A Well Prepared First Selectman Kevin Christie Provides Superb State Of The Town Presentation
Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
After only 76 days as Westport’s new First Selectman, Kevin Christie showed superb preparation and excellent, in-depth knowledge of all things Westport in his first State Of The Town event. Christie opened by thanking event sponsors Westport Rotary and Westport Sunrise Rotary, next Selectwoman Amy Wistreich and Selectman Don O’Day and then the host, The Westport Library. Christie began his presentation by saying, “When I thought about how to approach my first State of the Town, I kept coming back to one simple idea: Westport thrives because of its people...the community. And local government exists to support that community.”
Opening the program (l. to r.), Peter Helt President of Westport Rotary and Mark Soboslai, President of Westport Sunrise Rotary speak about their organizations and their sponsorship of the State Of The Town. At right is RTM moderator Jeff Weiser who emceed the event.
Next, Christie gave the audience some insight into the effectiveness in the activities of various branches of town government, remarking “Every day, across this entire community, our town staff are delivering services at a scale that’s easy to take for granted until you see it all at once. When I talk about the scale of town government, I mean what residents’ tax dollars actually support, every day.”
Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
Christie’s slide presentation began with an beautiful aerial view of the outstanding renovation of the Compo Beach Playground provided by WestportLocalPress: Comp Beach Playground Opening Day. Next, Christie highlighted the activities of our first responders who work tirelessly to keep us safe, telling the audience, “In 2025, the Police Department handled over 27,000 calls, including more than 5,500 traffic stops. Our Fire Department responded to over 4,000 incidents, with an average response time under four minutes.”
Mr. Christie also spoke about community services saying, “the departments that support residents day to day, across age, ability, and circumstance. Parks and Recreation supported 10,895 program registrations, about 1.2 million beach visits, and 40,000 rounds of golf adding, “Through Human Services and the Senior Center, the Town provides over 24,000 congregate and home-delivered meals annually and has administered $2.9 million in housing and community grants over the last two years”, adding, “And of course, speaking of community services, here we are inside our state’s only 5-star library.”
Above, clock wise: Audience members included Westport Police Chief David Farrell, RTM member Andrew Collabella (blue hoodie), former RTM member Harris Faulk (hat), newly elected RTM member Victoria Wylie (white) and two other audience members.
Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
Christie also credited “teams that shape how Westport grows, evolves, and protects what makes this town special: Planning and Zoning, Conservation, and the Historic District Commission. In 2025, the Planning and Zoning office issued over 430 administrative zoning permits, processed 42 applications to the Planning and Zoning Commission, and 75 applications to the Zoning Board of Appeals.”
Mr. Christie closed his remarks by saying, “Finally, I want to recognize teams in administration that keep our town and staff running every day. Many of you know we recently completed a state-mandated property revaluation, the first since COVID, and after the notices were mailed, our Assessor’s Office met with over 1,000 property owners through informal hearings. Our Tax Collector delivered over a 99% collection rate. Our Town Clerk’s office recorded 464 property transfers and assists residents every day, both in person and online. Our Information Technology team provides the foundational and improving digital infrastructure that facilitates the town’s work and allows residents to engage with the town online.”
He added, “I also want to thank our teams in finance, personnel, the Town Attorney’s Office, and of course the Selectman’s Office, for the vital support they provide to ensure our town functions smoothly. That scale is possible because of how people work together.”
Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
Opening for Mr. Christie was Board of Education member Abby Tolan who was filling in for Board Chair Lee Goldstein who was out of town at a previously schedule conference. Ms. Tolan had a full plate of both achievements of the Westport Education system and it’s outstanding student body and important administrative issues addressed in recent years. Tolan commented, “First and foremost, our district remains dedicated to providing a safe and welcoming environment that both supports and challenges all students.”
Ms. Tolan spoke at length about budgetary issues, including capital improvement plans including substantial Staples Auditorium renovation and other projects including a new Staples girls locker room, WiFi access at Staples athletic fields and a new concession stand with bathrooms.
She made note of technology issues including “AI usage, with objectives being focused on; using AI with integrity and purpose; preparing students to think, adapt and lead with AI; inspired teaching that is human led, AI empowered. Shaping a thoughtful, adaptive and empowered community.”
Tolan lauded a number of students who had achieved tremendous academic successes and the outstanding athletics department. She provided a long list of students from multiple schools who have achieved success in a wide variety of academic endeavors and contests in a Science Olympiad including global environmental issues and four gold medals for Bedford Middle School students. Staples award winning chool newspaper, Inklings and the Staples media department were also praised by Tolan. Issues such as Long Lots school and Coleytown school were addressed as well.
Athletic achievements stood out as well, with Staples basketball team winning the first FCIAC Championship since 1963 (WestportLocal, Staples FCIAC championship) and Wreckers State Title in Lacrosse (Staples LAX Defeats Darien For State Championship) and Boys Soccer’s 13th state title as well as a victory by the new Staples Fencing team.
Following the presentations by Christie and Tolan was an audience Q and A session, with more questions than the time allotted would allow. Issues such as traffic congestion, a problem in search of a solution for many years including state DOT involvement on projects such as the Merritt exit 21 (formerly exit 42) daily traffic jam. The Hamet situation and ongoing legislation was discussed along with the controversial Hiawatha Lane project and the hot button issue of the Community Garden relocation. An important issue, sustainability was also queried by audience members as was the gigantic piles of snow, Mt. Woog or Mt. Christie as they were laughingly termed, which drew some attention before their removal following the recent blizzard.
Above, Westport Rotary volunteers gathered questions from the audience, which also included (at right) Cynthia and Carl Muller, Gloria Gourveia (sunglasses) and former RTM member Sal Liccione (black cap).
Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
The full video of the 90 minute State Of The Town can be viewed on the Westport Library website: 2026 Westport State Of The Town
24 Cyclists Ride From Norwalk To Westport In Memorial To Alex Pretti
Photos courtesy of Lori Hillsberg, story by J.C. Martin
The ride to honor Alex Pretti, killed by ICE on January 24, 2026 began in the freezing cold at Calf Pasture beach in Norwalk and riders crossed the Ruth Steinkraus Memorial Bridge in Westport as they wound their way to Compo Beach. Twenty four hearty souls from Norwalk, Fairfield, Greenwich, even from as far as Kent joined others on the 6.5 mile ride.
After pausing at Compo Beach, they returned to Calf Pasture, again crossing the Steinkraus bridge. Ride organizer Burton Avery described the sub-freezing, 27º weather with light wind and full sun as “perfect” for a bike ride. If you say so, Burton!
A large group turned out to see the riders off, including Norwalk former Mayor Harry Rilling (blue coat) and wife Lucia (white coat).
Pretti was an avid bike rider, well known in the Minneapolis biking community. More than 100 rides in honor of Pretti took place across the country yesterday. The website Pinkbike also has a post on the nationwide rides and Pretti, who was an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center and was only 37 years old when his life was cut short by ICE agents.
Ride details wer reported yesterday in WestportLocalPress: Alex Pretti Memorial Ride.
Norwalk & Westport Join Nationwide Memorial Bike Rides Today To Honor Alex Pretti
Story by J.C. Martin, Photo and posters via Instagram, link below:
As daily protests in sub-freezing temperatures, some numbering many thousands continue in Minneapolis, Minnesota, YouTube CBS News WCCO Minneapolis continue in response to the killing of Alex Pretti who was shot dead by ICE agents on January 24, 2026, more than 100 memorial bike rides have been planned for this weekend. The killing of Pretti followed the killing by ICE agents of Renee Good, which is reported upon by ABC News in their minute-by-minute timeline.
An Instagram post with the headline “We Ride In Unity” provides the details of the bike ride which will begin at Calf Pasture beach in Norwalk at 2:15 pm and will head toward Compo Beach. Details from the post, “The Ride for Alex” say that this is happening Saturday, January 31st. Post continues, “Looks like there will be over 100 rides in the US. It will be a defining moment in US bike culture and the resistance movement in the US. Bikes are tools for many things but at their core they are anti-fascist. Riding a bike connects people to their communities and each other. “
Pretti was an avid bike rider, well known in the Minneapolis biking community. The website Pinkbike also has a post on both the nationwide rides and Pretti, who was an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center and was only 37 years old when his life was cut short by ICE agents. ABC News provided a minute-by-minute timeline of Pretti’s death reporting that he suffered 10 bullet wounds in 5 seconds. ICE and the DOJ claimed that he approached them with a handgun, which he was licensed to carry, however multiple videos seen so far show nothing of the kind.
Sparrows In The Snow!
Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
The snowy weekend didn’t do much for traveling on Westport roads, but it created some wonderful photographic opportunities of these beautiful visitors at our feeders.
While the strikingly beautiful Northern Cardinal gets much of the attention in photographs, especially in winter when the brilliant red plumage contrasts so beautifully against winter’s snowy, white backdrop, many forget how beautiful the Sparrows are.
One of the more prolific bird species, there are nearly 140 varieties worldwide, with about 33 species in the U.S. One of the prettier species is the White-throated Sparrow (above, left) which has black and white stripes on the head and vibrant patches of yellow just above the nostrils and eyes. Next is the song sparrow which can be heard singing its song frequently, especially in summer. The mostly brown sparrow may possibly be a female house sparrow, although many several varieties look quite similar. Bottom right is likely a male house sparrow.
A group of Sparrows is known as a “host.” More about sparrows can be found at: BirdWatchingDaily.
As mentioned above, few winter scenes would be complete without the Northern Cardinal. The male and female are shown above with the snow falling around them as they waited for their turn at the feeders.
Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.