EverythingWestport - Westport in brief March 30, 2014

Westport in Brief!

EverythingWestport.com

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

photos/EverythingWestport.com

Quick Article Index . . .

Letter to the editor: Support ballot questions 1 & 2.

Albert E. Lees III, third-generation supermarket owner, philanthropist, and historian speaks out in a Letter to the editor.

Third annual Rabies Clinic best ever says Westport’s Animal Control Officer.

Letter to the editor: Support ballot questions 1 & 2.

“It does not matter where you live in town, YOU are a Westport resident and the Town needs your support now more than ever.”

EverythingWestport.com

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Letter to the Editor,

I am asking my fellow residents of Westport to support Ballot questions 1 & 2 at our annual Town election on April 8th.

Ballot Question One creates a capital improvement stabilization fund that will allow the town to have a realistic capital improvement plan that will finally be funded to address the Town’s ever growing capital replacement, maintenance, and repair needs that have gone unattended to for over a decade.

Westport currently has a Police station that is partially unusable due to mold contamination, a middle school that has PCB contamination, and several other building and equipment needs that need to be addressed just to be able operate on a daily basis. If this fund is established, you as a resident will have a voice each year at our annual Town Meeting on how the funds are to be appropriated and spent. This fund is in no way a “blank check” for Town Officials. You as a resident will have the final say on any and all expenditures from this fund.

Ballot Question Two would provide a long overdue adjustment to the operating budgets of the town and school departments. The entire Town operating budget has been reduced by over $4,000,000.00 since 2009 due to the reduction of state aid/support. Positions have been lost or left vacant, programs have been cut and key services have suffered on both the town and school side.

“If both ballot questions pass the cost for the average household ($375,000.00 value) in Westport will be $189.00 per year. That breaks down to $47.45 per quarter, or $0.52 cents per day.” – Brian Legendre

I am proud to be a lifelong resident of Westport. I hope we as a community can come together to support our town no matter if you are a lifelong resident or new to town, have children in the school system or are retired. It does not matter where you live in town, YOU are a Westport resident and the Town needs your support now more than ever.

Please vote YES for questions 1 & 2 on Tuesday April 8, 2014.

Sincerely,

Brian R. Legendre

1118 Drift Road

Westport

Albert E. Lees III, third-generation supermarket owner, philanthropist, and historian speaks out in a Letter to the editor.

EverythingWestport.com

Friday, March 28, 2014

“Rarely, if ever, do I send letters or emails stating my opinion or positing a position. I am making an exception with this, for it deals with a town, and a person, that I care deeply about. Of course the town is Westport, and the person is Jack Healy. I would hope that my commitment to the place I, and my family, have called home for as long as Westport has been a town goes without saying. It is a place that I had no choice of being born into, but had a choice in staying. I chose to stay and I have never regretted my choice for one minute.

My reason for this email is to speak about a man of integrity and purpose, Jack Healy. I have had many dealings with him, some public and some under the radar screen. Before anyone starts a conspiracy theory, my under the radar screen involvement is a joint effort to bring reading skills to children with learning differences. We had great success in our test group but little support from individuals within the schools. That's a comment, not the point of this. The point is that Jack has quietly gone about his business with the singular purpose of helping people. Period. No agenda and no ax to grind. Because of this, I admire him as a person, consider him my friend, and am sad to see him leave.

Our town is as divisive as I have ever seen it, and I have a few years of perspective. While I have my own particular take, the reality is that any thinking person who looks at our town, its finances and its politics would think that we are nuts. Yes, nuts is the appropriate word. And my guess is that Jack, who has tried during his tenure to bring a sense of reason and civility, and civility is the operative word in the conversation finally got fed up. One definition of insanity is banging one's head against the wall continually and expecting a different outcome ( or something like that ). How many meetings, how many committees, and how many sleepless nights can one have, knowing that this town is at a financial Armageddon, and watch people not connect the dots before they throw up their hands and throw in the towel?

The financial condition of this town is either at or very close to dire. Any of us can pick apart nickels and dimes but it's the dollars that we need to focus on. All of us can nitpick, and I certainly have done my share, however; Jack and lately Steve have brought what I believe to be a reasonable take on where we are financially. Jack's work in Westport is done, and he should be applauded as the wonderful man that he is, who only had the best interest of the people in the town in his mind and in his heart.

Our financial issues will live beyond Jack's tenure; it is ours to deal with. And these issues need to be dealt with sooner than later. It sickens me to listen to every group, and I mean every group, who wants to deal with their own agendas without focusing on the real agenda... a comprehensive fiscally responsible path for the long term success of Westport. This lack of responsibility is pulling us as a community further apart, and will ultimately be our downfall, unless or until we become adults and, as my father often said " play the cards we're dealt" ... which loosely means owning our responsibilities and dealing with them.

Jack's legacy might well be illuminating a path out, or our Achilles heel. Good for him, he's done his job. Now it's now up to us to step up to our responsibilities.

Thank you Jack. ... Job well done. You will be missed here but your skills will be embraced by others. Fishing and camping ain't so bad either!”

Al Lees

Third annual Rabies Clinic best ever says Westport’s Animal Control Officer.

EverythingWestport.com

March 29, 2014

Westport’s Hixbridge Fire Station went to the dogs Sunday morning and to the cats as well.

“We had the best turnout yet,” said Westport’s Animal Control Officer, Donna Lambert. “We vaccinated 55 cats and dogs by 11:15 a.m.”

The third annual Rabies Clinic was held at the Hixbridge Road Fire Station, 54 Hixbridge Road, Westport from 10:00 a.m. to noon. The building was a literal zoo with the dogs and cat carriers flooding in, keeping the volunteers busy but happy.

“Rabies is such a terrible disease. And it can be so easily spread from a bite, or just contact with an infected animal’s saliva onto a person’s open cut on their hand.”

The cost of the vaccination was $12.00 per pet, cat or dog.

All pets must be in carriers or on a leash, Lambert said.

“Rabies is such a terrible disease. And it can be so easily spread from a bite, or just contact with an infected animal’s saliva onto a person’s open cut on their hand,” said attending veterinarian Dr. Kimberly Kleinfeld DVM.

Lambert noted that in order for a pet owner to get the three-year vaccine, they had to present a recent certificate of the last rabies vaccination.

Westport Town Clerk Marlene Samson said a valid, current rabies certificate is required to obtain a dog license.

For more information please call Donna Lambert at 508.636.1122.

Left: busy morning at the fire house. Right: Westport’s Animal Control Officer with just a few of the cats that received vaccinations.

Left: Dr. Kimberly Kleinfeld DVM vaccinates this willing Doberman/German Shepherd/Labrador mix. Right: Animal Control Officer Lambert and Dr. Kleinfeld with a beautiful Doberman.

Above: These volunteers had a hard time keeping up with issuing the rabies certificates.

EverythingWestport.com