Week in Review: August 9-15

This week's big story: primary elections held in Darien and across the state on Tuesday. Locally, Darien's Mike Murray bested fellow Darienite John Ryan and New Canaan's Bill Osterndorf in a three-way race for the GOP probate judge nomination. With a win in November, Murray will take the helm of a newly-combined Darien/New Canaan district in January.

At the district level, Dan Debicella earned a berth against Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn. 4th) for the fall, while the state level, Linda McMahon coasted to victory in the GOP U.S. Senate primary, Dan Malloy upset Ned Lamont for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, and Tom Foley won the opposing spot on the GOP side. (For complete town, district, and statewide numbers, visit our results round-up.)

A grim pair of life-threatening accidents made headlines Thursday and Friday: first a wipeout by 25-year-old motorcyclist David Sabini, and later a collision with a youth riding a skateboard on West Avenue. Less serious, thankfully, was a boat crash Friday night in Westport caused by an allegedly intoxicated Darien man.

In Town Hall news, emails obtained by Patch from the Department of Economic and Community Development last week showed that Margaret and Chris Stefanoni are "on the verge" of filing one or more affordable housing project applications and that the pair will likely do so before a potential 8-30g moratorium takes effect. Additional documents indicated that the developers had prompted a delay of several weeks in the town's pending moratorium application by pointing out the absence of an updated attorney certification.

Still more emails showed that a DECD expert had told the town as recently as February that Avalon Darien would not qualify as a "set-aside development." If that unofficial judgment is affirmed during the ongoing review process, it could hobble the town's moratorium chances.

In Patch's weekly logs, a youth was arrested for possessing illegal fireworks, a fence caught on fire outside of Springdale Florist, and from Fannie Mae.

And did we mention:

• Resurfacing work continues across Darien
• Syphilis cases are on the rise across Fairfield County
• Rep. Jim Himes' telecommuter tax fix is stuck in committee
• This week's primaries may shed some light on what's to come in November

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