Governor and Lt. Governor Invite the Public to the 9/11 Memorial Ceremony at Sherwood Island on September 9th
Governor’s OfficeGovernor Ned Lamont and Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz are inviting members of the public to attend the State of Connecticut’s annual 9/11 Memorial Ceremony, honoring and celebrating the lives of those killed in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
This year’s ceremony will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 9, 2021, at Sherwood Island State Park in Westport. Family members of those who were killed in the attacks will participate, and the names of the 161 victims with ties to Connecticut will be read aloud.
The State of Connecticut’s official memorial honoring the victims of the attacks is located on a peninsula at the state park, where on a clear day the Manhattan skyline can be viewed across Long Island Sound. It features a memorial engraved with the names of the people with ties to Connecticut who were killed in the attacks. The state park was chosen as the site for the memorial because it is the location where, in the hours following the attacks, many people gathered to observe the devastation on Lower Manhattan from across Long Island Sound. The site was also used by the Connecticut National Guard in the days immediately following as a staging area for Connecticut’s relief efforts to New York City.
Every year, the State of Connecticut purposefully holds its ceremony on a day prior to the actual anniversary in order to accommodate the family members and friends of the victims. Because Connecticut is in such close proximity to New York City, many people who lost loved ones in the attacks also attend the annual ceremony that is held at the site of the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11.
For those who cannot attend in person, it is anticipated that the Connecticut Network will stream the ceremony live online at www.ct-n.com. An on-demand video will also be made available on the website shortly after its conclusion.
PJ Pacifico Joins Weston Historical Society’s Music at the Barn
Local performing artist PJ Pacifico entertained last night’s crowd alongside the Weston Historical Society’s barn as part of their Music at the Barn series. The next artist playing from the lawn will be Chris Coogan on September 12th. Photo by JC Martin for WestportLocal.com
Wheels2U On-Demand Metro North Buses Expands Service to Coleytown Neighborhood
Wheels2U Westport, the Westport Transit District’s on-demand, group ride, door to train platform shuttle service, is expanding its service area to serve even more of Westport. Effective Monday, August 30, Wheels2U Westport will add the area from Coleytown Road to the Weston border to its service area. The new addition is bounded by North Avenue, Lyons Plains Road and Coleytown Road and includes all of Arlen Road, Fraser Road, Fraser Lane and Snowflake Lane. With this expansion Wheels2U Westport now provides convenient service to over 90% of all Westport.
Residents living in the Wheels2UWestport service area will be able to use the Wheels2U Westport app to request a pickup between 5:45 AM and 9:45 AM and between 4 PM and 8 PM and be taken to or from the Saugatuck or Greens Farms train platform and their front door. Pickups should be requested about 20 minutes before you would normally leave to drive to the station. The fare is $2.00 when paid with the Wheels2U app. A Metro North Uniticket rail/bus pass can also be used.
For more information about Wheels2U go to www.wheels2uwestport.com. For more information about the Westport Transit District’s services for the elderly and people with disabilities go to www.WestportTransit.org
Morning Weather Report
Today
A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a high near 84. Southwest wind 5 to 8 mph.
High Tides: 5:42 AM/5:57 PM
Low Tide: 11:47 AM
Tonight
A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 2am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 69. Southwest wind 5 to 7 mph becoming calm after midnight.
Tomorrow
Partly sunny, with a high near 83. Calm wind becoming west around 6 mph in the afternoon.
Tomorrow Night
A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2am. Increasing clouds, with a low around 68. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
Hundreds Join Bluefish Tournament as a 17 Pounder Tops the List for $25k Prize
After hundreds joined in on the Long Island Sound Bluefish Tournament this weekend, Joseph Gallo pulled up this 17.27lb blue this afternoon that topped the charts as he weighed in at Fisherman’s Paradise in Milford. The grand prize for the tournament is $25,000, with dozens of Westporters heading onto the Sound today for their chance at the cash after yesterday’s small craft advisory forced many boats to remain at port. Photo by Fisherman’s Paradise.
WAAC Culture Corner: Leaf-ing for September with John Waski
Art by John WaskiPrepared by WAAC Member and Westport Poet Laureate Diane LowmanWelcome back to the Westport Local Press’s Westport Arts Advisory Committee’s “Culture Corner.” Each month, the WAAC scours our 33.45 square miles and highlight one of the many artists – visual, written, performance, and other – who call Westport home. These artists create a spectrum of color that shines over town like the rainbows often seen over the Saugatuck, so we have made “color” our theme.
In September, just as the foliage takes on rainbow hues of its own, we focus on the colors of those leaves: brown and deep burgundy, among others, as we highlight local visual artist John Waski.
I have known John and his family for most of the 20+ years that I’ve lived in Westport; his daughters and my boys attended KHS together. Waski and his wife Norma run a product design and branding business from their home studio here in town. He studied fine art and design at the Atlanta College of Art, and she has a corporate background, so they married not only each other, but their skills too, to create this successful venture.
Working from their home office (since long before COVID-19) allows Waski the freedom to pursue his own personal art as well. He sketches constantly, and his subjects and media have evolved over time. He finds inspiration in the world around him and from fellow artists such as Jim Dine and Antoni Tapies. I have followed him on social media for as long as I’ve known him and appreciate his style and focus on the natural world. It was, in fact, the paintings that he did on dried leaves that drew me to his work, and I purchased not only two of those but one of his skull series as well.
He now works on large canvases in his home studio, incorporating organic materials into the enamel paintings. Waski notes: “This ‘Distant Figure’ series relates to the human relationship with nature. At times we forget that we are all part of nature. We tend to surround ourselves with material objects that make living with nature easier, and sometimes that creates a disconnect. Portraying a skeletal image of a stripped figure shows the vulnerability of our relationship with the environment. The pose, whether lying, sitting, or bending in an awkward way gives the sense of being out of balance or uncomfortable withing nature.”
He has shown his work in Mesa, AZ, Bridgeport at the Discovery Museum, and in a Brooklyn gallery. His community involvement included creating birdhouses for the Project Return fundraising auctions for several years; he created one from a small guitar. He feels strongly that art ought not to “spoon feed” perspectives to viewers, but rather encourage them to ask questions and begin a dialogue. In his case, he hopes to provoke questions about our relationship to the environment – and how we might improve it.
Waski plans a pop-up show of his work this month at his 2 Ivanhoe Lane studio: Please feel free to see him and his artwork there on 9/24 from 6-8pm, and 9/25&26 from 12-5pm, or on Instagram @johnwaski.
Midday Sun Peaks Through Flowers
A recently planted lavender bush shares midday sun with the Saugatuck community. Words and photo by Preston Siroka for WestportLocal.com
