An accounting standards change that calls for the disclosure of escalating future costs of retiree health care benefits led to a Westport Board of Finance decision tonight to increase taxes to residents by 7 percent beginning July 1.

The board set the 2008-09 mill rate at 14.70, an increase of .97 mills from the current tax rate of 13.73 mills, or 7.03 percent.

On the average assessed home of $892,000, the taxes will be $13,112, an increase of $865.

Earlier this month, the Representative Town Meeting approved a $168.7 million town budget, a 4.72 percent increase over the current year (See WestportNow May 7, 2008)

A Westport woman escaped serious injury today when her car crashed into the front of Final Touch Cleaners, 1031 Post Road East. The car took down a structural column and shattered glass on a front entrance door. Westport firefighters said she was shaken up by the air bag deployment but otherwise uninjured. There were no injuries inside and business at the cleaners was not interrupted. The front end of the car sustained substantial damage and had to be towed from the scene. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

A 22-year-old Westport woman has filed suit against Westport school officials for what she said is their failure to protect her from sexual assault by a Staples High School teacher five years ago and allowing him to remain a teacher despite prior complaints, the Connecticut Post reported today.

In the lawsuit, filed in Bridgeport Superior Court Tuesday, the woman is seeking unspecified damages against the Board of Education, Superintendent. Elliott Landon and then Principal John Brady, as well as the former teacher, Peter Eramo Jr., of Milford, the newspaper said.

Neither school nor town officials returned calls for comment on the lawsuit, the report said.

Authorities said that in 2003, while Eramo was a teacher at Staples, he had sex with the student, then a 17-year-old junior, after a night of drinking in New York City. The criminal case against him is pending in Milford Superior Court, and he is free on $10,000 bond, the newspaper said.

An elegant pair of swans posed obligingly in the marshes off Westport’s Gorham Island Tuesday just before the rains came. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Larry Untermeyer for WestportNow.com

The Westport Rotary Club held its annual community partnership grant luncheon at the Inn at Longshore today and distributed checks totaling $40,000 to 40 agency representatives. Many of the recipient organizations are located in Westport,  including A Better Chance, CLASP Homes, Interfaith Housing, the Levitt Pavilion, Positive Directions, Project Return, Westport EMS, Westport Volunteer Fire Department, and Staples Tuition Grants. Among non-Westport-based organizations receiving grants were the Carver Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, the Norwalk Symphony, Music and Art for Humanity (MACH) and the Playhouse on the Green. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Westport police motor vehicle arrests jumped 47 percent in a just completed six-month period over a year ago following creation of a special two-man traffic enforcement team, police said today.

From Nov. 1, 2007 to April 30 of this year, police issued 3,017 arrest charges compared to 2,056 in the same period last year, an increase of 47 percent, said Lt. Thomas P. Casimiro, public information officer.

In the latest six-month period, there were 5,538 “traffic stops” compared to 3,882 in the previous period, a 43 percent increase, he said.

“The increase in motor vehicle activity can be attributed to the efforts of the members of the Westport Police Department to keep the roadways of the Town of Westport safer,” Casimiro said.