WESTPORT — There was some maritime drama Wednesday as high winds overpowered a sailboat from New York motoring on Long Island Sound. The 30-foot vessel with two men aboard was forced into the rocky outcropping off Compo Beach called Cedar Point. The Norwalk Police Marine Unit rescued the two...

NORWALK, Conn. — Some Norwalk announcements for you:. ENNA shredding event Saturday at East Norwalk Library. Join the Maritime Aquarium’s City Nature Challenge effort. East Norwalk residents can shred up to three boxes of unwanted documents for free (additional boxes cost $5 each) at East Norwalk Neighborhood Association’s Fourth Community Contactless Drive-Thru Shredding Event, according to a news release. It’s for documents only—no binders or electronic devices. Bring you stuff to the East Norwalk Library parking lot, located at 51 Van Zant Street from 9 a.m. until noon this Saturday April 22. Non-East Norwalk residents will be charged $10 per box.

Back in the summer of 2012, I became alarmed when I saw yellow pesticide application signs on the edge of Pinkney Park in Rowayton because it’s situated along the Five Mile River, which provides habitat for aquatic organisms, fish, songbirds, amphibians, and small mammals. It is also the site...

NORWALK, Conn. — Fine Fettle, a Connecticut-based cannabis company, was approved Wednesday to open a location in Norwalk and will become the first recreational cannabis retailer in the city. Ben Zachs, Fine Fettle’s chief operating officer, said that the company currently has four locations in Connecticut, including a hybrid...

NORWALK, Conn. — Some Norwalk announcements for you:. Chubb’s $148K funds Maritime Aquarium vessel battery upgrade. Norwalk High School senior Ben Bradley was recently named 27th annual recipient of the Kevin M. Eidt Memorial Norwalk High School Scholarship. Bradley received a $110,000 scholarship, and was recognized by the Fund’s selection committee as the “the most outstanding senior in the Norwalk High School Class of 2023,” due to his “outstanding depth of commitment and breadth of interests, involvements, and accomplishments across the spectrum of academics, athletics, arts, and community and religious service, all areas in which Kevin participated and excelled.”

NORWALK, Conn. — Norwalk Police have made an arrest in response to a Friday shooting on Day Street, in which one man was injured. Norwalk Combined Dispatch received multiple phone calls at 11:48 p.m. reporting shots fired in the vicinity of 30 Day St., an NPD news release said.

NORWALK, Conn. — Norwalk’s Charter Revision Commission is going further than some citizens expected. Though some perceived the Commission would stick with cleaning up the charter and leave more controversial items to a following election, the Commission is drafting a charter revision that would make give the Mayor a four-year term. The detailed revision to that passage includes having the Mayor inaugurated in January, not two weeks after the election, as is done now.

Definition: Democracy; a way of governing which depends on the will of the people. On November 7, 2023 Norwalk residents will have the opportunity to vote in favor or against the adoption of the proposed new city charter should the council move it forward. Public input has begun but this task should not simply be in the hands of review by seven citizens appointed by the current mayor. Along with a Common Council make up that severely lacks balance of power and representation. The city charter acts as our local constitution. It makes up the structure of our city’s government and addresses elected positions held such as Mayor, Common Council, Board of Education and appointed officials to boards and commissions. One public hearing is slated to take place before the new revisions are sent for approval with the council in August. If the Council approves, the referendum makes the ballot on November 7, 2023 and a new city charter is adopted if the people so choose. Elected officials need to be held accountable in an effort to ensure that our budget process, land use, public safety and overall impacts to our communities decision making is properly and fairly addressed. The Norwalk city charter was developed in 1913 and there is no doubt that we need to modernize the charter to meet the needs of residents today. With that we cannot further give up the power that lies with residents and succumb to the bureaucracy that exists in our city today. The current city charter along with the discussions of those proposed allows for continued power struggles between the Mayor and the Council. We saw this power struggle with the BOE budget in February. The Mayor voted for a 4% increase and the Council voted for an additional $1 Million to be added to the BOE budget. However, when the recommended budget came to the table with the Board of Estimate and Taxation, those appointed individuals by the current Mayor rejected the vote of the Common Council for the additional $1 Million to the Norwalk BOE.

Updating a 100-year-old document is tedious. Until last month, the Charter Revision Commission’s minutes and zoom videos reflected discussion mainly around updating archaic language and outdated processes or positions. It’s vital the charter is made easier to read, so the public understands the structure and rules under which Norwalk’s government currently operates. Many involved in the revision elements that failed in 2016 were led to believe that more “consequential” changes to Norwalk’s governance would be reviewed once the document was made more legible. That appears not to be the case. Once again, a four-year mayoral term is being proposed, without the same term changes to the Common Council and without securing more checks and balances. Why?

The legislature’s Appropriations Committee ran headfirst Tuesday into the state budget spending cap. In a bipartisan vote of 40-12, the Democrat-controlled panel endorsed a $51 billion budget for the next two fiscal years that would soften the big funding cut Gov. Ned Lamont proposed for public colleges and universities while dedicating significant new funding for federally qualified health clinics.

A man who used a stolen riot shield to crush a police officer in a doorframe during the U.S. Capitol insurrection was sentenced on Friday to more than seven years in prison for his role in one of the most violent episodes of the Jan. 6 attack. Federal prosecutors had...

NORWALK, Conn. — Last July, then-Tax Assessor William Ford predicted that switching to new software would result in “a great efficiency” for his department. Now that the software transition has been made, things aren’t going well for the adjacent department, the tax collectors. “We had a...

The “Joint Favorable Report” (JF) is a critical legislative document that is ideally a dispassionate, unbiased summary account of the oral and written testimony of any bill that receives a public hearing and moves to the floor. It is the historical legislative record of a bill that lives on and is often relied upon by legislators and referred to in subsequent years. Legislators who do not sit on the reviewing committee very often rely on the JF report to understand the bill, and review the summary of supporting or opposing testimony, with the inclusion of links to the full written testimony should they want further details. Legislators often use the JF when deciding on a bill brought to the floor for a vote. Clearly, it is important that JF reports are thoughtful and accurate.

On a clear day you can see it from the Connecticut shoreline (only about 20 miles away). But actually getting to Long Island often involves a very long, out-of-the-way journey. Maybe you’re going to LaGuardia or JFK. Or a Met’s game at Citi Field. Perhaps you’ll want to see the...

NORWALK, Conn. — The Common Council has made two moves toward sustainability, aiming to reduce waste at the transfer station while not spending a dime. The Common Council on Tuesday approved a no-cost contract with Eyerecycle, LLC, for collection and recycling of glass bottles and cans via popup events.

NORWALK, Conn. — Buster, a 15-year-old rescue dog, was out for a walk Thursday on Shirley Street. Given that he’s about 80 in human years, he won’t go unless owner Cindy promises him a ride for part of the way. Buster’s previous human thought he was aggressive...

Do you rent out your home a few weekends a year through Airbnb? Sell stuff on Etsy? Get paid for pet-sitting? If you, like many Americans, make at least US$600 a year with a side hustle of any kind, the way you pay taxes may soon change. New rules are...

NORWALK, Conn. — Some Common Council news:. Middle school restroom renovations moving toward completion. NHMS & WRMS kids to find renovated restrooms this fall. Restroom renovations are set to resume at Nathan Hale and West Rocks Middle Schools, picking up the project begun just over two years ago. “In...

NORWALK, Conn. — The plan to rent 30 parking spaces in the Eagles lot at 6 Mott Ave., just down the street from the Norwalk Public Library main branch, was unanimously approved by Common Council members Tuesday. Nothing was said about the option to buy real estate broker Jason Milligan’s lot, between the two properties, and no comments were made about the rental.

NORWALK, Conn. — In a presentation to the Common Council’s Ad Hoc Sustainability and Resilience Committee, Louise Washer and Richard Harris, two members of the Mayor’s Water Quality Committee, voiced concerns over PFAS chemicals in waterways, soil, and more in Norwalk. “It’s such an emerging science and...