Gavin Anderson, Shelly Kassen, Gordon Joseloff and Kristin LaFleur after the results came in. Photo by Joyce Laitman

Westport First Selectman Gordon Joseloff and running mate Shelly Kassen won a relatively close victory in Tuesday's municipal election as Democrats retained control of Town Hall as well as Town boards and commissions.

"Once you've had it, you never want to get it again." By all accounts, getting the flu is a miserable experience, one to be avoided at all costs. However, with the current concerns over the lack of availability of the seasonal flu and the shortages of the H1N1 vaccine, it is becoming a miserable experience just to find a place to get the vaccines.

First Selectman Gordon Joseloff, with Second Selectwoman Shelly Kassen, thanks supporters after winning a second term in Tuesday's voting. Photo by Joyce Laitman

Westport First Selectman Gordon Joseloff won a relatively close election over challenger Gavin Anderson in Tuesday's municipal election. In photo at right, Anderson congratulates Joseloff as Kassen looks on at Democratic headquarters.

"We are in the business of providing the best services necessary to protect and enhance the lives of the people who live in Westport," said First Selectman Gordon Joseloff, in a pre-election day interview with the Minuteman.

R. Gavin Anderson and Kristin LaFleur, running on the Republican ticket for First and Second Selectman respectively, were interviewed at the Minuteman offices last week in preparation for the Nov. 3 election in which they face Democratic incumbents Gordon Joseloff and Shelly Kassen.

John Izzo, a former selectman who lost his last bid for Westport's lead job in 2005, is an independent registered write-in candidate for first selectman. Izzo, for years active in Republican party politics, recently resigned from the Republican Town Committee and declared his intention to run for the town's top job independently.

Candidates for the Westport Board of Finance agreed on one thing at a spirited debate last week sponsored by the League of Women Voters, moderated by Jean Rabineau, co-chair of the League. Each candidate agreed that the best way to save meaningful sums of money in the future is through collaboration, either within Westport's various departments, or ideas such as sharing services with other towns.

Candidates for the Westport Board of Education met last week at the League of Women Voters sponsored debates, acting more like a united body than a cluster of competing candidates as they dispatched standard answers to a series of questions intended to challenge and provoke.

Fresh Market, a North Carolina-based specialty food purveyor, opened its doors last week at the former site of Shaws Supermarket to a crush of customers who jammed the parking lot, filled their shopping carts to the brim and created long lines at the check-out counters for days. It was, to put it mildly, a town event, complete with traffic control and picketers from local 371, the food workers union.