Students and school officials at Darien High School’s graduation ceremony on Thursday gave the Class of 2018 plenty of advice, with humor on the side, occasional moving moments to add to the traditions of robes and marching, the throwing of mortar boards and the receiving of diplomas. The sun shone bright and hot, the speeches were relatively short and the ceremony appeared to have gone as planned — but the speeches had their own original touches on common themes. Here’s a sampling of what the speakers said:
Darien Public Schools Superintendent Dan Brenner, at presumably his last Darien High School graduation as he leaves for the United Nations International School, asked grandparents in the crowd to stand up, and then, parents who were attending the first graduation of any of their children, and other parents. “This is a day of celebration,” he said, “one that is filled with may emotions, not the least of which is pride.” Brenner quoted a Chinese saying, “One generation plants the trees while the next generation enjoys the shade.”
These properties recently were sold in Darien, according to records in the Town Clerk’s Office:
50 Talmadge Hill Road — Nationstar Mortgage LLC of 8950 Cypress Waters Blvd., Dallas, to Robert Ingraham, sold June 13, filed June 15, $1,155,000
24 Edmond St. — John Saez and Angela Saez to Gene Collins and Nancy Collins, sold June 8, filed June 15, $1,349,000
27 Sunset Road — James Antoszewski and Jennifer Antoszewski to Sydney Wolfe and Mary Wolfe, sold June 8, filed June 18, $1,385,000
28 Swifts Lane — Alphonse Palmer and Patsy Palmer to Michael Gosk and Elizaeth Gosk, sold June 13, filed June 18, $2,800,000
97 Gardiner St. — Jeffrey Colombo and Ashley Colombo to Markus Fischer and Danielle Kennedy, sold June 14, filed June 18, $1,249,000 — PICTURED
25 Crooked Mile Road — James R. Meagher Revocable trust to Holly Werner Trust, sold June 15, filed June 19, $1,537,000
67 Salem Straits — Clover Properties LLC of 142 Goodwives River Road to Sebastian Jesperson, sold June 18, filed June 19, $6,400,000
71 Kensett Lane — Sun Homes Darien II LLC of 100 Kensett Lane to Udemo Ekong, sold June 15, filed June 19, $1,495,000
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See also:
New Canaan Real Estate Boards Start Trial Run in Banning ‘For Sale’ Signs (June 5)
Darien home sales:
Devon Road House Sells for $1,173,600 and Other Darien Home Sales (June 15)
Edgerton St House Goes for $1.56 Million and Other Darien Home Sales (June 6)
Parsons Walk House Goes for $1.85 Million and Other Darien Home Sales (May 31)
Darien & Rowayton Real Estate Reports:
Darien & Rowayton Real Estate Report: June 14 to 21 (June 21)
Darien & Rowayton Real Estate Report: June 7 to 14 (June 14)
Darien & Rowayton Real Estate Report: May 31 to June 7 (June 7)
Here’s Deirdre McGovern’s report on Darien and Rowayton real estate for June 14 to 21, 2018:
This week’s Darien highlights:
9 New to Market Listings in Darien
27 Price Reductions in Darien
6 Accepted Offers in Darien
9 Closed Sales in Darien
51 Open Houses in Darien
This week’s Rowayton highlights:
2 New to Market Listings in Rowayton
8 Price Reductions in Rowayton
2 Accepted Offers in Rowayton
1 Closed Sales in Rowayton
12 Open Houses in Rowayton
New Listings
Address
Town
Sq Feet
Price
6 Pratt Island
Darien
4683
$5,299,000
35 Rowayton Avenue
Rowayton
5543
$5,250,000
75 Kensett Lane
Darien
4500
$1,995,000
3 Seagate Road
Darien
3000
$1,695,000
21 Outlook Avenue
Darien
2352
$1,425,000
7 Garden City Road
Darien
2938
$1,298,000
34 Country Club Road
Darien
2863
$1,149,000
35 Dickinson Road
Darien
2109
$1,049,000
5 Possum Circle
Rowayton
2352
$899,000
84 Hecker Avenue
Darien
1562
$699,000
14 Raymond Street
Darien
1150
$675,000
Price Changes
Address
Town
Original Price
Previous Price
Current Price
14 Raymond Street
Darien
$675,000
Saturday, 1-4:00 PM
Deirdre McGovern is a real estate agent who has called Darien home for almost 25 years. She has been involved in many local organizations. She can be reached at 203-554-0897or deirdre.mcgovern@raveis.com
More about Deirdre McGovern here. ___________
See also:
New Canaan Real Estate Boards Start Trial Run in Banning ‘For Sale’ Signs (June 5)
Darien & Rowayton Real Estate Reports:
Darien & Rowayton Real Estate Report: June 7 to 14 (June 14)
Darien & Rowayton Real Estate Report: May 31 to June 7 (June 7)
Darien & Rowayton Real Estate Report: May 24 to 31 (May 31)
Darien home sales:
Devon Road House Sells for $1,173,600 and Other Darien Home Sales (June 15)
Edgerton St House Goes for $1.56 Million and Other Darien Home Sales (June 6)
Parsons Walk House Goes for $1.85 Million and Other Darien Home Sales (May 31)
Darien Police Officer Derek Mulcahy says that one of the more frequent things he and other officers on the department’s police boat do when out on the water is tell boaters that they’re violating a safety regulation. “When we’re out there and we’re not responding to calls, we’re kind of driving around, out looking for boating violations,” Mulcahy, commander of the Marine Division, told the Darien Police Commission at a recent meeting. “A lot of it is just kind of educating people. We don’t see people intentionally breaking laws — a lot of people just don’t know what they’re supposed to do.” “Overloading boats — too many people on them — we see that a lot with the younger kids,” he said.
The Route 1 bridge over Interstate 95 by Exit 9, about a third of a mile from Darien, will be shut down for two weekends in either June or July of next summer, state transportation officials told Stamford and Darien officials last week. For those who would normally go over the bridge, there will be a detour starting at Hamilton Avenue — the first right turn for anyone driving from Darien on Route 1. A couple of turns later, drivers can turn onto Courtland Avenue to get back to Route 1. For anyone on the highway, the Exit 9 off ramps will be turned into two-lane temporary detours. Southbound highway traffic will then take the on-ramp back to the highway.
On July 12, 1994, a man now living in North Carolina, then aged 26, was driving while intoxicated in Darien and got arrested for it, police allege. He didn’t show up for court at some point, police say, and his rearrest was ordered on Sept. 7, 1994, according to state court records. On Tuesday, June 12, Stamford police informed police in Darien that the man was in custody, and they asked whether Darien police would arrest him. Darien police did. The man is now 50, almost double the age he was then.
Effective June 20, 2018, Two Quiet Cars remain available on every PEAK weekday train thanks to the “Quiet CALMmute” program. Effective this Wednesday, June 20, there will now be one Quiet Car on all off-peak trains to better accommodate customers, Metro-North announced Tuesday. During peak weekday periods, commuters already have two Quiet Cars, and that policy remains the same. They’re either the first two cars, for trains headed toward Grand Central Terminal, or the last two cars for trains headed away from the terminal. The same pattern will hold for the off-peak trains, only with one car: Headed inbound to Grand Central, the first car is the Quiet Car; headed outbound, it’s the last.
The Darien Arts Center is happy to welcome Maria Pizzarello of Stamford as its new Theatre Program director. She will oversee theatre programs for both adults and children at the DAC and is part of the team leading a series of three Audition Workshops for those 15 years and older on June 26, 27 and 28. Pizzarello has been a New York City public school teaching artist since 2005. In the past she has worked with the Theatre Development Fund, LeAP!, Onstage, Periwinkle Theater for Youth, and Theatre For A New Audience. — an announcement from Darien Arts Center
Her students have performed and adapted the work of Shakespeare, written their own plays, devised ensemble performance pieces, sang and danced in musical productions, and performed their peers’ work on a Broadway stage.
Ten unlocked vehicles were entered by thieves overnight Friday to Saturday in two areas of town, and two vehicles were stolen in each area: One area is south of St. John’s Cemetery; the other is on streets off of West Avenue near downtown Noroton Heights. The vehicles were all parked on side streets, not main roads leading to those streets, although some of the streets intersected only with main roads. In one case, police said, a victim’s surveillance camera, which monitored an entrance to the house near the doorbell, had captured some images:
It showed a light-colored sedan pass the house at 11 Lynn Ct. several times.
A man doing work in the restaurant space formerly occupied by the defunct Center Street Public House found that two iPads left there had been stolen when he returned to the vacated property, police said. (A May 19 post on the Center Street Public House Facebook account says the bar and restaurant was to close on May 20 and would be replaced by a new restaurant, the Darien Grille.)
Police said this is what the man told them:
He returned to the vacated property at 22 Center St. at noon on Tuesday, June 12, and immediately noticed that the two iPads that had been left on the bar were no longer there. The devices were part of the ordering/register system that were being set up for the business moving in. As the man searched for the iPads, he also discovered that the beverage service lines under the bar had been severed. There were no signs of forced entry at the entrances.
For the fourth time in the past few years, a 28-year-old Darien man has been arrested on charges he was driving with a suspended driver’s license and in an unregistered vehicle. In the last three cases, he failed to appear in court, according to police and state Judicial Branch records. Darien police described what happened this way, including accusations not proven in court:
At 5:39 p.m., Sunday, a police officer on patrol saw a black 2009 Mercedes Benz without a front license plate being driven south on Fairfield Avenue. It was being driven south until it came closer to the patrol car, when the driver made an abrupt U-turn. The officer stopped the vehicle near the intersection of Fairfield and West avenues.
With less than one week before the finals competition of Darien’s Got Talent on Saturday, June 23, the Darien Arts Center has announced their stellar lineup of finals judges. Jane Bergère, Pat Gorman, Carolyn Paine, Ereka Vetrini and Chloe Bodt Sasson will judge the 21 talented finalists from Darien, New Canaan, Norwalk, Stamford, Greenwich, Westport, Bridgeport, Port Chester and South Salem at the 7 p.m. finals show at Darien High School. Producer Jane Bergère has been called “The Queen of Broadway.” The winner of multiple Tony awards as well as an Olivier award, Bergère will arrive to judge Darien’s Got Talent fresh from her Tony Award win for this year’s Angels in America. Her other Tony Awards include Hello Dolly! (2017 revival), Wolf Hall (2015), Kinky Boots (2013), La Cage Aux Folles, (2010 revival) Clybourne Park (2012), and Glengarry Glenn Ross (2005 revival).
Emily Larkin Arocha, who has led the Community Fund of Darien’s Thriving Youth Initiative, has been picked as one of Fairfield County Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” promising people in the county. Since October 2015, Arocha, who uses her maiden name professionally, has led the Thriving Youth Initiative with a mission of promoting healthy youth development by improving thriving indicators and reducing risk factors such as substance abuse and poor mental health. Her greatest accomplishment, according to an announcement from the Community Fund, has been her leadership of the innovative public health social media campaign, titled “06820,” to reduce teenage binge drinking in Darien. Susan Cator, president of the Darien Chamber of Commerce, nominated Larkin, who uses her maiden name professionally. “The Darien Chamber of Commerce nominated Emily for the 40 Under 40 award due to her contributions to the Darien community, especially the teens of our town,” Cator said.
“Dual Nature,” a painting by Lucy Armstrong, a student in Darien, has won first place in the oil painting category of the “Focus Under Forty” exhibit and arts competition at Rowayton Arts Center. Amit Cherbuchaw also of Darien won 3rd Place the Color Photography, “Joy.” Lucy will be one of the featured artists in the upcoming, Artists Talk on Wednesday night at RAC.
The show is for artists from the ages of 16 to 39, and it runs through this Sunday, June 24 (from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day). Armstrong will be part of the panel discussion on Wednesday from 6:30 to 8 p.m. where the young artists will talk about their art and what inspires it.
Tokeneke Principal Mary Michelson can now easily spot the school’s mascot from anywhere inside the school’s Common Room. Nestled among the painted trees, the Tokeneke “Eagle” is a prominent feature of a new mural painted by Darien High School students and commissioned by the fifth-grade class. “Every year at Tokeneke School our fifth-graders donate a gift to the school. This year they voted to have a mural painted in the Common Room,” said Michelson. “It is a true collaboration of talents between the two schools.”
Darien Public Schools (DPS) Art Coordinator Jaclyn Sammis and DHS student artists Liam Morrill, Nadia Czebiniak, Julia O’Brien, Emma Seely, and Alex Adelman completed the mural and presented it to the school. __________
See also: Darien Student Wins 1st Place in Oils Category, Another Darienite Gets 3rd Place for Photo in Rowayton Art Exhibit (June 18)
__________
Tokeneke was scheduled to hold its moving up ceremony this morning, Monday, June 18 at 9:15 a.m. in the Common Room.
