February 23, 1996

The mystery of the missing faxes was solved last week when June Hanna caught her 200-pound Vietnamese pot-bellied pig eating the paper as it came out of the machine in her home-based office. Like anything else in the house that might be eaten by “Tai” — which is everything — it will have to be moved above pig level.

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Calling it a bare-bones plan, First Selectman Bob Cascella Wednesday night presented the Legislative Council the proposed 1996-97 municipal budget of $18,776,278, which is four percent over the current year. Mr Cascella said he deleted $1.7 million in requests by department heads before producing his budget. The Board of Selectmen also cut another $60,000 before approving the budget on a 2-1 vote last month.

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The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) has unanimously endorsed the proposed expansion and renovation of Hawley School, a public school for kindergartners through fifth graders at 29 Church Hill Road... Adding new space on to Hawley School may eliminate the need for a fifth public elementary school for the foreseeable future.

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It wasn’t enough that the nor’easter, which tore through New England last Friday, postpones a South-West Conference girls quarter-final basketball game between Newtown High School and Joel Barlow, but remnants of the storm were still causing havoc a day later. Leaky ceiling vents in the high school gymnasium caused a 50-minute delay in Newtown’s rescheduled game with Barlow... With nearly a foot of snow sitting on the roof of the gymnasium, water began dribbling through the vents onto the gymnasium floor... No one was injured.

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Work crews cleaned up an oily mess this week on the grounds of Fairfield Hills Hospital where a driverless, brakeless oil tanker truck last Saturday spilled hundreds of gallons of home heating fuel onto the ground after an accident... Police said Ronald Cisero, 38, of Hitfield Road, was driving the truck... northbound on Nunnawauk Road... when the truck’s brakes failed. Cisero jumped out of the tanker truck, receiving abrasions and contusions when he landed on the ground. The oil truck came to rest in front of an old red barn on the property of Fairfield Hills.

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Resident Werner Schulz has received a US Patent for printing equipment he has developed to be used in the BC Roto commercial printing process. Mr Schulz has been working to cut costs for high quality, rotogravure color printing. Rotogravure printing is used for high press runs where fine detail and color fidelity is required.

February 19, 1971

The Health and Human Services Committee of the CDAP and members of the Visiting Nurses Association met for three hours in the Alexandria Room of the Edmond Town Hall February 17 to hear William Johnson, of Albert’s Hill Road, explain his ideas for a detoxification and convalescent hospital on his property. The new center would be a place where alcoholics would be rehabilitated, not just “dried out.” ... patients would be guided to a whole new set of values that should put an end to their drinking problems.

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On February 1, the United States Code was changed which requires that the Postal Service maintain and keep a current list of names and addresses of patrons who desire NOT to receive “Sexually Oriented Advertisements,” commonly known as “smut mail.” The Postal Service will compile a reference list of all persons, including their children under age 19, who do not wish to receive such mail, and will make this list available to mailers.

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Edwin Cooper of Parmalee Hill Road, well known to Newtowners as a lay reader in Trinity Episcopal Church, is now appearing in the off-Broadway production of Dale Wasserman’s “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest,” from the novel by Ken Kesey. Mr Cooper has been a professional actor since he made his debut at the age of 19 in a Shakespearean Company. He has starred in such plays as “Life with Father,” “Time Out for Ginger,” “Snafu,” “Eve of St Mark,” and many more.

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For the first time in the history of Newtown, college credit courses will be offered to residents locally in Newtown High School. The program is part of the continuing education policy of adult education. Three courses of the 40 offered will carry a full three credits each and are sponsored by Post Junior College. They are credited by Post and transferrable to any other junior or four-year college.

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Many thanks to the Newtown Ambulance Association and to C. Reichert and E. Webber for their TLC. I’m 81 and my trip to Danbury Hospital was my first ambulance ride of which I had many foolish fears. All’s well with kind men such as these taking care of us oldsters. —Anna C. Bailey

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The Rotary Club will sponsor a showing of motion pictures of the African Safari that was enjoyed by Seth and Polly Brody of 65 Main Street... Admission of $1 for adults and $2 for the entire family will be taken at the door with the proceeds being allocated to the Scholarship Association Fund... The Brody safari started at Nairobi, Kenya, and included the famous Masai Mara National Park.

February 15, 1946

Rev Paul Cullens and a group of skaters took advantage of the moon-light and smooth ice on Tuesday evening to skate on the Housatonic River from Sandy Hook to the Stevenson Dam. The Paul Smith family and Millard Goodsell enjoyed the evening skating at Candlewood Knolls, and a large party was being planned for Thursday evening — until the warmer weather set in.

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An audience which, seated in informal groups, filled the Alexandria Room of Edmond Town Hall, thoroughly enjoyed the two one-act plays presented last Thursday evening by the Town Players. The first play, “The Proposal,” by Anton Chekov, creates in its plot a series of situations between father, daughter, and suitor... The second offering of the evening, James B. Barrie’s “The Old Lady Shows Her Medals,” was perhaps the more enjoyed of the two plays.

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“Topper,” now a four-year-old full grown Airedale Army veteran, arrived home on Saturday— recognizing his owners, Mr and Mrs Arthur J. Smith, and all his old haunts on Queen Street. He left home three years ago as a lively one-year-old to join the War Dog Canine Section of the US Army and turned in an excellent performance on sentry duty at Fort Devens, Mass., and Grenier Fields, N.H... He can still go through his Army commands, but more remarkable still, remembers the Smiths’ cat and has decided the war is over, even with his traditional rival!

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The application of Alfred Karcheski for a certificate of approval for a gas station on Route 25, approximately one and one-half mile from the center of Newtown, will be heard at a hearing in the Selectman’s room at the Edmond Town Hall, this Friday, February 12, at 12 o’clock noon. All interested parties may be heard from at that time.

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Tuesday evening, to anyone who viewed the heavens, afforded a close conjunction of Mars and the Moon, with Saturn close by. Henry Allen Price of Sunset Hill was also watching for Acturus to rise before midnight, for when it does so, he says it means spring cannot be far behind. And we think he saw it!

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Hawley High School girls’ basketeers kept their winning streak intact last Thursday afternoon when they defeated the Danbury High School team by a 40-20 score. Mary Lou Bradley tossed in 17 points, while her running mates, Shirley Shannon and Nancy Baxter, scored 14 and 9, respectively.

February 4, 1921

Many Newtown people are planning to attend one of the two performances of “H.M.S. Pinafore,” Gilbert & Sullivan’s tuneful opera, at the Empress theater, Danbury, under the auspices of the Republican club, next Monday and Tuesday nights... The entire production will be on a high plane and the opera will be sung in a manner that will recall, to the older folks at least, the days when it was one of the big attractions of the theater.

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The Community school basketball team and the girls’ basketball team of the Sanford school will play at the Town hall on Friday night. Two teams from the Boys’ club will play conclusions and dancing will follow.

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Distribution of the Victory Medals still being made, all ex-service men who served in the United States Army at home or abroad between April 6, 1917 and November 11,, 1918, or next of deceased soldiers, are strongly advised to apply at once for their Victory Medals as this opportunity may soon be denied them... Less than half of the men entitled to the Victory Medal have applied for them to date.

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As Reid C. Aseltine, district manager for the New England Homestead, and Edward F. Sullivan were motoring toward Danbury, Tuesday night, about 8:45 o’clock, when at a point on the bend between the residence of F.B. Lake and F.H. Ruffells, they saw a dark mass at the side of the road which looked like a black robe. Getting out to investigate, they found a young woman, handsomely dressed, lying face down on the ground. The young woman was almost pulseless and hardly breathing. Dr W. H. Kiernan... administered restoratives, and when she finally got so, she could nod her head to his questions. In a pocket of her coat he found an envelope addressed to Mrs Mary Healy, Danbury... He called up Danbury police department... They dispatched an officer to 13 Moss Avenue, where they found Mrs Healey’s mother-in-law. It appears Mrs Healey left her Danbury home about 1:30 pm to make some calls. She is the wife of Robert Healey, a railroad man. Mrs Healey is described as a handsome appearing young woman of about 19 years. She was very well dressed, wearing a velvet cloak, trimmed with fur, a picture hat, gloves and shoes of the latest style. She was seen passing the Ruffells’ residence about an hour before she was found... The case seems more or less shrouded in mystery, but Mrs Healey certainly was near death when found by the newspaper men.

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The Congregational Church: The young ladies’ organization of the Sunday School is planning to raise money to purchase material for making garments needed by the St John’s Guild, a nonsectarian society. Each girl purposes to earn a dollar by taking orders for home-made muffins, cookies, pies, cakes, candy, etc.

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