The discussion was in Greenwich Monday but very well could have been Westport and the subject was “affluenza,” the urge to spend excessive amounts of money on things you and your children don’t really need.

Greenwich Time reported about 60 parents gathered at Greenwich Town Hall to learn about “affluenza” and its potential cures at a lecture sponsored by Parents Together, an independent, non-profit organization offering programs for parents to help them enrich family life.

Workshop leader Kaye Moore, a clinical psychologist who raised her children in an affluent West Coast town, discussed what she referred to as the “sickening epidemic of overconsumption.”

The newspaper said two men, the rest women spoke about the pressures they feel living in and raising children in Greenwich.

Excerpt: ֓One woman said she spent money to fill an emotional void. Another said she considered shopping a sport. Still one more said she continually bought things for her children because that was easier than taking a stand about values.

And yet another said she couldn’t think of a good reason to say no to her children since she clearly had the money to spoil them.Ӕ

Paving Work in North Avenue Area Snarls School Traffic
With four schools within a short distance, the intersection of North Avenue and Cross Highway is normally busy in the mornings as school traffic mixes with commuter traffic. Add a paving operation such as today and it was chaos.

A traffic agent at the intersection radioed for help today as traffic backed up in four directions—school buses being especially hard hit. Extra police units quickly arrived and helped clear up the problem.

Town highway crews have been repaving streets in the area for several days.

Firefighters Quickly Extinquish House Fire
Westport firefighters today quickly extinguished a small attic fire in a house in the Compo Beach area.

A homeowner on Apple Tree Trail reported smoke coming from an attic crawl space at about 7:30 a.m.

Responding units reported moments after arrival that the fire was out.

Fire officials said the blaze apparently was related to a malfunctioning furnace.

Tax Collector Seeks New Law to Add Surcharge to Delinquent Car Taxes
Westport Tax Collector George Underhill doesnt particularly want to do it, but he says the state has left him little choice Җ so he is asking for a new town ordinance allowing him to levy a $5 surcharge on delinquent car taxes.
It amounts to another state unfunded mandate,Ӕ he said.
Underhills request will be heard by the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) at its Oct. 7 meeting. It will automatically be held over one meeting before the RTM can act on the measure.

Westport Tax Collector George Underhill says the state has left him little choice in seeking a new ordinance regarding deliquent car taxes. WestportNow.com photo

The request for the new law stems from a new state law that imposes a 50-cent charge on municipalities for every name entered into the Department of Motor VehiclesҒ (DMV) database of delinquent tax accounts.
Owners of such cars are unable to register them until local taxes are paid. Over the years, Westport and other municipalities have collected substantial amounts of delinquent taxes because of the system.
To offset the 50-cent fee, the state law enables municipalities to pass a local ordinance imposing the $5 surcharge.
It may sound like a good deal for the town, but Underhill said because of the complexities of the system and the requirement for towns to pay the DMV up front before it will add the names to its database, it really isnt.
ғIts more work for us and thereҒs no guarantee we will collect enough money to pay the states fee,Ҕ he said. People move, names change, cars are sold, etc.,Ӕ he said.
The governors budget originally had called for elimination of the DMV matching registration system, thereby saving the state $225,000. When municipalities protested, the new law was passed, Underhill said.
Westport has about 18,000 motor vehicles that are delinquent on taxes, according to Underhill, representing more than $4 million in uncollected revenue, including interest.
This means a $9,000 cost to upload the data and, if the ordinance is passed, allow the town to collect as much as $90,000 to cover its costs—but with no certainty it actually will.
The Westport official said local taxes on motor vehicles bring in about $7 million per year, or about 5 to 7 percent of total tax revenue collected.
Anticipating arguments that the $5 fee may be too steep, Underhill said the state legislation does not permit him to charge a lower fee.
ғBesides, he said, ԓthis is a penalty for late payment. If we didnt have a penalty, everyone would pay late, if at all.Ҕ

Truck Strikes Saugatuck Avenue Overpass
A truck struck the Saugatuck Avenue railroad overpass this afternoon, causing only slight damage but tying up traffic in the area.

The truck, described as a one used to transport carnival games, lost its trailer on impact, reports from the scene said.

There were no injuries in the accident, which occurred about 4:15 p.m.

Westport to Nutley: A Journey from One Hometown to Another
Its only a little more than 50 miles or so from Westport to Nutley, N.J., but Martha StewartҒs journey from one hometown to another was one better measured in years than miles.

Stewart traveled to Nutley, 10 miles west Manhattan, Sunday to be inducted in to her former hometowns hall of fame.

But before attending the ceremony in the town of 27,362 Җ slightly larger than Westports almost 26,000 Җ she took a drive down memory lane, according to Newarks The Star-Ledger.

She passed her childhood home where her parents, Martha and Edward Kostyra, raised her and five siblings and nurtured her interest in home decor and gardening.

She also passed her former schools and rode along Franklin Avenue, Nutley’s main business street, the newspaper said.

The journey ended at the township library where Stewart and eight other Nutley natives were honored as the first class of the Nutley Hall of Fame.

“I took a ride down memory lane and found that Nutley has changed so little and so much,” Stewart told the audience of more than 300 people that included her mother.

She talked about her Nutley education and read off a list of teachers that influenced her before graduating from high school in the late 1950s.

Then, citing an axiom familiar to Stew Leonard visitors, she shared her mother’s rule for dealing with teachers at the Nutley schools, according to the newspaper.

“Rule number one was ‘the teacher is always right,’” Stewart said. “Rule number two was if ‘the teacher is always wrong, refer to rule number one.’”

Stewart remarked how her childhood home and schools looked the same, but many of the businesses she remembered being in town are now gone.

Dozens of residents of Westport and Weston past and present are featured in Martin Wests film ғA Gathering of Glory! presented by the Westport Historical Society. Here are the few of them and their words from the film.

Howard Munce, artist and illustrator: ԓOf all the many forms that have taken place in art in Westport, illustration is what brought the big names.

Of all the artists IӒve known in Westport, there were two who were celebrity artists beyond anybody I knew and those two were John Held, Jr.—his work was everywhere, and, of course, hes in American history, in a small way, in the invention of the flapper.

ғAnd Stevan Dohanos. Steve had a theatrical side and when he was interviewed, he was good at it, and he cared, and in Westport, he was the name for as long as he lived, right from the beginning.

Actor James Naughton: ԓSome people see the glass half full and some people see the glass half empty about everything. Im sure thatҒs true about you know where the arts stand in this community.

I mean, I canӒt speak for all the arts, and particularly not for the visual arts, but for the performing arts, we got people all over the place. We got performers coming out of the woodwork.

Actor Keir Dullea: ԓWhen we contemplated starting a workshop here, and I had certain doubts about that when we announced it, it was like a tinder box just waiting for someone to light the match.

It was like, in a sense, a gymnasium for professional playwrights, actors and directors to work out, somewhat similar to the well known ActorsӒ Studio. Now we find ourselves with a burgeoning organization that continues to provide a safe place.

When I say safe place, I mean a place out of the spotlight where people can afford to take risks, which is what the workshop is all about.

ӓAnd, again, it goes back to talking about what it is about Westport that makes Westport so special in the fact that its so accepting and that is has this kind of texture to it that people can take artistic risks and thatҒs certainly true about our organization.

Actor Christopher Plummer: ԓI wish I had started living in the country long before I did. I think as far as life and real life is concerned, it gives you an extra 10 years to live in the country.

Living here has actually given me 10 or 12 years more of life than any city would. I see all my friends in New York. TheyӒre still green. They all look green to me.

I consider Weston my home. It has been for the last 22 years. You know, you have to pick a place where you would like to die in, and IӒve often thought of various countries that Ive fallen in love with all over the world.

ғI thought Greece would be an ideal place to die in because death and life are so close. Italy would be a lovely place to die in because the food is so divine. An English country lane would be rather sentimental, in ones old age.

ғIm hoping to be able to, because of the country, to actually do live for another 20 years, and Weston, I think, I would happily die where we are right now.Ҕ

Writer Evan Hunter: I never think truly about my place in where I fall in the tradition of writers who have been here. I hope that after IӒm gone, theyll say, ґOh, gee, Evan Hunter is part of the long line of these writers and artists who have lived in this community.

ғWhen I was in college, the best thing that any professor or teacher could teach me was to leave me alone, and I get that sense in this community that people leave you alone to do your work, and that֒s nice.

Composer John Corigliano:  ԓI really dont know why Westport and Weston have that kind of intensity of artists and number of artists. It could be that it had started so much earlier, that certain important artists came to Westport a long time ago. ItҒs a reclusion. Its a place to go.Ҕ

Composer and conductor Alex Platt (talking about Staples High School): I had just come from across the hall playing the Dvorak ӑNew World Symphony, and my brother just came from a rehearsal of ґUncle Vanya’ under Al Pia, and here we ware singing this Mozart or Bach or something with George Wiegle in the choir room.

It suddenly hit me. I think it was near the end of my senior year when you begin to sum up how things have gone and it hit me Ӗ this is amazing, this is world class.