NY Times: Westport AbuzzӔ Over Naming Bridge Issue
Todays New York Times finally gets around to WestportҒs controversy over naming the Post Road Bridge after Ruth Steinkraus Cohen.

In a front-page metro section story headlined Name Bridge for U.N. Backer? Town is Abuzz,Ӕ the Times reports:

Right up to her death last year at the age of 81, Ruth Steinkraus-Cohen went all out for her favorite causes. She was still publishing a yearly “Peace” calendar chock-full of tidbits on countries large and small.

ӓShe greeted hundreds of international visitors at the train station with their native flags and a smile. And she gave to nearly every artistic endeavor in town.

So you would think that when a local state representative proposed naming a town bridge after her, there would have been applause back home.

ӔInstead, in an unlikely marker of these contentious times, the proposal has set off a heated dispute because one of her pet causes was the United Nations, as the bill to name the bridge clearly notes.

06/18/2003 11:00 am Comments (0) • Permalink

Fire at Longshore Halfway House Causes Extensive Damage
Fire broke out late Tuesday night at the halfway house on the golf course of Westports Longshore Club Park.

Police reported the town-owned structure on the ninth hole of the course was heavily involved in flames.

Responding firefighters quickly knocked it down, reporting the fire under control shortly before midnight.

The one-story facility, which serves drinks and refreshments to golfers, was damaged extensively.

Fie officials said the blaze appeared to have been intentionally set, but did not give details or say whether there wrere any suspects.

Several years ago, one of Longshore’s nearby cabins was destroyed by a fire which officials believed also was the result of arson. No arrests were made.

06/18/2003 03:02 am Comments (0) • Permalink

Syracuse Post-Standard: Preserving Tracy Sugarman’s WW II Work
Todays Syracuse Post-Standard takes a look at Wednesday’s Library of Congress ceremony honoring Westporter Tracy Sugarman and the letters, drawings and watercolors he sent to his wife during World War II.

They sat preserved, but forgotten in the couple’s basement and on Wednesday become part of American history.

“You worry about your work when you’re about to leave,” Sugarman, 81, told the newspaper from his Westport home. “This way it’ll be part of the whole permanent archive. It’ll be there as long as the country is.”

Sugarman, who grew up in Syracuse and studied illustration at Syracuse University, donated some 400 letters to the Veterans History Project, part of the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress.

06/17/2003 10:53 am Comments (0) • Permalink

It’s not quite on the scale of Boston’s multi-year, multi-billion dollar big dig highway and tunnel epic, but Westport’s mini big dig project is well underway at the town’s main train station, using technology copied from Boston.

The 18-month, $7.8 million project will make the station more user-friendly and ADA compliant. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) WestportNow.com photo

Giant diggers have begun scooping out earth near the west end of the station’s New Haven-bound platform for a new pedestrian tunnel.

The innovative tunnel jacking technique being used, similar to that in Boston, is aimed at completing the work without disruption of traffic above.

The goal of the 18-month, $7.8 million project is to make the 160-year-old station more user-friendly and comply with requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Picture of the Day: MetLife Blimp Pays Visit to Compo Beach
There weren’t many people at Compo Beach today despite the bright sunshine and temperatures in the 60’s, but that didn’t deter a MetLife blimp from making an overhead visit.

The few beachgoers who were there paid little attention to the 130-foot long, 45-foot high blimp.

According to MetLifes Web site, the company operates two blimps, ғSnoopy One and ԓSnoopy Two.

ԓSnoopy One visited the Westport area shortly before 4 p.m., spending about 15 minutes making its way from Saugatuck Shores, to Compo, then Old Mill-Sherwood Island, and on up the coast.

It was launched in Tampa, Fla. in February 1994 and concentrates on providing aerial television coverage of East Coast sporting and special events. 

Snoopy adorns both sides of the lightship. The corporate tagline “have you met life today?” is displayed on one side with “MetLife” on the other.

06/16/2003 20:45 pm Comments (0) • Permalink

Former Norwalk Mayor: Bridgeport Summit Didnt Discuss Poverty
Former Norwalk Mayor-turned-columnist William Collins takes aim this week at Westport First Selectwoman Diane Goss Farrell and the recent summit she organized on BridgeportҒs economic development.

Excerpt: The Democratic First Selectman of Westport, having recently savaged BridgeportӒs proposal for an Indian casino, decided shed better try to paper over the breech. Thus she organized a ґsummit in that troubled city to show that she really cares after all.

ғSelf-righteousness gushed from every mouth. Park City leaders were assured that everything would be all right if they just rooted out corruption and put more cops on the street. Bridgeports new mayor also did his best to make a silk purse out of a sowҒs ear, dutifully ticking off the citys modest assets.

ғSomehow, the issue of poverty never came up. All those solicitous suburbanites managed to avoid mentioning it, largely because it is their own zoning policies that squeeze most of the regions poor into Bridgeport. This phenomenon makes the city unappealing to developers and forces it to deal with the bulk of the areaҒs social problems.

Footnote: The above excerpt from Collins’ column came from what appeared in today’s The Advocate of Stamford (but not available online). However the version printed in the NewtownBee is slightly different, beginning:

“The Democratic mayors of Westport and Stamford, having recently savaged Bridgeport’s proposal for an Indian casino, decided they’d better try to paper over the breech. Thus they organized a ‘summit’ in that troubled city, to show that they really care after all.”

No word on why the versions differ, but Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy was not an organizer of the Bridgeport summit. He did attend, however, and caused a few waves with his criticism of Bridgeport’s crime statistics.

Update (6/16/03):Stamford led the nation with a 22 percent decrease in crime last year, making it one of the country’s safest cities, according to preliminary FBI crime reports released Monday. Crime rose by about 5 percent in Bridgeport.

06/15/2003 14:02 pm Comments (0) • Permalink

Fairfield County Business Journal: Judy Rovins Connects as Event Organizer
This weeks Fairfield County Business Journal spotlights former Westport educator Judy Rovins and her event organizing business.

Excerpt: ғAs a 25-year veteran of the education field, former Westport schools superintendent Judy Rovins understood the value of an organized presentation.

Today, sheӒs taken that understanding into her Westport business, The Motivators JK Rovins Associates LLC., a large event-planning business whose clients include NASA, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Maritime Association Port of New York and New Jersey.֔

06/15/2003 13:04 pm Comments (0) • Permalink

NYTimes: Oops, Martha Began Catering in Westport Not Greenwich
Todays New York Times includes a brief correction about Westport and Martha Stewart.

Last week, the Times carried a business section article about Stewart following her insider-trading-related indictment and noted she began her catering business in Greenwich, Conn.

TodayҒs correction sets the record straight as it seems most everyone else knows ֖ it was Westport not Greenwich.

06/14/2003 14:43 pm Comments (0) • Permalink