What to do about the flagpole, Newtown’s revered but rusty historic monument in the middle of Main Street, was once again pondered by the Board of Police Commissioners. The 110-foot steel pole has been the scene of many accidents, but the crash which took place there December 2, 1979, claiming the lives of a Yonkers, N.Y. couple, has caused renewed public outcry that something be done about it.

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The Newtown Water Company was accorded scathing commentary by the public through an 8½-hour long, two-session public hearing conducted by the State’s Division of Public Utility Control Wednesday in Edmond Town Hall on its rate increase request. A number of customers said they do not drink the water coming from their taps, instead they buy bottled water. The water’s powerful chlorine smell, often brownish color, the damage the water does to valves and other fixtures, the sediment and scum it leaves as residue, and doubts about the utility’s management dominated the public’s testimony.

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Carl “Cap” LeGrow, Newtown’s former superintendent of schools, is in good spirits as he recuperates from a heart attack in a Bath, Me. hospital, but a note or card from former Newtown friends and pupils would be most welcome. Mr LeGrow entered the Maine hospital following a heart attack on December 24, and was removed from intensive care December 31.

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Funding to improve two substandard roads which serve as the major access roads into a private neighborhood in Sandy Hook will be sought by the Town of Newtown through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant Program. Following two public hearings last month, Grants Administrator Zita McMahon submitted an application Monday, January 7, for a $323,000 grant under the program. Socha Larsen, president of the Pootatuck Park Association, appeared at a hearing to request funds to improve Narragansett Trail and FarView Drive in that 98-home community.

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The Republican Town Committee will be meeting Monday, January 14, at 8 pm in the lower meeting room, and the first order of business, according to GOP Chairman John D’Addario, will be for the committee members to hear from a representative for presidential candidate George Bush. Mr Bush, former US ambassador and CIA director, is one of several hopefuls seeking the nod to run on the Republican ticket for president.

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Newtown’s high school aged hockey club team scored four third period goals to snatch a 9-7 victory from Putnam last Saturday at the Pawling School rink. The win was the first ever for the newly formed team which had played eight previous games without a victory. Newtown goalie Tom Warzecha made 24 saves in the contest.

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Tuesday evening the Board of Education received the unhappy news from Superintendent of Schools Albert Brinkman that its projected budget deficit has increased by another $30,000.

JANUARY 14, 1955

The Newtown Park Commission will hold its first meeting this Saturday afternoon, January 15, at 4 o’clock in the selectmen’s office in Edmond Town Hall. The principal business of the agenda will be the organizing of the commission in accordance with a resolution adopted at the special town meeting of Friday, December 17. For its work, the commission has a fund of $50,000, known as the Newtown Park Commission Fund, which was donated to the town by Bertram A. Stroock of Dodgingtown toward the establishing of a town park, and was accepted by town electors at the December 17 meeting.

***

The quickening pace of life in Newtown is reflected in the total number of births, marriages, and deaths shown by the 1954 vital statistics as recorded by Mrs Eleanor S. Briscoe, town clerk. Births for the first 11 months of the year were 127, against 99 for the same period in 1953. Marriages of town residents rose from 52 to 72, while deaths of townspeople increased from 52 to 75. Deaths of patients at Fairfield State Hospital decreased from 315 to 294.

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Lovell’s Farm Equipment, local dealers for the International Harvester line of tractors and farming implements, is to hold open house on next Wednesday, January 19, from 10 am to 9 pm at which time they will show the 1955 line of Farmall tractors and refrigerators.

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The inaugural ball of Gov Abraham A. Ribicoff held on Wednesday evening, January 5, in the State Armory, Hartford, was attended by Mr and Mrs Ralph Knibloe, Mr and Mrs John Holian, Mr and Mrs Miles Harris, Mr and Mrs A. Fenn Dickinson, Henry McCarthy, all of Newtown, and Miss Alice Winspur of Stepney.

***

Receipts of the Newtown Post Office for 1954 totaled $38,837.46, according to Albert H. Nichols, postmaster. This is an increase of $2,211.35 over 1953 and is about $1,200 less than the amount of receipts necessary to classify Newtown as a first class office.

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Taxpayers whose property was wholly or partially destroyed by hurricanes or other storms during 1954 are entitled to deduct losses on their Federal income tax returns for 1954, James J. Graham, District Director of Internal Revenue at Hartford, stated last week.

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The Transportation Study Committee of the Newtown Parent Teachers Association urged general support of the service provided for carrying town children to and from school in a report made at the January 5 meeting of the PTA. The reports included recommendations as follows: 1) that rules for behavior on school buses be read to classes at the beginning of each week; 2) that shelters be erected to protect children at major assembly points; 3) that publicity be given the good job being done consistently by the Newtown bus drivers.

JANUARY 10, 1930

The ruins left from the fire of St John’s Church are being cleaned up this week.

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Miss Catherine Curtis, assistant postmistress at Sandy Hook, has resigned her position and will shortly enter the Danbury Hospital Training School for Nurses.

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Henry G. Carlson, W.N. Burroughs, and Dr W.F. Desmond attended the automobile exhibition in New York City Tuesday.

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H.B. Senior, well known Bethel contractor, broke ground last week for the new residence of Wallace N. Mitchell on Newtown Street. The house will be 30 x 38, with the addition of a sun parlor with open porch.

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Mrs P. Jacobson is recovering from an infection in one of her feet.

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Gus Swager of Taunton District had an automobile burn up in his yard one day last week. He drove up to his house and after leaving it, the car burst into flames and was destroyed.

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All preparations are complete for the big event of the season, “The Womanless Wedding,” which takes place this Thursday and Friday evenings at St Rose’s Casino. Seventy-five men have rehearsed their parts well, and are now ready to appear as beautiful girls, stately matrons, and vamping flappers by the magic touch of lipstick, rouge, and eyebrow pencil.

***

Miss Ebba Moller, who is teaching at Port Jervis, N.Y., left by automobile, Sunday afternoon, for that city, after passing the holidays at the Moller home in Newtown.

JANUARY 13, 1905

The time is now near at hand for the entertainment which is to be given by the Phi Delta minstrels at the town hall on Saturday evening, January 21. The rehearsals, which are held in New Haven each week, promise to turn out one of the best programs which the society has ever rendered.

***

During the night of December 28 there was a freshet at Zoar Bridge and the ice was blocked a short distance below the bridge, and remained so until the second freshet, last Saturday morning. Now the ice is a sight worth seeing.

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The Bennett’s Bridge school house has been repaired by the district.

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Rev Otis W. Barker has presented to the Beach Memorial Library the works of John Ruskin, in 12 volumes, handsomely bound.

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W.C. Johnson has a large force of men at work filling his big ice houses. He is also to fill the creamery ice house for the Borden’s Condensed Milk Company.

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Thomas Holian, who for the past two years has been station agent at Botsford, has resigned that position and accepted the responsible position as train dispatcher at New Haven.