Area Elected Officials Wary of War Resolutions
As Westports Representative Town Meeting prepares to take up a resolution opposing the war in Iraq, other area communities are also considering resolutions regarding the conflict, according to the Connecticut Post.

It is a delicate, sometimes controversial, balancing act for those municipal councils or boards that choose to take up the issue, the newspaper reported.

At Monday night’s Town Council meeting in New Milford, Conn., emotions ran high and there was a standing-room-only crowd, reported The Spectrum.

The anti-war resolution, put on the RTMҒs agenda by petition from more than 20 electors as required by the town charter, will be taken up at its meeting on Tuesday.

Submitted before the start of the war, it calls on the United States to use diplomatic efforts before launching a preemptive strike.

Update: At the April 1 RTM meeting, no action was taken on the anti-war resolution. The lead petitioner told members she would not object to their not considering it in its outdated form but said it would be updated and resubmitted.

Meanwhile, a petition proposing a resolution in support of U.S. troops has been submitted for RTM consideration at its May meeting.

03/31/2003 12:48 pm Comments (0) • Permalink

Congressman Chris Shays held a forum on regional emergency preparedness Friday. It was not encouraging. Among those attending Westport First Selectwoman Diane Farrell and Superintendent of Schools Elliott Landon.

Farrell told the gathering: “Please don’t hamper us for not having a county government. Look at us in the aggregate. When it comes to homeland security, we don’t see ourselves as individual municipalities.”

According to The Hour newspaper, some in the audience feared that, with the focus on police and fire departments, the role of schools, health departments, emergency medical personnel and hospitals was being ignored.

“We have thousands of kids under our jurisdiction for many days a year,” said Landon. He said issues such as how to deal with a situation where parents cannot reach their children, or staff cannot return home, must be examined.

03/30/2003 15:04 pm Comments (0) • Permalink

Here We Go Again: Dogs at the Beach
The Hours Jen Connic takes a look at the dogs-at-the-beach controversy now that the winter rules are about to expire and are up for renewal.

The bottom line: some say it is working fine, but a few say it needs some fine tuning.

03/30/2003 14:28 pm Comments (0) • Permalink

With the increased terrorism threat, Westport has seen an upsurge in installation of panic rooms, those places tucked away in homes where the homeowners can survive all kinds of attacks (except probably the munchies).

The town is cited by Richard Soloway, chief executive of NAPCO Security Systems in New York, who told the Hartford Courant newspaper that sales are also up in Weston, Greenwich and Stratford.

The business is so hush-hush, he says, that often domestics who work in the homes don’t know the safe rooms exist.

“Lots of times, even the help in the house doesn’t know about it. People who install the rooms are brought in when nobody else is there, or on the weekend,” Soloway said.

Also reported by the newspaper—an upsurge in patriotic bills introduced in Hartford that would give additional benefits to those serving on active duty or veterans of past conflicts.

Among them was one introduced by Westport’s Sen. Judith Freedman. It would exempt military members on active duty outside Connecticut from having to pay sales tax on new vehicles.

Freedman, a Republican, said, “At a time when so many men and women are leaving their families behind to defend our nation, this is something we can do to show our respect and appreciation.”

Westports Splash restaurant at the Inn at Longshore played an unwitting role in a fatal car crash on I-95 that led to a two-year prison sentence Friday for a New York woman.

According to an account in the Advocate of Stamford, the woman, Jan Jepsen, 38, had dinner there with her boss on May 8, 2001. During the meal—appetizers and three bottles of wine that ran up a $410.26 tab, her boss told her she and her entire department were being laid off.

The court heard that following the meal, she got on I-95 the wrong way. She drove up an exit ramp, then went northbound in the southbound lanes for one to two miles before smashing into a car driven by Sidney Davi, 27, who worked at Fairfields transfer station. He died instantly.

03/29/2003 14:57 pm Comments (0) • Permalink

Trucks on the Merritt? A Train Alongside?
Fridays discussion at Yale University about the future of the Merritt Parkway touched on a number of possibilities. Among them trucks on the roadway and a train track alongside.

According to the Connecticut Post, the occasion was the annual meeting of the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation.

Keynote speaker was Peter Szabo, director of the Merritt Parkway Conservancy, who addressed the future of the parkway.

Meanwhile, the Post reported that safety issues will take center stage when the State Department of Transportation holds informational meetings about using the breakdown lane of I-95 for traffic during rush hours. One is scheduled for Westport on April 16.

03/29/2003 14:33 pm Comments (0) • Permalink

Losers in Staples High School Principal Selection Comment
We know the local reaction to the selection of John Brady as principal of Staples High School (overwhelmingly positive). But what about the two other finalists who didnt make it?

Both commented in interviews with their local newspapers. Assistant Superintendent Tom Mulvihill of New Milford, Conn. told his local paper:

ғThere is no shame in losing out to someone with his record, Mulvihill said of Brady. ԓHes a great guy.Ҕ

Peter Sack, who is retiring as a high school principal in Swampscott, Mass., told his newspaper:

“I’m both disappointed and relieved. It would have been a great challenge. I think I’m up to the challenge, but it would have been disruptive having to move.”

03/29/2003 14:08 pm Comments (0) • Permalink

Bernhard and Others Bash Siting Council
Theres no love lost between Connecticut municipalities and the state agency overseeing placement of cell towers, the Connecticut Siting Council.

Some of those feelings spilled over in Hartford Friday as Connecticut legislators, including WestportҒs State Rep. G. Kenneth Bernhard, told agency members they should keep their opinions about policy matters to themselves and let lawmakers shape policy.

According to an account in the Advocate of Stamford, Bernhard, a Republican, said city and town governments have long held the belief, right or wrong, that the Siting Council does not listen to their concerns and possibly has its own unknown agenda.

“You have reinforced that perception by coming here today and testifying,” Bernhard said.

03/29/2003 13:51 pm Comments (0) • Permalink

Fairfield, like Westport, Debates Revising Fees; Cuts Directors Salary
As municipalities struggle with rising costs and rising taxes, they are eyeing fees charged for specific services. Westport is revising its Conservation Department and Planning and Zoning fees, but neighboring Fairfield has yet to do so.

So last night, the townҒs Board of Finance cut the salary of the Conservation Department director by $50,000 to give him a little added incentive to revise the fees.

According to the Connecticut Post, the board member proposing the cut told the director it was nothing personal but that he knew of no other way to convince the Conservation Commission to raise the administrative fees it charges to developers.

Westport֒s Representative Town Meeting (RTM) will consider ordinances revising such fees at its May meeting after completing work on the annual town budget.

Update: At its April 2 meeting, Fairfield’s Board of Finance voted to restore the $50,000 to the official’s salary after the town’s Conservation Commission agreed to vote on increasing its fees within several months.

03/28/2003 19:33 pm Comments (0) • Permalink