Editor’s note: following is an opinion submitted by Don O’Day, Long Lots Building Committee Member, RTM District 3 Member and Candidate for First Selectman.
I understand the deep attachment you and your fellow gardeners feel toward the Westport Community Garden (WCG). You built something special, and the entire town recognizes the pride and care that went into it.
But, after significant public awareness and more than fifty public meetings with extensive public comment, the issue of Westport’s effort to build the new Long Lots and Stepping Stones School came to a vote.
- The land use decision by Planning and Zoning was unanimous – a brand-new school and a reconstructed athletic field would be built on 13 Hyde Lane where the current school and the Community Garden are currently located.
- The decisions to move forward with the entire site (both school and fields) by Westport’s Flood and Erosion Control Board and Conservation Commission were unanimous.
- The Architectural Review Board reviewed the Building Committee’s design plan and supported it unanimously.
- The Board of Finance and the RTM voted to approve the largest expenditure in the history of Westport (both school and fields), with full knowledge that the plans did not include a rebuilt Community Gardens on the Long Lots site. The votes were unanimous.
The voting around this project has always assumed that a new Community Garden would be built in town. It will be! The new Parks and Recreation Director has been actively involved with discussions with Community Garden representatives in a search for a new home that is satisfactory to all.
I, along with Andrea Moore, fully support the effort to build a new Garden. My commitment to you is that when we take office next month, we will make it a priority for the Parks and Rec Director to make it happen.
I also wanted to share just a few comments and responses to the Open Letter to me. It is important to me that the Gardeners and the public know the facts.
First, there was a meeting in October of 2023. An offer was made to move the Community Gardens to Baron’s South. The response was a promised fight to the bitter end by the two Steering Committee members present to keep the Gardens at Long Lots. That uncollaborative response has been disputed by Mr. Weinberg. But his denial rings hollow. In fact, his actions since that meeting have been nothing short of fighting to the end. He is still fighting a battle that has been unanimously decided.
Below is an excerpt of an email that Mr. Weinberg sent to his Gardeners on Friday of this week. That is not just fighting to the bitter end, it’s fighting BEYOND the bitter end. Mr. Weinberg’s public words do not match his behind-the-scenes campaign.
From: Westport Community Garden
Subject: PLEASE READ – An Open Letter to Don O’Day
Date: October 17, 2025 at 11:58:20 AM EDT
Dear Gardeners:
I have submitted the Open Letter to Don O’Day (below) to Dan Woog’s 06880 Blog for publication. Dan has agreed to publish it with Mr. O’Day’s response. This will happen in the next couple of days.
I am asking that you read it and, when Dan publishes it, that you respond to it immediately with a comment in support of the facts stated in this letter. If you have 10 people on your email contacts that you would be comfortable sending it to, please do that and request that they respond to Dan’s publication as well. Whether we like it or not, social media matters and your response on Dan’s blog matters.
I know many of you are burnt out from our effort to save the Westport Community Gardens and Long Lots Preserve. PLEASE don’t give up. We still have a chance for a future if Don O’Day does not get elected as our First Selectman. I will be writing to you shortly on that matter as well.
Lou
Second, Mr. Weinberg’s position was always to keep the gardens in place at Long Lots and ACCESSIBLE during construction. This position was central to the flyer that was distributed on Election Day of 2023. In a construction zone for a 128,000 sq ft new school with another school operating on the campus, every square foot of that property will be used and highly restricted with safety being the most important rule. This may be the most unreasonable and unrealistic view of all by Mr. Weinberg.
The town has moved forward, the Building Committee has moved forward, the Boards and Commissions have moved forward (unanimously) and we have, just this week, broken ground for the new school. It is time for Mr. Weinberg to move forward.
A new Garden will be built – that is my commitment to all of you. A new school will be built – that is my commitment to the Long Lots and Stepping Stones Community and the Town of Westport. Andrea and I will not engage in this vengeance tour, no matter how long it lasts.
Respectfully,
Don O’Day
Long Lots Building Committee Member
RTM District 3 Member
Candidate for First Selectman
Bottom line : The Community Garden episode typifies the opaque manner in which Mr O’Day handles town issues. Mr. O’Day (as a member of the Long Lots Building Committee and RTM Finance Committee), similarly played hide the ball when he and the administration sought to ram through a $110 million appropriation in a closed-door RTM executive session designed to deprive the public of meaningful visibility or input into the single largest expenditure in Westport history. That session is now the subject of a complaint pending before the CT Freedom of Information Commission. It may take several months to get a ruling. In the meantime, though, we can take a step in the right direction by rejecting the Tooker-Moore-O’Day style of governance and voting in favor of more transparent and accountable Democratic leaders in Town Hall.
Geesh. Where to begin?
There is no one anywhere who is going to vote against building a new school to replace the school that became so poorly neglected under your watch on the Board of Education. Ditto for the Coleytown disaster you “fixed,”
But what you and the LLSBC did was to use the school project to advance your personal agendas for athletic fields — under the cover of a new school to replace a very unsafe school (which, by the way, will still be in use for at least another year). Such a clever but dishonest way to get land use and funding for something that had nothing to do with the school.
The non-school portion of this project should have been brought before the town as a separate matter. It would be interesting to see what would have happened if you had organized the project properly by separating the school from the parks-and-rec lobby. Why didn’t you? What were you afraid of?
You described the ease with which you got this unanimous support from the town. In fact, it was not always smooth sailing as you would have the electorate believe. The Planning and Zoning Commission rebuffed your first attempt to shield your true intentions for that land. Then, PZC mandated that you retain the garden on site. You turned over every stone in search of BS reasons why that would never work when, in fact, you had hoped they wouldn’t notice what you were doing from the beginning.
You got the construction manager, who was yet to be hired for the job, to plead a case for a luxurious staging area on top of the garden. You engaged the police chief to pander to parents that their children were not safe with the garden there. Despite not advocating for the geothermal wells initially, they became another convenient and costly excuse to disrupt the entire Hyde Lane site in favor of your end goal.
Then there are neighbors and their homes. You couldn’t disrespect them more than you did, but you found a way when you bulldozed mature trees that you promised to leave in place.
You should not be wearing this badge as a badge of honor on your sleeve. It is not praiseworthy.
Now, let me SHOUT REPUBLICAN-STYLE TO GET YOUR ATTENTION:
THER IS NEARLY UNANIMOUS CONSENT FROM THE COMMUNITY, INCLUDING COMMUNITY GARDENERS, TO BUILD A NICE, SAFE SCHOOL AT LONG LOTS!!!!!!!
WHO IS GOD’S NAME HAS OPPOSED IT? (Well, there probably are a few who wanted a renovation, not a new school).
You took the easy way out by spending $120 Million. Anyone could build a pretty school with that coin.
As for October 2023, I’ve written extensively about that:
https://open.substack.com/pub/tonisimonetti/p/i-was-there-don?r=1dhpe&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Neither you, nor the Selectperson, nor Jay Keenan had the authority to offer Baron’s South, “on the town’s dime” to us. There was no 8-24 Municipal Improvement application for land use approvals. There was no funding request for the “town’s dime.” There was no definitive soil study regarding the toxins that were dumped there by the town. There wasn’t even an assessment as to the appropriateness of the site, such as being level and sunny. All of this was pointed out in detail by the two garden reps at that very meeting, for which we got no answers. Apparently, you planned to make an offer we “could not refuse,” and in fact, we did not refuse. We did point out the fallacy of the alleged “offer.” Puleeze. I was there.
Not only did you make such an offer, you also assured us that we would be gardening next that very spring—complete and utter bull.
O’Day, you are dishonest, sneaky, self-interested, and a bad example of a leader.
The objections to what you did were NEVER ABOUT THE SCHOOL. It was the acts, many acts, of bad faith toward your constituents. You continue to ignore that fact. Shame.
No “vengeance tour”? That’s a comfort. This guy certainly is a piece of work. I wonder who advised him to publicly attack residents just before an election where he’s on the ballot for the highest office? I guess you could say he performed a kind of public service in that he just gave everyone a preview of what it would be like if he got elected. Likely just more toxic, smash mouth “you’re an obstructionist” type stuff. Who needs it?
So who’s selling “No Vengeance Tour: Westport 2025” T-shirts?
Lou Weinberg may be the spokesperson for the award winning community garden now torn asunder, but his letter and his point of view is shared by so many Westport tax payers.
The treatment of the gardeners was horrendous, and it did not need to be.
The dishonesty of Tooker Moore administration and LLSBC, caused an awful divide and conquer campaign in this town which was wholly unnecessary.
It was the sneaky, vengeful agenda that caused all the delays to this school getting started. Now our reward thanks to that are massive tariffs.
And not for nothing NO contractor is entitled to a staging area. With the extortionate price being paid – I believe in excess of 50 million too much, that contractor should be bringing in his equipment etc, daily and on his nickel.
It’s very convenient for him to be handed a staging area, but that’s not our concern if he has to schlep machinery daily to the site.
Barons south was an offensive offer ! A joke in fact.
I need not go into the reasons why.
At the end of the day it was all bungled, and quite frankly inexcusable.
It’s just one example of the unpopular plays made by this administration and the ones members of the public delayed through either law suits, or a lack of support on elected commissions, for hair brained ideas such as the downtown parking plan, which Don O’Day and Andrea Moore think is great and will double down on.
I’m unsure if that is borne of pure ignorance, or dogged vengeful spite.
Neither one a gardener or a merchant. So both eminently under qualified to have an intelligent opinion on the topic.
Just no regard for those who will be affected. None whatsoever.
I’m assuming that David Rosenwaks appeals to many many voters who would otherwise be voting for the Republican Party in town but have had enough.
Thus the attack dogs are out in force trying to discredit him.
I take it the republicans are very concerned with the votes they are losing to him.
I hope nobody forgets this last 4 years, and how divisive it has been.
Surely we cannot be looking for a repeat performance.
Wow! How nice that you’re reaching out to the gardeners for the VERY FIRST TIME, Don. Where has that spirit of collaboration been for the past 2.5 years? You’re now promising to build a new garden as well, I see. I’m sure you have a perfect location in mind. Let me guess… Barons South?
Mr. O’Day:
Thanks for reaching out.
This is the very first time you have done so since you began the process of building a new school in early 2022.
If you think there’s something wrong with my trying to get people to support or not support candidates that will consider a viable new Westport Community Gardens, then we should be even more concerned with your candidacy. My public words certainly do match my “behind the scenes “campaign”.
I am not “still fighting” against the decision that has been made unanimously by the hard-working boards and commissions of this town.
I am making an effort, during election season, to educate our Town residents as to how you and the First Selectwoman handled this situation. That’s all, Mr. O’Day.
Once the Planning and Zoning Commission approved Jen Tooker’s 8-24, which included destroying the Community Gardens and Long Lots Preserve permanently, I gave up the effort to save the Garden.
You claim to know my position on issues surrounding this debacle, yet you’ve never reached out once to speak with me. That speaks volumes.
Mr. O’Day: Do you think that if the First Selectwoman or the Building Committee had reached out to the 120 Westport families who were members of the Community Gardens at the very beginning of this process, we would be having this unfortunate exchange? I don’t.
Collaboration is key. I didn’t see that once from you. Not once.
Why is REPLACING an athletic field at a school so controversial? (Yes, a combined baseball & soccer field which will have a school on top of it will now be on Tier 1). Field on Tier 3 => Field on Tier 1. Put another way, 2 fields currently in place at LLS. 2 fields present when construction is complete.
Why wouldn’t athletic fields immediately adjacent to a school (and used on a daily basis by said students) be part of a school rebuild plan, especially when the school will not have the same footprint?
What responsible Building Committee would design a school without regard to the fields & uses which surround it & are used by the students?
What responsible building committee with a conscience would have taken on the job with the decision already made to destroy the Community Garden?
Dave, it is not about the What, it is about the How. A decision was made behind closed doors to destroy the garden. Then a series of Potemkin public meetings were held that never seriously considered a different outcome. Serious people put forth well thought out alternatives that would have satisfied pretty much everyone. Except Moore and Tooker, who had decided on the answer and then gaslit everyone who might have had a different opinion. And you and Don and Jay went along with this charade and amplified it. That is what people are upset about. It’s not about a field, or a school or a garden. It’s about lack of transparency and openness in our local government. And it seems like those who have been part of the systems for so long cannot comprehend this.
Things need to change.
This.
A little confusing here so let’s add some clarity…
It is clear to me, David, that as the Jennifer Tooker-appointed Commissioner of the Parks and Recreation Commission, you want additional field space. Please stop pitting fields vs. gardens and green open space.
Everything in the Board Of Education specifications for building the school is reflected in the building and grounds design. That includes fields for the Long Lots School students.
The fields scheduled to replace the gardens and preserve, post-construction, have nothing to do with what was asked for by the Board of Education in their April 2023 Elementary Educational Specifications for Long Lots Elementary School and Steppingstones Preschool.
In other words, all of the needs of the Long Lots students are being taken care of in the final design and construction without adding 4 acres of field space on the other side of the large parking lot, 200 yards from the school.
The fields that are replacing the Westport Community Gardens and Long Lots Preserve were pushed through as part of the school build. They are an add-on to the school construction and they are not designed or constructed for the students at Long Lots Elementary School.
When asked by the Chair of the Board of Education, whose decision it was to add on those fields to this project, Jay Keenan, Chair of the Building Committee said “mine.”
The Superintendent of Schools stated to me that, at the beginning of this process, he told the building committee that he liked having the gardens and preserve as a buffer between the school and the neighbors.
Approximately 2.3 acres of fields are being lost for construction of a new school. Approximately 4 acres of land, including dozens of old growth trees, are being bulldozed and will be replaced with fields post-construction. Consequently, 1.7 additional acres are being added for fields that have nothing to do with serving the needs of the students at Long Lots or Stepping Stones.
That is not in the spirit of Jay Keenan’s message that “whatever is displaced shall be replaced.”
I believe that the needs of all of our children, including the Long Lots School students and especially Stepping Stones kids, would be better served by having carefully planned green open space to supplement their learning options.
Mr. Weinberg,
I will continue to repeat that I disagree on your statement above.
BOE Specs: 40-page document, 1 page dedicated to Site Development (in that report, Site Development = traffic, parking, walkways, playgrounds). Spoiler alert: 39 pages were specs of the building itself! To assume the BOE meant to eliminate student-used fields altogether is a stretch.
How many classes per week were visiting the Community Gardens when they were operating?
As a mouthpiece for Tooker/O’day/Keenan/ Moore, your puppet strings are wearing thin. You like to refer to others as political hacks. It certainly takes one to know one. I’m still waiting for an original thought from you.
As a an appointed Chair of the P&R Commission, one would think you would advocate for all P&R needs, and all citizens. But That just isn’t in the script you were given to parrot. What a waste of an important position for citizen involvement in our government.
I am hopeful that when Christie/Wistreich take their oath of office, they will be far more discerning in their citizen appointments.
Got it. Thinking about what generations of kids need on a school campus makes me a political hack.
As if none of the rest of us has kids, or other beloved children in our lives? Would you like to see my refrigerator art?
I am genuinely concerned about the current state of the Republican Party in Westport. Under Mr. Marpe’s tenure as 1st selctman, the party stood for fiscal discipline, transparency, collaboration, and accountability. Those values built trust and kept Westport moving forward responsibly.
But during the Tooker/Moore administration, that connection to the community unraveled. Leadership became insular and dismissive, favoring opinions over open dialogue and presenting costly economic plans without clear strategy or justification. The change wasn’t subtle; it was both visible and deeply felt throughout our town.
Now, with Andrea Moore and Don O’Day, we face a continuation, even an escalation, of that same approach. The Community Garden controversy is just one example: a failure to listen, a decision driven from the top down, followed by blame directed at residents. This is not leadership that unites; it’s leadership that divides. Yes, experience matters, but experience without collaboration and learning repeats the same mistakes.
Westport deserves better. We need leadership that is authentic, inclusive, and strategic — leaders who listen first, act with purpose, and manage with accountability. The future of our town depends on it.
If you believe in a Westport where every voice is heard and every dollar is spent wisely, the time to act is now. Let’s move our town forward…get out and vote on November 4th for leadership that truly represents all of Westport.
It’s important to clarify several points for the community.
First, the Westport Community Gardens never had to be moved or destroyed. The gardens were not an obstacle to education, children, or progress — they were simply in the way of one preferred design that benefited a single construction company invited to undertake the project. Alternate layouts that preserved both the gardens and the school rebuild were presented and could have worked safely and effectively. The decision to remove the gardens was not a necessity; it was a choice.
The justification that every committee vote was unanimous only highlights how closed the process became once certain interests were prioritized. When a single company’s proposal dictates the use of town land, it raises serious questions about whose value is being protected — the community’s or the project’s financial value.
Many in town have noticed a pattern: large-scale, high-value construction projects often seem to surface right before officials leave office. These projects can appear more about legacy and contracts than about sustainable, transparent planning. Westport deserves better — genuine collaboration, not predetermined outcomes.
Finally, a fair question arises:
Did Don O’Day suspend his campaign with this letter?
His statement reads more like an official defense of an active project than the voice of a candidate seeking to represent the whole community. Campaigning while defending a controversial decision of this magnitude blurs the line between public service and personal agenda.
The gardeners and residents who have spoken up are not fighting “beyond the bitter end.” They are standing for accountability, open government, and the protection of public spaces that serve all Westporters — not just the bottom line of one contract.
And this.
Your 2nd paragraph is factual inaccurate. A number of garden supporters submitted alternative suggestions that were evaluated by the committee and the project team and did not meet the requirements of the project (impacted school requirements, didn’t account for the elevation changes on the property, impacted cost, or impacted schedule).
Incorrect. There were options developed by the hired hands that left the garden untouched. Those came from your own consultants.
Read the actual feasibility report and the recommendation to the first selectperson for the 8-24 and you will clearly see the explanation for why various concepts that were evaluated to try to evaluate all the input the committee received were not pursued. The point of showing the different concepts was to show that analysis had been done in response to public feedback. If we didn’t show the concepts, you would say that we didn’t consider other options. When we show the concepts, you say that they meet all the requirements, even when the reports specially indicate the issues the project team and committee had with various concepts.
Furthermore, the design has come a long way from initial feasibility studies. Specifics of the building rooms have been laid out, changes to elevations on the site have been incorporated, parking studies have been completed, ed specs have been updated.
It is clear that you disagree with the outcome, but please stop misrepresenting information.
https://www.westportct.gov/government/appointed-boards-a-z/long-lots-school-building-committee-llsbc/llsbc-documents
I must be missing something, 50 plus meetings, all open, all transparent, and we continue to blame Don O’Day and Andrea Moore, as well as Jen Tooker as the 3 Villains of all our town boards, Board of Education, who all voted UNANIMOUSLY to move forward with a new school and field for our kids, and move the Community Gardens?
How does party affiliations come into a collaborate, transparent process, that involved other Selectman Candidates as well, bring in the Republican Party?
Thank you Don O’Day and all the members of our Long Lots Building Committee, Board of Education, and Planning and Zoning Commissioners for your hard work in moving this project forward for the parents and children of both Longs Elementary and Stepping Stones.
The only “party” in the room throughout the process has been the “Westport Party” which we are all part of as volunteer elected officials. We try our best for the best outcome for Westport.
Jimmy Izzo
RTM 3
As Poe wrote, “Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.”
At the recent debate, when the proposal to recreate the Community Gardens at the viable Burr Farms Fields was mentioned, Mr O’Day’s immediate response was to express concerns about ball fields. Clearly, he hasn’t a believable interest in creating a new Community Garden. He’s simply concerned with winning an election.
I would venture to guess that any flat, sunny site that would be suitable for a community garden would be seen by Mr O’Day as suitable for the twenty-somethingth sports field in Town.
This is a guy who also says he doesn’t represent the political party under whose banner he is running in the current election. Strange.
I’ll finish with another apt quote, from Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”:
“What’s that smell in this room? Didn’t you notice it? Didn’t you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room? There ain’t nothin’ more powerful than the odor of mendacity. You can smell it. It smells like death.”