Monday, December 11, 2023

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Downtown Valet Parking a ‘Success’

The police officer overseeing the Westport Downtown Merchants Association’s Main Street valet parking service today told the Board Selectmen it has been a “success.” 

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Attendants serve customers on Main Street. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) WestportNow.com photo

Staff Cpl. Al D’Amura said in the first three weekends of operation, there have been no complaints or any problems.

“It’s been a success so far,” he said. “We think with the holiday getting closer it might get busier.”

D;Amura said the first three-day weekend after Thanksgiving, Nov. 25-27, was the busiest so far with 75 cars parked. (The WDMA told WestportNow at the time the total was 113 for the three days. See WestportNow Nov. 28, 2016)

Firefighters Douse Kitchen Fire

UPDATE Westport firefighters today quickly doused a fire in a kitchen at 10 Nappa Drive, which was caused by unattended food on the stove, said Assistant Chief Brian Meadows.

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The fire at 10 Nappa Drive was found to have started from unattended food left on the stove. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

The initial call shortly at 9:52 a.m. was for a stove fire, but arriving firefighters saw smoke coming from the rear of the home, he said. 

Additional units were called as firefighters found the flames had extended from the stovetop into the hood vent and cabinets above the stove, Meadows said. The occupants were evacuated safely.

The fire was knocked down and firefighters checked for any extension, he said. The fire damage was limited to the kitchen area.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016


8:30 a.m. – Town Hall Room 309/307 – Board of Selectmen (live coverage cable channel 79, AT&T channel 99, and westportct.gov)
9 a.m. – Sherwood Island State Park Nature Center – Second Wednesday Nature Walk
10 a.m. – 4 p.m. – Westport Historical Society – “Art to the Max”
10 a.m. – 5 p.m. – Westport Arts Center – “MORE Than Words/#Iammore Exhibition”
1 p.m. – 6 p.m. – Masonic Lodge (210 Post Road East) – Masonic Lodge No. 65-sponsored Blood Drive
3 p.m. – Town Hall Room 201/201A – P&Z Enforcement Committee
4 p.m. – Westport Library – Dewey Knit: Grade 4 to Adults
5:30 p.m. – 2 Heron Lake Lane – Wakeman Town Farm Committee [Addition]
7 p.m. – Town Hall Room 201/201A – Conservation Commission (live coverage cable channel 79, AT&T channel 99, and westportct.gov)
7 p.m. – Town Hall Room 102 – Beautification Committee
7:45 a.m. – Westport Weston Family Y – Healthy Living: Building Your Brand on LinkedIN

See more events:  Celebrate Westport Calendar

GOP: CT Lawmakers Must Go On Record on New Pension Deal

By Keith M. Phaneuf

www.ctmirror.org

The fate of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s plan to restructure the state employee pension system — which would shift billions of dollars in costs onto future taxpayers — mustn’t be resolved without votes by the House and Senate, according to the top Republicans in both chambers.

But whether Sen. Len Fasano, R-North Haven, and Rep. Themis Klarides, R-Derby, get their way may hinge on sensitive negotiations between Fasano and the top Democrat in the Senate, President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney Jr. of New Haven.

“This plan absolutely must come before the legislature for a vote,” Fasano said.

“How could it not?” said Pat O’Neill, spokesman for Klarides, the House minority leader. “This is no trivial matter. This is literally going to be affecting generations to come.”

Click here for more of story

Granger at the Movies: ‘Manchester by the Sea,’ ‘Loving,’ ‘Allied,’

By Susan Granger

Special to WestportNow

“Guilt is a tireless horse. Grief ages into sorrow and sorrow is an enduring rider,” wrote Dean Koontz - a quote which perfectly describes the tone of Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester by the Sea.”

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Even before this story begins, Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) has suffered unimaginable tragedy. Now his beloved older brother, Joe (Kyle Chandler), a Cape Ann fisherman, has died, and Lee has been named guardian of Joe’s teenage son, Patrick (Lucas Hedges).

That means surly Lee, who has been working as an apartment janitor/handyman in Quincy, outside Boston, must return to his hometown of Manchester by the Sea, the working class suburb whose tight-knit residents view him as a social pariah.

While Lee wants to do right by his family, he’s reluctant to move back to a place that’s filled with painful memories and the inevitability of running into his foul-mouthed ex-wife (Michelle Williams), who has re-married and is expecting a baby.

Daniel J. Montague, 80

Daniel James Montague of Warwick, New York, a former Westport resident, died Dec. 12 at home after years of battling the advanced stages of Parkinson’s disease. He was 80.

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Daniel Montague: former Westporter. Contributed photo

He was an only child, born to the late Mary and Herbert Montague and lived most of his youth in Wellesley, Massachusetts. He was raised in a family-centric, charitable giving environment, traits that eventually came to define his own life.

After graduating Yale University in 1958, he started his MBA program at Wharton before leaving after a year to pursue a career in music.  That didn’t work out so well for him so he quickly fell back on finance, his strength, and built a successful career in senior management with both large and small organizations.

Most notably, early in his career, he worked for the telecommunications firm ITT where he helped establish the phone company’s presence throughout the Virgin Islands, including St Thomas and Puerto Rico.