Westport Assessor Paul Friia announced today that the Westport Assessor’s Office and the Human Services Department will begin taking applications for the state and local tax relief programs on Friday.

“The programs are open to homeowners who are totally disabled or who have reached the age of 65 by the date of application,” Friia said.

Qualified applicants for the state program are citizens who own their own homes or hold a life- use title to their home, have resided in Connecticut for one year prior to filing application, and whose qualifying income does not exceed $33,500 for single, or $40,900 for married couples.

Westport’s local program provides qualified homeowners either a tax credit with a maximum income level of $55,000 and/or a tax deferral with a maximum income level of $75,000. Qualified homeowners with incomes of $75,000-$100,000 are able to defer tax increase from the previous year only.

Utility crews work on a complex repair job today on Westport’s North Avenue which was closed from No. 18, near Plunkett Place, to Long Lots Road. The route is heavily traveled by those going to Staples High School and Bedford Middle School. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Shawn Sember, who retired as detective sergeant from the Trumbull Police Department after 30 years, shows off his new Westport patrolman’s badge with wife Carol after being sworn in today by Westport First Selectman Gordon Joseloff at Westport Police Headquarters. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Among the casualties of today’s early morning storm were several of the older markers at Westport’s Evergreen Cemetery on Evergreen Avenue. A large section of a tree adjoining the cemetery snapped off and plummeted into the grounds. Evergreen Cemetery is owned and maintained by Saugatuck Congregational Church. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

By James Lomuscio

Westport’s Representative Town Meeting (RTM) will not vote on the school board’s request for security funding until its March 5 meeting, almost a month after the finance board has its say on the schools’ request to double the amount from $50,000 to $100,000.

The postponement was consensus of the the RTM’s Finance, Public Protection and Education committees after they met Wednesday night with the school officials who said it was “all or nothing.”

The school board had originally requested $50,000 for a study, a request approved by the finance board. But at last week’s Board of Education meeting that amount jumped to $100,00 based on further input from the security firm Kroll.

According to Alan Bomes, acting chairman of the RTM Finance Committee in the absence of Jeffrey Wieser, the committees were ready to recommend to the entire RTM the approval of $50,000.

By James Lomuscio

Amid public sympathy for a Westport mother arrested last week after her unwatched 2-year-old daughter wandered into the frigid cold while her 15-year-old brother slept, Westport police today provided additional details about the incident.

Tinatin Crouch, 43, was arrested after neighbors found the child in her pajamas and slippers in freezing temperatures on Murvon Road, crying for her mother. Charged with risk of injury to a minor, she posted a $500 bond and is scheduled to appear in Norwalk Superior Court Tuesday, Feb. 5.

Today, Capt. Sam Arciola put the arrest into the perspective of the officers on the scene, as well as that of the neighbors on Murvon Road, a private road near Compo Beach.

“When the neighbors heard the child crying and screaming for her mother in the middle of the street, with no jacket, wearing slippers and in her pajamas and it’s 20 degrees out, they didn’t know where the child belonged,” Arciola said.

Traffic on Railroad Place, on the westbound side of the Metro-North station, was detoured today because of a sunken road surface in front to Mario’s Restaurant. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Traffic on Greens Farms Road near Beachside Common was down to one lane today after a tree fell on power lines. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com