Westport RTM: Saugatuck Zoning Amendments Confirmed by the RTM, Paving Way for “The Hamlet”
January 17th, 2023 Special Meeting Agenda & Results
Westport’s Representative Town Meeting met on Zoom for a special meeting beginning at 6:30 PM and adjourning at just after 11:15 in the evening.
Agenda:
1. To take such action as the meeting may determine, at the request of at least 20 electors of the Town of Westport, pursuant to Town Charter C10-4, to review the Planning and Zoning Commission decision issued on December 12, 2022 regarding Text Amendment #819 (to create a new zoning district, §24C, General Business District/ Saugatuck Marina (GBD/SM) and Map Amendment #820 (to modify the Westport Zoning Map to rezone eleven (11) properties from General Business District (GBD) to proposed §24C, General Business District/Saugatuck Marina (GBD/SM). The request was denied; 33 members voted “no” to overturning the Commission’s decision, while one member voted “yes” and another member abstained.
Morning Weather Report
Today
A 50 percent chance of showers after 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 43. West wind 3 to 7 mph.
Tonight
A 20 percent chance of showers before 10pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 34. Light west wind.
Tomorrow
Mostly sunny, with a high near 49. West wind 5 to 10 mph.
Tomorrow Night
A 20 percent chance of rain after 1am. Partly cloudy, with a low around 34. West wind 5 to 7 mph becoming calm after midnight.
Westport Wrecking Ball: 254 Saugatuck Ave Awaits its Fate during 180 Day Period
An application for a demolition permit for Westport’s 254 Saugatuck Avenue was put before the Westport Historic District Commission again last month after its initial discussion in November. Built in 1940, the cape has 3,472 square feet of living space and is situated on a 1 acre property. It was sold in February 2021 for $929,000. Because the house was built more than 50 years ago, the application was reviewed by the Westport Historic District Commission in November - who voted to uphold a decision to delay the issuance of a demolition permit for 180 days, until May 2023. For upcoming Historic District Commission meetings and their agendas, click here.
The 17th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration At The Westport Country Playhouse
Junauda Petrus, award winning author, playwright, activist, poet and multi-dimensional performance artist gives her keynote address Sunday.
On Sunday the Westport Country Playhouse in conjunction with The Westport Library hosted their annual tribute to and celebration of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on January 15th, the day when he would have turned 94 years old if he were not assinated on Thursday, 4 April 1968 in Memphis, TN at the age of 39. This year's keynote speaker was Junauda Petrus, noted author, playwright, activist, poet and multi-dimensional performance artist.
Sponsors of the event also included TEAM Westport, the Westport-Weston Interfaith Clergy and the Interfaith Council of Westport & Weston.
Photos and story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
The program began with a welcome to the more than 150 audience members by the Reverend Alison J.B. Patton, pastor of the Saugatuck Congregational Church for more than a decade and by Harold Bailey, the chair of TEAM Westport (Together Effectively Achieving Multiculturalism). Next came a greeting by Erika K. Wesley, Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for the Westport Country Playhouse.
A beautiful dance performance was presented by the talented dance students from the Regional Center for the Arts, a public inter-district magnet high school for Fairfield County students interested in the performing arts located in Trumbull. They performed to "Rise Up" the inspirational song written by Andra Day which was adopted as the unofficial anthem of Black Lives Matter.
Next, Executive Director of the Westport Library, Bill Harmer introduced the keynote speaker, Junauda Petrus who spoke on a variety of topics and began by reading from her book, "The Stars and the Blackness Between Them", which was a Coretta Scott King Author Honoree Award in 2020.
Performance by talented dance students from the Regional Center for the Arts, a public inter-district magnet high school for Fairfield County students interested in the performing arts located in Trumbull.
Among Ms. Petrus’ topics of note was an event in her sophomore year in high school when one of her educators who was working with an organization which held Underground Railroad simulations which gave Petrus a deeper understanding of the dangerous journey north of enslaved people attempting to escape the bondage of slavery. That experience "shifted something for me" said Petrus and caused her to deeply imagine herself, what is was like enduring the horror of capture and the journey of those who were able to escape, fleeing from slavery on the Underground Railroad.
Petrus called attention to the fact that this day was in fact Dr. King's birthday and she spoke fondly of imagining King as a 90 year old man with gray hair forgoing his trademark formal wardrobe for a track suit and slippers, perhaps being shown TikTok videos by his grandchildren. In the spirit of the birthday celebration, Ms. Petrus lead the audience in singing "Happy Birthday To You" by Stevie Wonder which was penned in 1981 to remind U.S. lawmakers and voters that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr deserved to be recognized with a national holiday.
Petrus spoke of King being a "bright light" and a "beacon of hope" for the civil rights movement and highlight the struggles of the LGBTQ community, especially the added burden of those members of color.
Born on Dakota land in Minneapolis of Black West Indian descent, she spoke of her involvement in activism along with AIM the American Indian Movement.
Petrus also spoke of a friend she had at 19 years old who had a mental episode and was then shot 33 times by responding police, and event which launch her career in social activism. She discussed the killing of George Floyd by a policeman whom she remembered seeing, which took place in front of a Minneapolis store in her neighborhood at which she would shop and the impact that event had on her bolstering her determination to make change in society and help bring freedom.
Near the close of her remarks, Ms. Petrus read one of her poems, "Can We Please Give The Police Departments To The Grandmothers". Her website, junauda.com stets of the poem, "Petrus first published and performed this poem after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. With every subsequent police shooting, it has taken on new urgency, culminating in the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, blocks from Junauda’s home.
At the conclusion of her remarks Petrus was joined by Reverend Patton on stage to answer several questions from the audience and then signed copies of her books and greeted audience members, which included Connecticut's newly elected Secretary of the State, Stephanie Thomas, who resides in Norwalk.
Photos and story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
ABOVE: Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas and her husband Greg Parker, (L) and TEAM Chair Harold Bailey, Jr. with wife Bernicestine, TEAM Secretary, and RTM Representative Ellen Lautenberg (R).
The Eagles have Landed on Riverside Avenue
A pair of bald eagles have been enjoying the views from Riverside Avenue for the past several weeks as they have apparently joined the influx of new residents to move to the community. The two eagles often remain in the trees directly opposite Saugatuck Elementary School as they search for their next meal from the Saugatuck River below as passersby pull over to enjoy the nation’s bird. The species, which was considered endangered until 2007, is federally protected and on the rise across North America as their numbers continue to soar from its lowest count of just 417 nesting pairs in 1963 to 71,400 pairs in 2021, according to the Department of the Interior. Eagles are becoming increasingly common along Westport’s waterways, with several pairs spotted along the Nash’s Pond, Old Mill Beach, and throughout the Saugatuck corridor. WestportLocal.com photo
Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: His Visit to the Coleytown Neighborhood, a Westport Rabbi Arrested, and Their Messages in 2021
Temple Israel’s Rabbi Byron T. Rubenstein and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Westport Museum for History and Culture).
Originally written and published in 2021
As the Nation and World celebrates the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr today - Westport remembers him, his visit to our town, the arrest of a local rabbi, and the message of peace that can still be felt in Westport 56 years later.
A Connecticut Post newspaper article, showing (L-R) Temple Israel Rabbi Byron T. Rubenstein, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and former Congregation President Dan Rogers. Archived by The Westport Museum for History and Culture
Nine months after he said the words “I Have a Dream” in Washington D.C. and seven months before he would accept his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was in Westport, off of Coleytown Road, speaking before a crowd of over 600 people at Temple Israel.
The May 22nd, 1964 event was in celebration of the Congregation’s fifth anniversary; Rabbi Byron T. Rubenstein, a notable social justice advocate, invited Dr. King to join his congregation’s shabbat. The Westport Museum for History and Culture described the historic event last week during their Tuesday Treasures virtual talk, saying that King was strongly remembered as telling the crowd that “it is possible to stand up to an unjust system without hate”.
Those were words he would stand by and a relationship he would call on just weeks after his Westport visit, because 20 days after leaving our town, Dr. King was famously arrested for trespass in St. Augustine, Florida during a civil rights movement at the Monson Motor Lodge.
Two weeks after leaving Westport, a bullet broke glass at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s St. Augustine rental (Jim Kerlin/AP Photo)
From jail, Dr. King called on New Jersey friend Rabbi Israel Dresner to recruit other rabbis and head to St. Augustine and to join Civil Rights Movement that was gathering momentum. Westport’s Rabbi B. T. Rubenstein answered the call with Dresner and joined the St. Augustine movement, and was subsequently arrested - exactly one week after Dr. King - along with 16 other men; 15 of them rabbis. From the St. Johns County Jail, he co-wrote “Why We Went”, a letter from the men to the world about why they participated in the movement, saying “We came then, not as tourists, but as ones who, perhaps quixotically, thought we could add a bit to the healing process of America.”
Boston University Professor and former Temple Israel member Virginia Sapiro recounted the arrest of Rubenstein on her blog:
As the New York Times described it, on Thursday, the manager of the motel “met the demonstrators outside the restaurant, a few feet from the swimming pool. ‘This is private property and I will have to ask you to leave,’ [he] said. When the demonstrators refused to do so, he began pushing. First he pushed the leaders and one by one he pushed the rabbis. As one rabbi was pushed aside another would step forward to take his place.” White onlookers shouted, already angry because the demonstrators had conducted a prayer service the night before. Martin Luther King, watching from across the street, described “raw police brutality,” including beatings and the use of cattle prods.
One of those rabbis was mine, Rabbi Byron T. Rubenstein, of Temple Israel in Westport, Connecticut. My family was very involved in the congregation, and when Rabbi Rubenstein set off for Florida, knowing he might not be back for Shabbat services, he asked some members of the congregation, including my father, to fill in for him, which my dad was glad to do. It seemed obvious to us that the religious and spiritual convictions we talked about so often were not just consistent with the resistance to segregation, but demanded that those who could summon the bravery to act must do so. It was slightly less than 20 years since the liberation of the concentration camps.
The arrests of King and Rubenstein only fortified their own feelings of peace and love for the work they were doing. According to Westport author Sally Allen, Rabbi Rubenstein told Westport's The Town Crier that he was “enthusiastic about the determination of Dr. King.” following his overnight arrest in Florida. Ten years after the arrest, Rubenstein was quoted in Woody Allen’s Westport, Connecticut, saying “‘It was in jail that I came to know the greatness of Dr. King.’”.
Westporter Mary-Lou Weisman describes her memories of the Civil Rights Movement in the South during a June 2020 Black Lives Matter protest on Downtown Westport. (Photo: Jaime Bairaktaris/WestportNow.com)
During Summer of 2020, Westport experienced social justice movements throughout the downtown and Post Road areas - with thousands converging on the town in support of Black Lives Matter. The movements - which were planned and organized in conjunction with the Town of Westport and other local organizations - were peaceful, and brought the community together; for some it was the first time being with others since the pandemic began in March.
Despite the pandemic, the world remained together - something that Dr. King wanted Westporters to do even back in 1964, telling the crowd at Temple Israel that “because of scientific genius, the world has become geographically one. It must be socially one as well. We must live together or perish.”
Dr. King’s words are just as powerful today as they were in 1964. Modern “scientific genius” allowed our world to become geographically one as children Zoomed their teachers and COVID-19 patients Facetimed family from hospital beds - taking the miles between them and bringing them just inches apart; screen-to-screen.
The Black Lives Matter protest on Downtown Westport (Photo: Jaime Bairaktaris/WestportNow.com)
2020 was the year that community members masked-up, walked together, and demanded racial justice; mere miles away and decades after Dr. King’s speech to Westport community members on remaining peaceful, together, and continuing to fight for justice.
2020 was the year our communities chose to live together, not perish, while standing 6 feet apart.
We remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., his visit to Westport, and the message that he left us - one that means just as much today as it did then in 1964.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15th, 1929 and was assassinated April 4th, 1968 at the age of 39. The civil rights activist would have been 92 years old on Friday.
Rabbi Byron T. Rubenstein served as a Navy chaplain with the Marines in the Pacific during World War II, and went on lead Temple Israel from 1959 until 1982. He passed away in July of 1990 at the age of 74.
Morning Weather Report
Today
Mostly sunny, with a high near 41. Wind chill values between 15 and 25. Northwest wind 9 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.
Tonight
Mostly clear, with a low around 26. Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph becoming light after midnight.
Tomorrow
A 20 percent chance of rain after 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 45. Calm wind becoming west around 5 mph.
Tomorrow Night
Mostly cloudy, with a steady temperature around 39. Light west wind.
New Neighbors: Skin Laundry California brings Laser Facials to Main Street
Skin Laundry California has announced its next clinic location will be at 135 Main Street, in the former location of Marine Layer. The company offers laser facials in their locations in Colorado, California, New York, Arizona, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, the Middle East, and northern Africa. Their arrival is slated for this Spring. WestportLocal.com photo
Morning Weather Report
Today
Mostly sunny, with a high near 40. Wind chill values between 15 and 25. North wind 13 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph.
Tonight
Partly cloudy, with a low around 24. Wind chill values between 15 and 20. North wind around 9 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.
Tomorrow
Mostly sunny, with a high near 41. Wind chill values between 15 and 25. Northwest wind 9 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.
Tomorrow Night
Mostly clear, with a low around 26. Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph becoming light after midnight.
Joanne Hupp Umphrey, 92, Died; Mother to Six Staples Graduates, Unitarian Church Member
Joanne Hupp Umphrey, 92, passed away peacefully at her daughter's home in Bloomfield, MI, surrounded by her family. The beloved wife, grandmother and great grandmother will be greatly missed by her second husband Jim Umphrey, her six children, 24 grandchildren, and 38 great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her first husband of 52 years, Arthur Hupp.
Joanne and Arthur moved to Westport in 1963. Joanne loved the culture, entertainment and excitement of NYC, and the opportunity for international travel that Art's job presented. In Westport, she raised her six children, all of whom graduated from Staples 1969-1977. She also indulged her love of gardening, and discovered her spiritual home in the Unitarian church. The medical emergencies of child rearing eventually led her to pursue a nursing degree through Norwalk hospital. In 1977 Art's job took them back to Michigan and then on to Arkansas for retirement. Joanne remarried in 2005 to her high school sweetheart. They returned to Michigan to be closer to family in 2013.
Joanne loved to dance, to write (presenting her family with her memoir at age 86), to garden, to golf, to play games with grands and great grands, to read, and to listen to music. All of her family will carry with them her humor, her smile, her joy in living life and her tradition of helping others as they remember her and the lessons she taught them.