Another score for Dom DeVito

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248 Round Hill Road, purchased for $3.5 million in May 2023 and renovated by Dom for, what, another $2 million?, is pending after just 107 days, asking price $11.9 million, I wrote about the original house back in ‘23.

Dom’s a good guy: I met him back in 2013-14 or so, and though we’ve lost touch since, I always enjoyed his sense of humor and somewhat crazy take on life. So I’m happy to see him succeed here.

Back in 2014, when NYT reporter  Landon Thomas spent a number of days touring Greenwich with me for an article about this blog “Gadfly of Greenwich Real Estate”, I introduced him to Dom as a colorful character well worth interviewing. Langdon was so impressed with the man that, he told me, he was tempted to rewrite the story and focus on Dom. I’m glad he didn’t; I benefitted from the exposure that article brought, but I understood the sentiments and, secretly might have agreed: Dom and his life-story would have have made for some fascinating reading.

Pre-Renovation, 2023

It took 188 days to take a price cut, but that did the trick

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549 Rogues Hill Road, now priced at $3.999 million, is reported pending. I commented on the “price improvement” back in September, and obviously, someone noticed the change, if not this blog.

7. 42 acres; enough land, the listing claims, to build a 20,174 sq. ft. home, which ought to be large enough to accommodate even the largest ego. The 1775 house that once stood here is no longer.

These owners paid $4.5 for the property in 2009 on an Ogilvy price of $5.250 million, and it probably seemed like a bargain at the time. It wasn’t.

But very nice land, and it will make an attractive parcel to build on.

Gone and forgotten

(Update: Nice obituary of the (late, obviously) owner, Francis K. Brooks, who died at age 90 in 2009. An interesting, accomplished woman).

Our homegrown prevaricating moron speaks

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What Trump actually said:

“She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her,” Trump said. “Okay, let’s see how she feels about it. You know when the guns are trained on her face — you know, they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building”

What Murphy (and the rest of the den of rats) said, after editing the clip:

While we're reporting breaking news from Maine ...

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it’s lonely at the top

Male Runner Dominates Maine Girls Cross-Country Track Competitions

Under the Maine Principals Association's rules, male runners who identify as female may participate in girls athletics

The student, a junior at the Maine Coast Waldorf School in Freeport, dominated at the Western Maine Conference Championship in Standish on Wednesday, Oct. 16.

He took first place in the five-kilometer cross-country run.

The dominant long-distance runner defeated the second-place finisher, Zoe Carroll from York High School, by one second, finishing the 5k in 20 minutes and 29 seconds compared to Carroll’s 20:30.

Although he took first place competing against the girls, his performance was far from impressive when comparing his times against the other high school boys who ran the meet.

The top male runner, Aiden Ring, finished the 5K in 16:58 … [as the top “girl’ runner, the unnamed runner would have finished 43rd against boys.]

Well, at least he's honest — not many politicians can claim that

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bovine excreta from the pine tree state

Maine Senator Angus King admits that his understanding and knowledge of the Constitution begins and ends at what he learned in kindergarten.

King expressed support for the kind of direct democracy feared by Hamilton, even while citing the Electoral College’s deviation from Hamilton’s ideal as a reason for its end.

After mentioning Hamilton’s influential work, King appealed to the authority of kindergarten teachers.

“We potentially could have a third time in this century where the person who didn’t get the most votes ends up president. That doesn’t correspond with what any of us learned in kindergarten, the most votes wins,” said King.

King went on to express support for term limits for Supreme Court justices, another drastic change to the nation’s system of governance.

An entirely new green energy grid to supply enough electricity to power our trucks, trains, automobiles, and houses by 2035? Udder bullshit.

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My, how they’ve grown these past six years!

Six years and one month after deciding to plant some donated trees along the Post Road, the first planting will take place today.

That’s how long it takes to gain regulatory approval to stick some trees into the earth, in just one town. Power Lines? Windmills? Solar farms? New transformer stations? Throughout the nation? In ten years? The proponents of this scam know what they’re up to; their soon-to-be victims are just naive fools who believe that wishing makes real.

History of a municipal imoprovement:

Back on October 4, 2018, Planning & Zoning hosted a workshop for the Post Road corridor, with the goal of making the Post Road a true gateway to New England.

In December 2019, the Representative Town Meeting approved this goal as part of the Town’s 10-year Plan of Conservation and Development.

For the next two-years, Town employees, appointed officials and non-profit volunteers developed a plan, forming the Greenscape Committee, which mapped and walked the full length of the Greenwich Post Road to label 370 sites for trees.

After that, Planning & Zoning, Parks & Recreation and the Dept of Public Works reviewed and verified each planting site. The proposal was then approved by the Planning & Zoning Commission, the Board of Selectmen, and the RTM.

Because the Post Road is a State road, the next step was to send the tree planting plan to the CT Department of Transportation (DOT).

The State and the Town worked together diligently for the next two years to meet all relevant State standards.

Finally, last week, the DOT granted an encroachment permit for the Town to plant the trees.

The Greenwich Tree Conservancy, a non-profit created to plant and preserve the trees of Greenwich, is the Town’s partner in this endeavor and will be paying for the trees and their planting costs. The planting will be inaugurated on Friday, November 1.

The number of different departments and agencies involved was numerous.

P&Z thanked the;

  • Town Planner

  • Greenscape Committee

  • Town Tree Warden

  • Parks & Recreation staff,

  • Assistant Environmental Affairs Director

  • Dept of Public Works

  • Architectural Review Committee

  • Town Law Dept and Risk Management personnel

  • Greenwich Tree Conservancy

  • First Selectman

  • Representative Town Meeting Members

  • the town’s Delegation to the CT General Assembly and

  • CT Dept of Transportation for their efforts.