Klein’s of Westport, a Main Street landmark for 67 years, announced today it is closing next month.
Klein’s of Westport was a Main Street landmark for 67 years. This is a circa 1960s view. File photo

Klein’s owner Robert Hertzel took out a newspaper ad to announce the move and also issued a statement to the media.

“To everything there is a season,” Hertzel said. “It is now our season to close our business forever.”

For many Westporters, Klein’s disappeared more than five years ago after leasing its first floor space to Banana Republic.

It continued to operate on the building’s upper floors but never regained its former glory as a haven for books, personalized stationery, photographic materials, electronics and gift items.

The case involving the Town of Westport and Daybreak Nurseries over its use of land at its Main Street location that has upset neighbors, as expected, is heading back to court..

“The ZBA (Zoning Board of Appeals) put the kibosh on it,” Lawrence Weisman, attorney for the nursery, told WestportNow today. “They imposed draconian conditions that we could not accept.”

Weisman filed an appeal of the ZBA decision April 21 in Stamford Superior Court and notice of the action was received in the Town Clerk’s office Monday.

A Town Hall source had told WestportNow on April 16 that it was likely the case would end up back in court (See WestportNow April 16, 2004).

Federal prosecutors have urged a judge to deny Westport’s Martha Stewart and her ex-stockbroker a new trial.

In a filing Monday, the prosecutors disputed a claim that the first trial was tainted when the jury discussed Stewart’s expensive handbag.

Stewart has said she deserves a new trial because one juror failed to disclose his arrest record and because a Bronx Little League executive claims the juror once confessed to embezzling money.

Peter Bacanovic, the former broker convicted with Stewart on March 5, moved for a new trial last week based on reports the jury discussed a handbag that Stewart occasionally toted to court.

Westporter David Pogue, weekly personal technology columnist for The New York Times, chats with a friend at the University of Kansas tonight over a video computer link (Apple’s iSight) during a talk on high-tech innovations at the Westport Public Library. Pogue showed off a number of new and yet-to-be-released gadgets but said he ranks the TiVo digital TV recorder the top high-tech innovation of recent years.(CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE) WestportNow.com photo

It was not a bad day today for Westport’s Charles Berg, at least financially.

Berg is president and CEO of Trumbull-based Oxford Health Plans Inc. which today was acquired by UnitedHealth Group for $4.8 billion in cash and stock.

The deal was announced just days after talks between Oxford and WellChoice fell apart.

In a news release, Oxford referred to the transaction as a merger and said Oxford will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of UnitedHealthcare based in Trumbull with Berg as its head.

It’s lovey dovey again between Kmart and the company owned by Westport’s Martha Stewart.

The two companies announced today that Kmart Holding Corp. has settled its differences with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia over royalties on sales of goods bearing the Stewart name.

Despite Stewart’s recent legal troubles, the amended contract extends the partnership with Kmart by two years, until 2009, and expands it to cover new product categories, the companies said in a joint statement.

In a complaint filed in February in bankruptcy court, Kmart had accused Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia of overcharging it for the exclusive rights to sell housewares and other products under the Martha Stewart Everyday label.

James Kaminsky, who said he got his first glimpse of Playboy as a teenager growing up in Westport, is out as the magazine’s editorial director, according to AdAge.com.

Quoting a company spokesman, AdAge said Kamisky, who was brought into the post amid much publicity in September 2002, would move to an as-yet-unspecified inter-divisional role at the company.

Formerly the executive director of Maxim, Kaminsky had replaced Arthur Kretchmer, who had been Playboy’s editorial director for 30 years.

The move was widely seen as a bid to update Playboy’s formula and an effort to fend off stiff competition from magazines such as Maxim, the report said.

Update (April 23, 2004): The Chicago Sun-Times said Kaminsky, 42, is being given the job of vice president, special projects at Playboy Enterprises, according to the company.

Conditions imposed by Westport’s Zoning Board of Appeals are likely to return the case involving Daybreak Nurseries and its use of its land back in court, a Town Hall source said today.

The ZBA decided at its meeting this week to impose additional conditions beyond a settlement reached by the town and the business following legal action begun by the town. (See WestportNow Jan. 15, 2004)

Details of those conditions have yet to be published, but the source said they are likely to result in Daybreak returning to court.

Lawrence P. Weisman, an attorney representing Daybreak, was not available for comment today but has said his clients reserved the right to take further legal action.

The town has contended that Daybreak is using a residential area for business purposes, including use of noisy equipment that has prompted repeated complaints from neighbors.

Lawyers for Westport’s Martha Stewart today made a new plea for a retrial based on additional findings about one of the jurors who convicted her last month in her stock fraud trial.

According to the papers filed in federal court, juror Chappell Hartridge confessed to embezzling from a Little League organization and admitted to a cocaine habit, but disclosed neither on his jury questionnaire.

The papers also said Hartridge’s son was convicted of attempted robbery in 2000—information Stewart’s lawyers said he specifically omitted from his jury form.

Late last month, Stewart’s lawyers said that Hartridge had lied in failing to disclose a 1997 arrest on charges of assaulting a woman he had been living with.

Southern Connecticut Gas Co., which serves Westport and other southwest Connecticut communities, is seeking an almost 9 percent increase in its rates.

State utility regulators plan to hold hearings later this month on the request.

The gas company is seeking the $20.7 million increase to cover higher taxes and other expenses it has incurred since rates were set in 1999.

The requested rate increase would raise bills by about $16 a month for the average customer whose home is heated with natural gas, the company said.