Swimmers participating in “24 Hours of Laps,” the Al’s Angels fundraiser that began this morning. Each swimmer pledged to swim laps for 30 minutes. (l-r) Will O’Sullivan, Finn Johnston, Charlie West, Justin Bacon, Sean Rogers, Cameron Purdy, Sarah Grinalds, Kaitlyn Esse, Michelle Kennedy, Marissa Healy, Caroline Sandhaus, Annie Bowens, Kaela Dockray. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Suzannah Rogers for WestportNow.com

Westport police officers Linda Vena (c) and Sharon Russo (r) welcome Westporter Bertha Mathis today at Westport Town Hall as she dropped off her expired and unwanted prescription and over-the-counter drugs during the annual Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) collection event. This program is conducted by local police departments throughout the country to give people a safe way to dispose of medications they no longer want or need and to help prevent these drugs from being stolen, abused, or dumped into local water supplies. In 2010, Americans turned in 121 tons of unwanted medications to more than 3,000 local police departments. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Twenty-five volunteers, including board members and staff, spent the morning today giving the Westport Weston Family Y’s Camp Mahackeno a major spring cleaning to get it ready for the upcoming summer activities. In addition to tidying the grounds, they repainted the benches in the amphitheater. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

By James Lomuscio

Cardinals brighten up gray winter days. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Townsend P. Dickinson

While birders do not expect to find any calling birds or French Hens, compilers for the 64th Annual Westport Christmas Bird Count (CBC)—which runs from midnight tonight to midnight Sunday—may spy “geese a laying,” and even an occasional partridge.

But a partridge would be rare, says Mardi Dickinson, who with her husband Townsend Dickinson, will captain one of the 10 teams comprising 45 volunteers recording species and bird numbers over the 24-hour period.

A good number of birds spotted will be bluebirds, cardinals, titmice, and chickadees, she said. Some volunteers will work shifts of several hours, while diehard birders will go the full stretch. Night owl birders will record exactly that, owls.

“The purpose is to count the birds for statistical purposes, for science,” says Dickinson. “If it weren’t for these counts, nobody would know how many birds there are at this time of the year. All of it goes into a national database.”

Bill Meyer celebrated with Arlene Bloom (left), past president of Y’s Women, and state Sen. Toni Boucher at the Commission for Senior Services’ “Thank You Luncheon” today for members of local commissions credited with making Westport “a wonderful town.” Among those in attendance were Barbara Butler, director of Westport’s Department of Human Services, Sue Pfister, director of the Center for Senior Activities, First Selectman Gordon Joseloff, and newly elected state Rep. Jonathan Steinberg. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com

By James Lomuscio

They are the small-sized American flags people joyfully wave along parade routes on national holidays, only these had a more somber message as they were planted throughout the day today on the lawn of Westport’s Saugatuck Congregational Church.

Vets placing their flags in the Field of Flags. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com

Side by side and in military fashion, each flag represents the American war dead in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past nine years. By 5 p.m., the time a memorial ceremony was about to begin, the flags totaled a sobering 5,516, including 52 fallen soldiers and Marines from Connecticut.

“It looks so beautiful,” said Toni Rubin and she and her husband Stephen Rubin waited at the end of the honor guard procession. “But, when you think of what it is ... ”

“It’s ugly,” Stephen Rubin chimed in about the toll war takes.

Westport Historical Society Executive Director Susan Gold received $10,000 donation from the Bank of NY Mellon to be used for on-going programs including exhibits, archives, and a youth scholarship program. Pictured are (l-r) Jeffrey Burns, BNY Mellon Team Leader Westport; Katia Friend, Senior Director BNY Mellon; WHS President Dorothy Curran; WHS VP-Finance Elliott Netherton; Susan Gold; and WHS VP of Sponsors Dave Matlow. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Larry Untermeyer for WestportNow.com

A proposed zoning amendment that would allow the construction of at least 12 units of supportive housing for individuals battling mental illness or substance abuse at a Post Road East property in Westport was laid bare at tonight’s Planning and Zoning Commission’s public hearing.

The Linxweiler Homestead, bequeathed to the Town of Westport by Joanna Linxweiler upon her death in 1981. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Richard Redniss, the Stamford land use consultant who wants to develop the 1.3-acre, town-owned Linxweiler property for Homes for Hope, formerly known as Interfaith Housing Association, at 655 Post Road East began his appeal by trying to clarify supportive housing to the 60 residents who had gathered in the Town Hall auditorium.

“Child molesters and sex offenders are not allowed to be in supportive housing,” Redniss said. “They must be able to live independently, and conducting any illegal activities on the property is grounds for release.”

His assurances, as well as his conditional site plans for the development of the property did little to quell myriad concerns from residents who live on nearby Crescent Road and Sue Terrace. From 1984 to 2008, Interfaith Housing had operated Linxweiler House as a home for men recovering from alcoholism and substance abuse.