranked among the Top 10 platform tennis players in the nation.
After receiving a set of golf clubs from her husband for Mother’s Day, she took up the game. She was a 6-time Connecticut women’s champion, and an 8-time state senior champ, along with New England senior crowns. Barbara continues her success in North Carolina.
At the Highland Country Club in Attleboro, Massachusetts, well into her 80s, she was the second-ranked female member by handicap.
Barbara is survived by her children, Janet Young See of Mansfield, Massachusetts and Lawrence of Baltimore, and grandchildren Christopher and Andrew Young, and Jason and Brian See. She was predeceased byher children Donna and Scott.
A celebration of life will be held in January, in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. Click here to send online condolences.
Barbara Parks Young
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A great blue heron showed up recently at Burying Hill Beach.
And Johanna Keyser Rossi was there, to snap this image for “Westport … Naturally.”
The Staples High School football team opened their state championship defense tonight. A large crowd was on hand to watch the Wreckers host Hamden High. In the 3rd quarter, the hosts were ahead, 28-7. (Photo/Mark Mathias)
It took oh, I don’t know, about 20 years for the town to agree to put lights on the Staples football field.
(Full disclosure: My parents’ neighbors — though not them — on High Point Road were some of the biggest obstacles.)
The lights have been there for over a decade. The result: increased attendance and enthusiasm at football and lacrosse games, and other sports. More opportunities for practice for athletes on many teams.
And no issues with neighbors.
The lights at what is now called Paul Lane Field were the focus of last week’s Photo Challenge. (Click here to see.)
Diane Bosch, Diane Silfen and Dan Vener all correctly identified the scene.
There were not a lot of responses, on Labor Day weekend.
Maybe everyone was out playing games.
Now — just in time for the change of seasons — here is this week’s Photo Challenge. If you know where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below.
(Photo/Patricia McMahon)
(Every Sunday, “06880” hosts this Photo Challenge. We challenge you too to support your hyper-local blog. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)
Another Staples High School football season has begun.
As is traditional, the Wreckers are gunning for their 5th state championship.
The first came in 1975. That’s around the time Fred Cantor took this photo:
(Photo/Fred Cantor)
Much has changed since then.
The stands have been enlarged. There’s a new press box. The track is no longer cinder. The area behind the gym (right side of photo, with parking lot) was “modernized” between 1978-81, when a fieldhouse and swimming pool were added.
Thanks to lights, Staples now plays football games on Friday nights, not Saturday afternoons.
The field itself finally has a name. It honors Paul Lane — coach of that 1975 state championship squad.
But much has not changed. A new fall season still brings excitement, fun — and the belief that anything is possible.
Today, “06880” introduces a new addition to our “Friday Flashback.” Each week (hopefully!) we’ll include a “50 Years Ago This Week” tidbit at the end. (Okay, maybe it will be “25 Years Ago…” or some other number.)
Thanks to Carl Addison Swanson for the idea. And big props to Fred Cantor: Staples Class of 1971 graduate and amateur historian, who loves digging into newspaper archives.
So … 50 Years Ago This Week:
Tennessee Williams, Sandy Dennis, and Dave Brubeck were among the prominent names featured in an ad for the new Connecticut Center for Continuing Education at the Westport Country Playhouse.
The Center promised “over 100 courses” during the Playhouse’s “nine-month ‘intermission.’”
(Whether you’ve been here 50 years or 50 days, if you like “06880,” please consider a tax-deductible contribution. Click here — and thank you!)
Westport has 4 artificial turf playing fields: Paul Lane and Jinny Parker at Staples, Wakeman just north of Bedford Middle School, and PJ Romano behind Saugatuck Elementary School.
There has been talk of turfing at least one more surface at Wakeman, and Loeffler at Staples.
Turf fields require much less maintenance than grass fields. However, they must be replaced every 10 years or so.
Paul Lane Field at Staples High School is one of Westport’s 4 artificial surfaces.
Nearly every other town in Connecticut has multiple turf fields too.
Their future would be in doubt, if a bill proposed by 2 state representatives passes.
The “Act Prohibiting State And Municipal Contracts For The Purchase And Installation Of Artificial Turf Fields” asks that
the general statutes be amended to provide that on and after October 1, 2023, no municipality, including, but not limited to, any school district, and no private entity, department or agency of the state shall enter a contract for the purchase, use or installation of artificial turf for a new or existing field.
It also would provide that “such turf fields be grandfathered to allow for their useful life but prohibit their replacement after such time.”
The purpose of the proposed legislation is to “prohibit municipal and state contracts for the purchase and installation of artificial turf fields that pose health and environmental concerns.”
There are many kinds of artificial surfaces, including coconut and crumb rubber. Different surfaces were not identified in the proposed law, nor were “health and environmental concerns.”
The bill heads now to the Joint Environment Committee. For more information, click here. (Hat tip: Kathleen Galley)
Visitors watch the UN-Westport soccer match at PJ Romano Field.
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