Republican won local elections overwhelmingly across the state and across the country and Fairfield was no exception.
Asked if he was surprised, Republican party chairman James Baldwin replied, "I guess. But, I'm thrilled. Of course, I'm surprised."

There was no joy in Democratic headquarters on Tuesday night.
Asked how things were, glum faces quickly replied, "They're not good."
Democratic Town Chairman Mitchell Fuchs said of the results, "They're ugly."

The wild west of a Post Road on which raised manhole covers provide an obstacle course and there are no yellow lines to guide motorists is going to improve soon.
Honest, say the state engineers!

"They're being squeezed so that care may suffer," said Fourth District Congressman Jim Himes to a Minuteman reporter, speaking about the physical therapists who had gathered at Preneta Physical Therapy, 2119 Post Road, in Fairfield on Monday afternoon. He noted, "I've actually heard the same thing from a lot of (health care) providers."

Following are the results in Tuesday's elections for various boards and commissions:

Easton First Selectman Thomas Herrmann, a Republican, easily won reelection in Tuesday's voting, garnering 1,583 votes to 612 for his Democratic challenger, Chris Neubert.

The teachers' union has accepted a contract that gives them no increase in wages and no step increases for the school year that begins July 1, 2010 and ends June 30, 2011.
Step increases are generally given to teachers every year until they reach a certain level and are usually one or two percent. Wage increases are in addition to that.

First Selectman Ken Flatto gave an update on the town's as yet un-built third train station, currently called the Metro Center at last Monday's Representative Town Meeting at Osborne Hill School. This was the first update for that group in six or eight months.

Connecticut Magazine has rated Fairfield the Number 1 town in Connecticut on the basis of its education, low crime rate, economy, cost of living and leisure activities.
It beat out rival Greenwich for the first time in the ratings contest that the magazine last held in 2006.
Fairfield is not only number one for towns with a population of over 50,000, it has the best score for any of the 169 towns in Connecticut, beating out neighboring Westport, which, nonetheless, is number one for towns in the 25,000 to 50,000 population category. Weston earned the number 2 spot for towns between 10,000 and 15,000.

Over 100 under-age students were found at Bravo Restaurant at 1418 Post Road, on Tuesday evening, Oct. 20. Fairfield police confiscated at least 64 fake I.D.'s.
Most of the students were college sophomores.

This week on a wet Tuesday evening in Easton at the Recreation Center, the Democratic and Republican contenders for First Selectman and the incumbent Selectmen met for the second of their friendly debates over town issues. Unlike Fairfield, Easton has a First Selectman race this year that will be decided on next week.

During a 90-minute discussion at last week's meeting of the Board of Finance, Town Director of Purchasing Twig Holland and Assistant Town Attorney Eileen Kennelly attempted to explain the events leading up to the transferring of funds from one school bonded project to another without receiving approval from the BOF. Before the commission that night was a motion held over from the last meeting, to amend the previously approved bonding appropriations by increasing the funding for the Osborn Hill project by $39,000 and decreasing the Roger Sherman school project by $39,000.

"She was such a highly dedicated person, an inspiration to all of us," Director of Finance Paul Hiller said of Mary Alice Morley, who had polio as a very young girl and who worked for the town beginning in 1974, and for the finance department beginning in 1988. Morley ran the payroll and accounts payable department before she died suddenly on Oct. 19 while she was visiting Nantucket with her extended family.

Monday night the League of Women Voters sponsored a debate at the Library among the seven candidates running for the 4 available spots on the Board of Education. Attending the event were Republican candidates Pam Iacono an incumbent, Tim Kery and Paul Fattibene along with Democrat candidates Perry Liu, Jennifer Maxon Kennelly and Joshua Albin. Leonora Campbell another Democratic candidate was unable to attend due to illness.

Four candidates for Board of Finance, Republicans James Brown and Kevin Kiley, who is currently chairman of the finance board, and Democrats, Kenneth Brachfeld and Douglas Jones, answered questions at the League of Women Voters Forum held at the Fairfield Public Library Monday night.
All answered the same six questions.

Two members of SNAP, Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests - an organization that, despite its name, includes those abused by rabbis and Protestant ministers as well as priests - stood in the pouring rain last Thursday to hold a "media event" outside the entrance to Fairfield University. The survivors, Jim Hackett and Gail Howard, asked that institution to use its resources to do two things: urge other victims of Fr. Eugene O'Brien to come forward and ask Judge Joan Margolis to keep Doug Perlitz in jail when his bail-hearing continues on Oct. 28.

The Fairfield Fire Commission has finally wrapped up the matter of discipline against the 43-year old firefighter who took paid sick leave on seven days in April while he was at football practices at the University of New Haven.
Firefighter Wayne Parks was suspended for seven days without pay on charges that included failing to respond to their questions in previous meetings, dishonesty to the commission, and insubordination and evasiveness to the commission.

Childhood is the age of make-believe. From the time they are toddlers, children find great joy in pretending they're cowboys, princesses, or the action figures they see in cartoons.

Five hundred and fifty-one Osborn Hill Elementary School students took up the Osborn Hill Challenge to raise $35 each from friends and family for the PTA and celebrate their fundraising skills with a one mile neighborhood walk.

The Town of Fairfield could have lost $3 million in state aid, if the Board of Education budget had been cut by the $2.1 million that a referendum had asked for last May. That's according to a formula emailed to First Selectman Ken Flatto from the state department of education.
In a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Flatto spoke about this law, signed by Gov. Jodi Rell just last week. It penalizes school districts $2 for every $1 that they cut their budgets under an amount called the Minimum Budget Requirement.

In response to "We the People," a group of citizens asking for an audit of the Fairfield Public Schools, First Selectman Ken Flatto said that, last Spring, Selectman Sherri Steeneck had suggested that it would be a good idea to do an operational audit of the school system during a Board of Selectmen meeting.

As a boy, Republican Registrar of Voters, Roger Autuori, wanted to be three things when he grew up - a farmer, a builder and a policeman - and he has managed to do, well, something, in all three fields.
His first choice was to have been a detective like his uncle in the Fairfield Police Department. So, Autuori got a degree in criminal justice administration from the University of New Haven, but when he applied for a job as a policeman, the fact that he wore glasses meant he was ineligible.

David Cullen, RTM District 7 Representative, was out to speak for his constituency at Fairfield's BOE meeting Tuesday night, which started at 8 p.m. in the second floor BOE complex at 501 Kings Highway East.
During the sixth part of the agenda known as Public Comments and Petitions, Mr. Cullen made the Board and public aware that some of the parents had made him aware that school personnel in the schools within the district he represents were not making sure that school children were washing their hands.

It's been decided. Penfield Pavilion II will be named after former First Selectwoman Jacquelyn Durrell and the Gazebo at Sherman Green will not be.
Furthermore, the public ceremony to rename Penfield II after Jacky Durrell will be held on Sunday, Oct. 25 at 3 p.m.

Guide to districts by polling place

District 1: Senior Center, 100 Mona Terrace
District 2: St. Pius X Schook, 834 Brookside Ave.
District 3: Dwight Elementary Schook, 16oo Redding Rd.
District 4: Osborne Hill Schook, 760 Stillson Rd.
District 5: Mc Kinley School, 60 Thompson St.
District 6: Fairfield Warde High School, 755 Melville Ave.
District 7: No. Stratfield School, 190 Putting Green Rd.
District 8: Holland Hill School, 200 Meadowcroft Rd.
District 9: Fairfield Ludlowe H.S., 785 Unquowa Rd.
District 10: Sherman Elementary School, 250 Fern St.

The children playing at Sandcastle Playground at Jennings Beach this weekend took some time out to pose for our photographer.

The Board of Selectmen voted to appropriate $175,000 for an architect's fee for the second and final half of the reconstruction of Penfield Pavilion.

The Town Plan and Zoning Commission (TPZ) heard a developer's proposal for a mixed-use retail and residential building at the corner of Kings Highway and Jennings Road. The proposal had been modified from an all-retail use that was previously presented to the TPZ and apparently not well-received by neighbors.

The fire commission unanimously agreed to pay $8,455 for courses that Firefighter Wayne Parks completed at University of New Haven. That board met last Thursday evening at the Fairfield Public Library.

Elections for town offices are held in odd-numbered years, so fall of 2009 will see a flurry of candidates shaking hands at the train station and elsewhere. The Democratic and Republican parties held caucuses this past July 27 and July 28, respectively, to endorse men and women whose fate will be sealed on Nov. 3.