To the Editor:

While reading the riveting article about fellow Westporter Lucia Palmieri (See WestportNow Jan. 30, 2010), I unexpectedly found myself crying.

I sat breathless as I read how Ms. Palmieri heroically pulled off the Hutch to follow an SUV which had just veered off the Parkway over a steep embankment and into a half-frozen pond.

I felt an immense pride for Ms. Palmieri (even though I do not know her personally) and an equally appalling disgust for the other samaritans’ dismissive actions. I know it must have been the thought of children possibly being in the car that decided her selfless response.

As a mother of three,  I know what that lioness feeling is like. You lose mind of yourself and just do.  I was also caught up by the familiar Westport name—Palmieri.

I remember when my husband and I moved to Westport 20 years ago. One of the first people we met was “Grandma” Palmieri at Palmieri Nursery

I remember her sitting outside, advising us on various plants we were purchasing (as we were landscaping our new house and beginning our new lives with our first baby in tow). 

Mrs. Palmieri Sr. struck us as the warmest and most endearing woman. She told us she thought our baby’s name (Michael) was a bee-utiful name and we immediately warmed to her accent and smile. 

It wasn’t lost on me as I read this article of another Palmieri being a guardian angel for a total stranger while endangering herself. With winter in full swing and the “blues” always hovering, I suddenly felt hopeful again. I love our community and every once in a while I’m reminded why.

Diane Unger-Yormark
Westport

To the Editor:

Parents of children at the Hillspoint School that was evacuated due to fumes from a roofing sealant need to ask these questions:

  * Did anyone ask for the name of the chemical in the roof sealant?

  * What are the Material Safety Data information for these chemicals.

  * Was the contractor advised not to use the chemicals in the vicinity of children?

  * How long were the children and teachers exposed to the chemicals before they were evacuated?

  * Who authorized the application of the roof sealant during the school day?

  * Was that person qualified to make a decision that exposed children to hazardous substances? Who oversees the use of toxic substances at schools?

I was seriously and permanently injured by a roofing sealant applied during the school day at the school where I was teaching in Mississippi. School officials lied to the media that no one was seriously injured. 

It only takes a short time to cause injury to respiratory, eye and brain tissue. It sometimes takes a lifetime to diagnosed that toxic chemicals caused the damage.

Fumes from roofing sealant have caused injuries to school children all across the nation. Even though the EPA recognizes that children are more vulnerable to toxic injury, there are no laws preventing the use of toxic chemicals like roofing sealant while school children and personnel are present.

When I asked the questions above, the school and contractor attempted to cover it up. School officials at my school were more concerned with their liability and politics than with providing medical care for the injured.

I am now an activist to protect children from toxic injury and for healthier schools. For stories about toxic justice, news and resources about schools and toxic risks, visit http://www.nancyswan.com and follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ToxicJustice

Nancy Swan
Mobile, Ala.

To the Editor:

Twice over the last few weeks, while walking our dog, I have found stamped, unpostmarked mail in strange places near the road. In both cases, within a mile of Staples High School, the mail turned out to be very important communications including significant personal checks.

Upon investigation, it turned out that in both cases, the mail had been left in personal rural mailboxes for pickup.

While I have, as has at least one of the parties involved, notified the US Postal Inspector, I would recommend that Westport residents not leave mail for pickup in their street boxes unless they won’t be inconvenienced if it doesn’t get to its destination.

Joel R. Hallas
Westport

To the Editor:

The members of the Westport Police Union and Westport Police Benevolent Association would like to extend our sincere gratitude for the extremely generous contributions we received during our 2009 Holiday Toy Drive.

The toy drive which is held annually, sponsored by the Westport Police Union and the Westport Police Benevolent Association, and run by its members, has historically been tremendously successful.  This year was no different. 

We were able to donate gifts to several hundred children throughout Fairfield County who otherwise would not have received toys for the holidays. 

Toys were distributed to organizations such as the Interfaith Housing Association (Westport), Carver Community Center (Norwalk), Norwalk Community Health Center (Norwalk),  Bridgeport Council of Churches (Bridgeport), St. Charles Urban Center (Bridgeport), Burroughs Community Center (Bridgeport), the New Haven Domestic Violence Shelter (New Haven), and local individual families in need.

The project would not be nearly as successful if it weren’t for the individuals and local businesses that show their support, concern, and generosity toward the underprivileged in our area.

Each year as the members of the Westport Police Department collect the donations, we are deeply touched by the generosity and caring that is displayed.  To see not only adults demonstrate the true spirit of the holidays, but children as well, is truly heartwarming.

Special thanks to the Athletic Shoe Factory, Vautrin Auto, 95.9 The Fox Radio, and Sign Smarts, for their assistance in the logistical aspects of our efforts and their generosity.  Without them, we couldn’t have done it.

With thanks from the bottom of our hearts,

The Men and Women of the Westport Police Department
Westport

To the Editor:

I have to question the decision by the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) to overturn Planning and Zoning Commission’s (P&Z) decision to amend the zoning regulations to allow the Inn at National Hall to have offices on the first floor.

What is wrong with this change? As a small retail business owner in the downtown area, this change along with moving the “historic building” on the corner of Wilton Road to free up traffic, would have done nothing but bring more business to the downtown and surrounding areas.

I don’t profess to be a smart person; but I have been blessed with a little common sense. A vacant Inn will do little or nothing for our local economy.

Occupied office space, by a well run company with a vested interest in the property, would do nothing but enhance our local merchants; and more importantly maintain the property to the highest of standards.

What I think we are forgetting here is that people who work in offices; tend to shop, buy supplies, take clients to lunch, and do other things that require infusing money into the local economy. To have an empty building owned by a bank, getting ready for a fire sale is not good business.

I have a lot of respect for our RTM and its members, as well as the people involved in overturning this text amendment.

But we have to remember is that we are not talking about a 102,000 square foot building in a residential AAA zone like the YMCA’s proposed move to Mahackeno. It’s a simple change of use of an already designated commercial property.

What we have here is a good company, trying to work with P&Z to make a commercial piece of property work. When you look at this zone change it totally makes sense. A dead area would come back to life, the town would reap the benefits of commercial tax revenue to go along with a revitalized area. What would be wrong with that?

Sometimes in affluent communities, highly educated people tend to lose sight of one of the most important assets in the decision making process: common sense.

I think if a little common sense would’ve been applied to the process in this text amendment change, all parties could’ve walked away with a deal that would’ve worked for everyone.

Jimmy Izzo
Westport

To the Editor:

I received a phone call from my old friend Zak, on the seventh of January, at almost the same minute that in another place the other man most intertwined with my time in Staples Players passed away quietly. He left us way too soon. He helped create my joyous teen years. 

His name was Mr. Joseph W. Ziegahn. To the thousands of other students who loved him; myself especially, he was simply Ziegahn.

My mother once said that she received a good less headaches from me during high school because I was too busy studying stagecraft and doing backstage theater under the tutelage of Ziegahn to get into trouble.

It all started when I had him for seventh grade art class, then four years of Staples Players. Those four years shaped me. Like the clay on the wheel in his classroom he molded me. If any teacher could teach a student how to be a man, he was Ziegahn.

I am not a person of extravagant gratitude except when I finished high school and towards Ziegahn. To enumerate my gratitude for all Ziegahn did for me, I will tell about how I said goodbye to Staples Players.

I was 18 and I spent almost a month’s pay on a pewter knife engraved “THANKS JWZ, FROM DEA” as a surprise for him. The gesture was so that every time he used that tool to create art, he would remember how much he helped one crazy kid survive high school. He helped many kids survive high school or junior high in 39 years as a teacher.

I learned how to swing a hammer and build a table as well as be polite and talk to a lady from this man. I learned how to lift with my knees and not with back as well as how not to be afraid to ask a girl to prom. Ziegahn was from South Dakota and I married a girl from South Dakota. That’s only fair; he taught me (at 15) that the girls I wanted to talk to were just as nervous as I was.

Every day, every single day I think about all he taught me. I remembered that quite well the day I met my wife and the life lesson came back, I was a nervous 29 year-old and so was she. Mostly I’m impressed that Ziegahn could teach me all that and make me laugh.

I watched him one day, during our annual haunted house, transform me into Mr. Spock from Star Trek with less than $5 worth of makeup. I think Paramount could have used him. I watched him teach Zak about lighting, Lindsay about costumes and even a dozen of more my peers how to stage student productions. 

In the more than 25 years he was technical director, he probably saw more than 10,000 students. I would bet most of us feel the same way, I apologize that it’s an old cliché but “we shall not see his like again.”

I called him two months ago, not to say ‘good-bye;’ but to say ‘thank you.’  I told him that everyone has one teacher they look back on as the one that influenced them the most and he was mine. For all this I am grateful.

For his quarter century, Ziegahn put in 14-hour days. Arriving in the workroom hours before school then running stagecraft alongside after school clubs or rehearsals. He’d then leave hours after us invariably. I went pre-K through 12 in Westport and I can tell you this, no one, no one in the education profession showed more caring or concern for students than Joe Ziegahn.

This is why I implore the powers that be to host a tribute to Ziegahn on the main stage at Staples High School. Drape the chair that bears his name with a curtain and ribbon like a ‘missing man formation’ gesture and let more than a quarter of a century worth of students that loved him fill that auditorium one last time.  Not for me or what he did for me, but for of the thousands of other Westport students who loved him like I do.

Thank you.

David E. Arcudi

Vice President, Technical, Staples Players, 1995-6

Prop Master, Staples Players 1994-1996

Staples High School Alumnus, 1996

To the Editor:

With our nearly two-year-old grandson Henry visiting for the holidays, my wife visited Earthplace and several other venues looking for suggestions about ways to entertain our special visitor.

She also went to the Westport Library and would you believe they have Grandkits designed for such occasions. The kit includes CDs books, games and toys well suited for little tykes.

They are on loan, of course, but we were absolutely floored by this brilliant idea which will certainly enliven Henry’s visit.

Grandkits?  There sure are some clever and imaginative folks in our midst.

Gil Ghitelman
Westport

To the Editor:

As a retired school principal here in Nebraska, and having formerly worked closely with Dr. Cary Bell as his assistant principal at Boys Town, Neb., I wish to acknowledge his school’s achievement as regards their recent excellent recognition as a Blue Ribbon School. 

What an honor, but it is not surprising since I know Dr. Bell and always admired him for his leadership and caring attitude towards kids and staff. 

Please extend to him and his staff my most sincere congratulations and best wishes.

Kirk Estee
Omaha, Neb

To the Editor:

I am very concerned about the seagulls at Compo Beach. Every time I go there I see at least one or two kids throwing large rocks at the gulls.

The last time I was there, two boys were throwing big rocks at circling gulls. I happen to have been with wildlife rehabilitator, Dara Reid She went over to them and pointed out that the birds have feelings and a right to be at the beach. 

She also told them that it is illegal to throw rocks at birds and that they are protected by law.

I talked with her and asked her how often she sees injured gulls at her wildlife center (Wildlife in Crisis) in Weston. She told me that she gets hundreds of gulls per year, and about 50 percent of them have been abused. 

It makes no sense that she has to take in and treat birds that have been intentionally injured by kids while their parents watch from their beach blanket.  Sometimes the parents even encourage their kids to be cruel to the animals.

The beach is a natural habitat of the gulls and when we go there we are invading their home. Rather than hurting the gulls, adults and children should observe them and enjoy their unusual communication behavior. 

They will realize that gulls aren’t just things that can fly but interesting creatures that we are lucky to have.

Ellie Shapiro
King’s Highway Elementary School fifth grade
Westport

To the Editor:

I’d like to bring to your attention to an inaccurate report that has been widely circulated and reported on by various media outlets in the past week regarding the effectiveness of the film and TV tax incentive program in our state. 

The report was furnished by an advocacy group called Voices for Children and was based on a preliminary document from the Connecticut Film Office that was never intended to be released.

The Film Office made it clear that the draft report did not yet account for millions of dollars spent in Connecticut yet the VFC and the media chose to ignore this and ran with the story as if it were factual and complete. 

Our company, dLife, is a small diabetes health media company based in Westport and is one of the entities that are misrepresented in these reports.