Home Care In Norwalk, CT

NORWALK — Tim Abbott knew the Greens Ledge Lighthouse off the Norwalk coast as a fishing spot growing up, even when the historic structure was “beat up,” he said.

Abbott then became a sailing instructor and would take students sailing around the lighthouse, where he could see a group of people working on it. He finally got to step foot on the small island that housed the renovated lighthouse when he became assistant education director for high school programs for the Stamford-based nonprofit SoundWaters.

“You’re five stories up above the water but you’re out in the middle of the water, which is a little indescribable,” Abbott said.

Now, he gets to help others enjoy that same “indescribable” experience through SoundWaters by hosting educational programming out on the lighthouse so people can learn more about Long Island Sound.

The lighthouse, which went into service in 1902, at one point was designated by the National Register of Historic Places as “deteriorated.” That’s one step above “ruins,” Tim Pettee, president of the Greens Ledge Light Preservation Society, said in a previous story.

Pettee bought the lighthouse with his family and began restoring it in 2016. They transferred control of it to the preservation society.

The programming and the idea of turning the lighthouse into a “classroom on the sound” is the best way to make sure the lighthouse still stands for the next hundred years, Pettee said in a recent interview.

“Success for us is people using it,” Pettee said.

Next year, the group behind the lighthouse’s restoration will have a boat with beach landing capabilities to get people to and from the lighthouse for tours, he said.

Before, they used “expensive charter services” to transport people to the lighthouse or use a smaller powerboat that could fit six people.

Abbott said SoundWaters primarily brings high school students interested in pursuing sciences as a career out to the lighthouse. The first group of students went out in the summer of 2024, where the group did water sampling and testing.

Access to the lighthouse also allows SoundWaters to get new types of data and perform research in deeper water than the group usually does.

Pettee said he eventually wants to get instruments for the lighthouse that can monitor and record water quality, which he wants to share with “anybody who wants it.”

It’s especially nice to have another location to host the nonprofit’s programming because some people along Connecticut’s shoreline may be unable to make it to Stamford, where SoundWaters is based, due to traffic, Abbott said.

“A lot of (the students) will say it’s up there amongst their favorite things that they did with us,” Abbott said.

The lighthouse, he said, can help break down other barriers keeping people from accessing Long Island Sound, including many of the beaches charging entry fees or that good chunks of the coastline are on private property.

“Getting people out there is probably the number one most important thing,” Abbott said.

Exposing more people to Long Island Sound may also defeat the notion that the whole body of water is “dirty,” which Abbott said was an “old school message.”

Abbott said the pollution along the Norwalk area’s coastline has gotten “a lot better.”

“You can fall in love with this green water if you give it a chance,” Abbott said.

Abbott said he was grateful Pettee restored the lighthouse and called it “such an important part of history around here.”

Pettee said the group is 95% done with the restoration. The focus now is primarily on maintaining the lighthouse by keeping it open as an active educational space, which he called the “biggest part of the next 100 years” of the lighthouse. He also said he wanted to partner with schools in the Norwalk area to get more students out to the lighthouse.

That education, besides just letting people learn about the lighthouse, can also impart the love, respect and willingness to maintain it for future generations, Pettee said.

“If the lighthouse doesn’t get used and used responsibly, it could fall into decay once again and we are committed to that not happening,” Pettee said.

A family-owned Norwalk carpet store is shutting down after over four decades in business as the owners are retiring.

“Retirement Sale Everything Must Go” signs are posted on the windows of Dorello Carpets & Area Rugs, located at 594 Main Ave.. James Vecchiariello, who co-owns the store with his brother Andrew, said he’s been thinking of closing the store over the past nine months. Vecchiariello took over the business, which started in 1982, from his father in 1985.

“We’ve done it a long time, and it’s time,” said Vecchiariello, who is 63.”It’s bittersweet. I’m looking forward to the next chapter. I’ve created a lot of friendships and a lot of really good customers along the way.”

Dorello came into their current space on Main Avenue in 1998, where they built the showroom that "catapulted" the business.

Vecchiariello said they are aiming to sell off all the remaining inventory at cost or below by the first week of January. At the end of the month they’ll be transferring the property to a local dentist, he said.

Both he and his brother’s children have careers outside the family business. Over the years, Dorello has built up a loyal, local customer base spanning generations, who Vecchiariello said is sad to hear the news.

“They can’t believe it,” he said. “They look at me and say you’re too young.”

Tanya Babbar is a Hearst Fellow who covers business news in Connecticut for CT Insider. She focuses on developments in retail across the state and small business news. She previously worked as a general assignment reporter for the Houston Chronicle.

She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2024. While in college, she covered culture for The Pitt News and worked as an editorial intern for TribLive.com, Public Source and The Pittsburgh Media Partnership.

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With negotiations apparently stalled between upscale grocer Stew Leonard's and the landlord of a Orange shopping plaza, the city of Milford is making a push to woo the Norwalk-based company to open its next store there.

Robert Townes, the city's director of economic and community development, said Milford officials "have been in touch with representatives of Stew Leonard's " about the possibility of a store opening in the city.

The city's interest in negotiating with the grocer comes after the company's chief executive officer Stew Leonard Jr. told CT Insider that negotiations the landlord of Colonial Commons in neighboring Orange have stalled.

“Mayor Rich Smith has been clear that Milford is certainly interested and eager to continue these discussions, believing that Milford would be an ideal home for the world class grocer," Townes said in a statement. "We understand that the grocer may still be in negotiations for a site in Orange, we remain open to further detailed discussions here in Milford.”

Townes said city officials are eager to get more details from Stew Leonard's representatives "about their needs and specifications for a store footprint."

"Included in those conversations would be discussions about any available parcels," he said.

One location in the city that is currently available is the former Stop & Shop at 855 Bridgeport Ave. in the Silver Sands Plaza. The 68,000 square foot store closed in October 2024 and remains vacant, according to Townes.

Meghan Bell, a spokeswoman for Stew Leonard's,' said the family owned chain "is always on the look out for new locations." But Bell said she was unable to discuss any possible new locations.

"Connecticut is our home state and we'd love to be able to grow further here," Bell said. "But any new location has to work for us financially."

The chain has eight grocery stores in three states, including Connecticut locations in Danbury, Newington and Norwalk.

All three Connecticut locations are more than 100,000 square feet, according to Bell.

"But our trend now is toward smaller stores," she said. The most recent Stew Leonard's store opening in Clifton, N.J. in May 2024 was a 56,000 square foot store, according to Bell.

And the chain's other New Jersey store, in the Paramus Park Mall, opened in Sept. 2019 in a 80,000 square foot space that formerly housed a Sears, she said.