January 22, 1999

HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER of Bill Lavery.

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A memorial service will be held at 11 am on Saturday, January 23, at Newtown United Methodist Church for heart transplant recipient Richard W. Rauner, who died last Saturday at his home in Sandy Hook. The Rev Terry Pfeiffer, pastor, said more people are expected to attend the service than can be accommodated in the church. Additional seating will be set up in the Fellowship Hall, where the service will be shown on closed-circuit video. A reception will follow. … The 58-year-old former postal clerk spent more than seven months in Temple University in Philadelphia before undergoing transplant surgery on December 17. He was released from the hospital on December 31.

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In an effort to control future development along Queen Street, voters at Tuesday evening’s special town meeting approved, 155 to 8, the proposed $1.25 million purchase of six houses and eight vacant lots that were part of the Fairfield Hills Hospital campus. “This is a very unique situation — a gem that we should not let slip away,” Queen Street resident Dan Shea told the 175 people in the Newtown Middle School auditorium before the vote. “This vista is part of what makes Newtown the community that it is today.”

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As a joint state-town selection committee sifts through 12 proposals for the redevelopment of Fairfield Hills, some details are emerging about proposed new uses for the former state mental institution. Community Builders of New Haven is one of the firms which has submitted a general proposal for the redevelopment of the 185-acre core campus at Fairfield Hills. Steve Green, director of the Connecticut office of the national development firm, said much market data would be needed to determine the best future uses for Fairfield Hills. There’s probably no single use that requires the approximately one million square feet of enclosed space available, Mr Green said, adding that any successful redevelopment of the property will require a mixed-use approach.

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Newtown’s Superintendent of Schools John Reed presented a $35.4 million budget proposal for the 1999-2000 fiscal year to the Board of Education on Tuesday evening. A planned $4.7 million in capital projects in the schools for the coming fiscal year would bring overall school spending to $40 million. The school spending plan for operating expenses represents a 10.54 percent increase over the current operating budget of $32 million. The current school budget showed an increase of 7.66 percent last year over the previous year.

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Police report a three-vehicle chain reaction accident involving an ambulance, pickup truck and sport-utility vehicle about noon Wednesday on South Main Street. Police said a southbound 1998 Subaru Forester driven by a 33-year-old Derby resident slowed, signaled to make a turn, and stopped in attempting to turn left into the driveway at 103 South Main Street. A southbound 1983 Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck driven by a 52-year-old Trumbull resident slowed and stopped behind the Subaru, police said. A southbound 1994 Ford ambulance owned by Danbury Ambulance Service, being operated by an 18-year-old Danbury resident, then hit the Chevrolet from behind, pushing the Chevrolet into the Subaru. Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps transported the pickup truck driver and the Forester driver to Danbury Hospital for treatment of back and neck injuries. The ambulance driver was not injured, and the ambulance was not carrying a patient. That driver received an infractions ticket for traveling at an unsafe distance.

January 18, 1974

Members of the Newtown Clergy and the Newtown Ecumenical Committee met this week to finalize plans for the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity from Friday, January 18 to Friday, January 25. Short worship services of scripture and prayer for Christian unity will be offered each evening in the churches in Newtown. At 7:30 each evening members and friends of the participating churches are invited to gather for a time of worship followed by a fellowship hour as an expression of the conviction that it is good to come together in Christ’s name for prayer and guidance. … The Newtown Ecumenical Committee acknowledges that the Week of Prayer is only the first step in ecumenical relationship among our churches. They are presently working out a program of sharing for Lent during March and the first week of April.

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It was the vision of high school boys and girls walking along narrow snow-banked roads in the black pre-dawn using flashlights to see their ways to their bus stops, coupled with the stories of near misses as cars swept unseeing by the students, that prompted the Board of Education to postpone for an hour the opening of all Newtown’s schools until February 15. As Superintendent of Schools Dr Albert Brinkman said, “It’s always darkest before the dawn.” The reaction to this move has been varied among the people affected, but in general, the dislocations have been accepted and adjusted to without great complaint. School principals have received few calls from irritated parents.

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At the January meeting of the Lake Lillinonah Authority the following slate of officers was elected: chairman, Mary Gaudet of Newtown; vice-chairman, John Lorenzo of Southbury; secretary, Allen Kasiewicz of Roxbury; and treasurer, Don Randall of Bridgewater. Much of the business meeting centered around the phosphates in detergents issue. The Authority has copies of most of the testimony presented at the State hearings and is in the process of drafting its own statement to the Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP is required to make a recommendation to the General Assembly by February 15 concerning this matter.

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Zygmunt Kacprzynski, 59, of Sandy Hook, owner of Eichler’s Cove Marina, lost his life when a snowmobile on which he was riding fell through the ice on Lake Zoar Sunday afternoon, January 13. The first person to spot Mr Kacprzynski was a 6-year-old girl who heard his cries for help as she was waiting for her family to leave on a trip to the movies. According to the girl’s mother, as soon as her daughter told her a man was in the lake yelling for help she called the Newtown Police and Clifford Bulmer who lived nearby and is a Constable for the Lake Zoar Authority. Mr Bulmer and William Slack immediately took off across the lake in a flatbottomed aluminum boat in an attempt to rescue the victim. … Just as Mr Bulmer’s boat was about to reach the victim, he went under and never surfaced.

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Town Clerk Mae Schmidle received this week the deed for property on the corner of Riverside Road and Dickenson Drive, which was turned over to the Sandy Hook Fire Company by town meeting action. The Company will build a new fire station on the land.

January 14, 1949

The annual meeting of the First Ecclesiastical Society was held Monday evening in the social room of the Congregational church. In addition to action on annual reports, officers were elected for the ensuing year. Arthur T. Nettleton, who has been a member of the Society for 51 years and a member of the Society’s committee for 48 years, felt it necessary, because of his advancing years, to resign his position on the committee. His resignation was accepted with real regret and appreciation for his long years of loyal service to the Society and to the church. In recent years he has been chairman of the committee and shouldered the lion’s share of the responsibility for the conduct of the Society’s financial affairs. Alfred C. Howell was elected to fill Mr Nettleton’s place on the Society’s committee, and Walter Reynolds and Harold F. Smith were re-elected to the committee. H.C. Hubbell was re-elected clerk, as were F.H. Duncombe as treasurer and William Weiss as auditor. Rev Paul A. Cullens was engaged as minister for another year.

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Perhaps other Bee readers are picking fresh vegetables from their gardens these days, but it was Mrs Irving Jones who brought a fresh bunch of radishes to The Bee office last Thursday afternoon. They had just been dug from the garden by her husband. Mr Jones always did know his radishes when it comes to gardening, and last Thursday’s specimens were up to the usual summer quality of his garden produce.

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Newtown friends will be pleased to learn that at its 95th annual stockholders meeting held on Wednesday, the Bridgeport-City Trust Company announced the promotion of Frederick J. Leiss, Jr, assistant treasurer and manager of the company’s Fairfield branch. Mr Leiss now becomes, in addition, assistant vice president. It was late in November, 1948, that the parents of Mr Leiss, Mr and Mrs Fred J. Leiss, Sr, of Glen road, Sandy Hook, celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, at which time more than a hundred friends and relatives called at the home to extend their congratulations.

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L.D. Weaver of South Main street had a narrow escape, as did all of the passengers on the Lakeshore Limited early Saturday morning near Batavia, N.Y., when the axle on a coal car on an adjoining track gave way, spilling coal and parts of the car into the path of the speeding Limited. The quickness with which the Limited’s engineer threw his brakes averted a terrific accident. As it was, the Limited was somewhat damaged and crawled into Rochester where the passengers were transferred into a relief train, arriving in New York City six hours late.

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Fred B. Lake, who for the past few years has made his home with Mr and Mrs Edwin B. Camp of the Taunton district, celebrated his birthday last Saturday, January 8th. What gives this birthday special interest is the fact that Mr Lake is 94 years old, making him one of Newtown’s oldest residents. Mr Lake enjoys good health and takes a great interest in what goes on in the world. On Saturday a party was arranged in his honor at the Camp home, with out-of-town guests being Mrs Franklin Warren and son, Gardner Warren, and Mrs George C. Clausing, all of Bethel, and Mr and Mrs William Fischer of Bellerose, L.I.

January 11, 1924

Mrs Elizabeth Carley Leavey, widow of the late Thomas J. Leavey, died on Tuesday at her late home on Walnut Tree Hill, aged 63 years. Her husband died on September 10, 1923. Mrs Leavey is survived by two sons, John C. Leavey and Paul Leavey, and three daughters, Mrs W.J. Hurley, Mrs James McGrory and Miss Agnes Leavey, also a brother, James Carley, and a sister, Miss Mary Carley. Mrs Leavey had a host of friends and was held in the highest esteem by her neighbors and friends. The funeral will take place on Friday morning at 10 o’clock from St Rose’s church, with a Solemn High Mass.

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There was a most interesting meeting held in the auditorium of the Hawley school on Wednesday evening. The principal feature of the evening was an able and to the point address by Rev G. Herbert Elkins on the home, the school and citizenship. He clearly pictured what was in his mind as the very best way to care and bring up children, our duties as good citizens and how much should be required of children in the school. The meeting was under the management of the Parent Teachers’ Association. It was suggested to give more publicity to the next meeting, to get a larger audience. Perhaps a debate on transportation may be staged. The meetings are held for the benefit of every person in town whether they send children to school or not.

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St John’s church people presented Rev J.L. Lasher with a beautiful gold watch at Christmas time.

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R.P. Manck of Dabury was a caller at the Bee Office, Thursday.

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Mrs S.A. Blackman left on Thursday to pass the balance of the winter at St Petersburg, Fla.

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Mrs Sanford Mead, who has been quite ill with grip for 10 days, is convalescent.

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John C. Perry, son of William C. Perry of Berkshire, caught his right thumb in the pulley of a gas engine on Friday, had his thumb torn off. Dr Kingman attended him and took him to the Danbury hospital.

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Mrs Frederick Luf, who has been ill with indigestion, is convalescent.

January 20, 1899

Mrs Betsy Peck Northrop, mother of Eugene Northrop, died on January 14, aged 84 years. She sustained a fall in November and has steadily failed since. Pneumonia set in a week ago, causing her death. Mrs Northrop has been a life-long resident of Newtown. She is survived by two sons, George Northrop of Bridgeport and Eugene Northrop of Hattertown. Her husband, Andrew Northrop, died 16 years ago. Mrs Northrop had been a member of the Stepney Methodist church for many years. A brother, Charles Peck of California and Mrs Lois Fairchild of Newtown, are still living. The funeral was attended on Monday, Rev Mr Holmes officiating. The burial was in the Stepney cemetery.

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DODGINGTOWN: Andrew James is on the sick list. | Mr and Mrs E.E. Ferry and sister, Miss E.L. Ferry, attended the funeral of Ernest D., son of Mr and Mrs E.D. Briscoe, of Botsford Hill, on Saturday last. | E.C. Bevans, while threshing rye, one day last week, killed 13 large rats. | Mr and Mrs I.W. Andrews and family have been the recent guests of Mrs George Crane. | George Crane has been spending a few days in New York City. | Mrs William Ferry, who resides in Elmwood, fell on the ice and it is thought she has fractured her hip.

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Mrs John Farrell of Hawleyville has a fine crop of tobacco which is yet unsold.

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Mr and Mrs Eli Barnum of Danbury passed Sunday in town, guests of Mr and Mrs Charles F. Beardsley.

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Mrs W.M. Reynolds was quite seriously indisposed, the first of the week, with a severe cold.

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Mrs Augusta Bradley of Dodgingtown passed a few days, recently, with Mrs William H. Shepard of Gray’s Plain.

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William H. Shepard and William H. Thickett have taken an order for 1,000 railroad ties, to be delivered before April 1.

Do you have photographs of people or places in town from a bygone era? The Way We Were is the perfect landing spot so that your photographs can be enjoyed by Newtown Bee readers. Images can be e-mailed as attachments to shannon@thebee.com, subject line: Way We Were photo. When submitting photographs, please identify as many people as possible, the location, and the approximate date. If you live locally and would like to loan a photo/photos, please give us a call (203-426-3141) to let us know when you will be visiting