Darienite (https://darienite.com/category/news)
Local news for Darienites.
A woman leaving Stony Brook Park saw the window of her car had been smashed, and a male was still inside the vehicle. She yelled at him, and he fled, driving away in a white Toyota 4runner, she told police. The incident took place shortly before 4:56 p.m. on July 30, a Saturday. Police went to the scene. Nothing appeared to be missing from the vehicle, the woman told police.
This year’s comedy fundraiser for The Undies Project will take place in a holy setting in the cause of diminishing the number of holey underpants. — an announcement from The Undies Project
You will not want to miss The Undies Project’s fundraiser “Hilarity for Charity,” returning this year to an in-person event. “Hilarity for Charity” will take place at 7 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 10 at the First Presbyterian Church of Stamford, (aka the “Fish Church”) located at 1101 Bedford St. You can expect to enjoy hors d’oeuvres and desserts by Aux Délices, an open bar with an event specialty cocktail, a magnificent silent auction and of course many laughs.
If you’re looking for family fun this summer, consider visiting one of this state’s many living museums celebrating our state’s rail heritage. And remember — kids get in free at Connecticut museums this summer! The Shore Line Trolley Museum
This museum in East Haven was founded in 1945 and now boasts more than 100 trolley cars in its collection. It’s on the National Registry and is the oldest continuously operating suburban trolley line in the U.S.
The museum is still running excursion trolleys for a three-mile run on tracks once used by The Connecticut Company for its “F Line” from New Haven to Branford. You can also walk through the car barns and watch volunteers painstakingly restoring the old cars.
Nature is alive at the Noroton Heights train station. There are fresh new plantings of native shrubs and plants with fragrant blossoms attracting bees, butterflies and birds. — an announcement from The Commuter Action Group
The new plantings are the work of Darien’s Beautification Commission and a grant from The Commuter Action Group, a rider advocacy group founded by Darien’s Jim Cameron. “Commuters deserve a break,” Cameron said. “I’m so glad we can bring a little beauty into their time at the train station.
The MTA, parent of Metro-North, did something rare last week: They told us the unvarnished truth. Not that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has outright lied to us before. Well, at least not very often. But they are the masters of obfuscation and garbled communication. Consider these gems:
“Wear A Mask,” now part of their daily mantra.
A man renting a condominium unit on Gideon Lane was woken up at 1:15 a.m. to a nightmare when, according to police, he found his new landlord standing in his bedroom, holding a knife and yelling at him, demanding to know when he was moving out. Darien police gave this account of what happened, including accusations not proven in court:
The landlord, Nancy Micha, 58, of Milford, apparently took over from her late brother, who was renting out the condominium unit. Micha planned to sell the residence and had told the renter she wanted him out by Aug. 1 (this coming Monday). The renter, who went to police the following afternoon, told them that Micha, without warning, started stabbing his bed and the walls of the bedroom.
A faithful reader of this column sent me some disturbing pictures last week. Joe C was driving on the Merritt Parkway in Norwalk when he saw a FedEx tractor-trailer moving southbound. His passenger snapped these pictures:
This is so wrong — a serious accident waiting to happen. Trucks are, with few exceptions, not allowed on the Parkway — and with good reason. All of the bridges on the Merritt Parkway, originally built to a minimum standard of eleven feet at the abutments, are too low for big trucks.
It should have been done by now. 2018 was the expected completion date of the new railroad tunnels under the Hudson River, first proposed in 2009. At that time the $9 billion project was the biggest infrastructure project in the country. Now it may finally happen. Why do rail tunnels from New York’s Penn Station to New Jersey matter to us here in Connecticut?
When a Darien police officer saw a vehicle traveling on the Post Road without a front license plate and a back license plate that had been reported stolen, it resulted in charges against the 36-year-old driver, police said. Police gave this additional information, including accusations not proven in court:
The officer spotted the lack of a front license plate on the car at about 12:23 p.m. on Wednesday, July 13, on the Post Road near its intersection with Richmond Drive. A check of state Department of Motor Vehicles records indicated that the rear license plate was stolen in Stamford, the city where the woman lives. She was charged with sixth-degree larceny (misuse of marker plates) and released on a written promise to appear on Friday, July 22, in state Superior Court in Stamford.
Hundreds of runners and others, along with music, games, sponsor booths, a silent auction and entertainment will all be part of the 42nd Annual Darien Road Race and Family Fun Day on Sunday, Sept. 18. The event will start at 9 a.m. that day at Pear Tree Point Beach, and race registration is now open. — an announcement from The Community Fund of Darien
You can register here. The race attracts more than 600 people and more than 450 runners of all ages participate.
Yes, there are new trains on the Waterbury branch — and three new express trains from New Haven, but overall our rail service in Connecticut is still too slow. Why? Governor Lamont and CDOT Commissioner Guilietti ballyhooed their new train PR last week as if they’d solved the commuting problem. They have not. Still, kudos to Commuter Council Chair and Waterbury branch rider Jim Gildea for his tireless efforts to build up service on that branch line.
Police officers responding to a report of an erratic driver said they found the man apparently asleep, behind the wheel of a car resting partly on a lawn, with the gear shift still set in “Drive.” The officers said they also found some heroin in one of his pockets. Darien police gave this additional account of what happened, including accusations not proven in court:
Police were called at 9:13 p.m. on Tuesday, July 12. They found the car and its driver near the intersection of Glenvale Road and Christie Hill Road. An officer reached in the vehicle and set the gear shift to park and woke up the man — David Sabrowski, 61, of Allen O’Neill Drive.
Tickets are now on sale for the Darien Land Trust’s Farm to Table Dinner on Saturday, August 27, at 6 p.m. Waterbury Field will once again come alive with twinkling lights and white-linen tables set with wildflowers for 250 guests to dine at a Darien Land Trust property. A cocktail reception will kick off the evening at 6 p.m. with not only a cocktail, but wines from Sipstirs and craft beer from Two Roads Brewing. The reception will be followed by dinner served in the field. Live music will be provided by Merlin, a Westchester-Fairfield cover band playing rock classics. — an announcement from The Darien Land Trust
A three-course menu sourced from local farms has been created by Rebecca Thorpe of Copper Cricket Events.
When we get on an airplane we buckle up, read the safety card and are given a demonstration on the oxygen masks and emergency exits. Those things can save lives should something go wrong. But when we get on a train, either Metro-North or Amtrak, we settle into our seat and zone out. We assume we’re safe. That’s what passengers on an Amtrak train in Missouri thought this past week… until their train’s locomotive hit a dump truck on an unguarded private grade crossing and derailed.
A Lyft driver purposefully crashed his car into a tree on West Avenue, near Holmes Avenue, on Monday night, he told police, because it was the only way he could stop his passenger from stabbing him yet again with a knife. Darien police gave this account of the incident, which the driver survived after being treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries from several stab wounds:
The car was crashed shortly before 10:37 p.m., when police received a report about it. The driver told police that he picked up a customer in Stamford and was driving him to Norwalk. Police said the incident’s only connection to Darien was that the vehicle happened to be driving through town at the time. After the crash, the suspect fled with the victim’s cell phone.
Karen Kreitzberger Polett has been installed as regent of Darien’s Good Wife’s River Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution by Connecticut DAR State Regent Christy Hendrie at a recent ceremony and high tea held at the Country Club of Darien. — an announcement from the Good Wife’s River Chapter of the DAR
Polett has previously served as regent, registrar, treasurer and is also an honorary regent. Elected officers who will all serve for three-year terms include: left to right Historian, Vigee Droesch; Recording Secretary, Rebecca Siciliano; Treasurer, Virginia Otis; Chaplain, Carol Wilder-Tamme; Regent, Karen K. Polett with former Regent, Nicole Gorman. Not pictured is Vice Regent, Tracy Root. Appointed Chapter Chairmen are: Christine Pasiakos, Mary Beth Savage, Robin Salmans, Diane Drugge, Virginia Otis, Sandra MacPherson, Meredith Carper and Nicole Gorman.