***

Well, it finally snowed — and snowed, and snowed. The Newtown Sleigh Rally was eminently successful, with 26 sleighs, all brightly turned out, and a happy, wonderful group of drivers young and old, who whirled around the Dickinson Park outfield in a most ebullient manner. Bill Stuart was the judge of the Sleigh Rally.

***

Another person has been injured in a sledding accident near the drainage ditch on the eight hole of the Newtown Country Club. It was the latest in a series of accidents at this site over the past several years. A number of people have been injured when their sleds have struck the ditch, which is not visible from the top of the hill.

***

After making budget cuts at a series of meetings over the past week, the Board of Selectmen had reduced the general government operating budget to $8,234,055 by the end of its meeting February 12. The proposed 1986-87 budget reflected a 14.5 percent increase over the 1985-86 budget. They agreed that if any of them could think of further ways to reduce the budget, they would have a final budget review meeting on Friday, February 14.

February 17, 1961

Sometime late last Thursday night or early Friday morning, thieves broke into the Tru-Valu Market in the Wheeler Shopping Center, and stole nearly $1,200 in cash and checks. On Monday night, thieves broke into Cashman’s Drug Store in the Wheeler Shopping Center and made off with $197 in cash, 45 Timex watches, a movie camera and a Brownie camera.

***

Charles Gould Morris, 90, of Berkshire Road and New Haven, distinguished citizen of Newtown and Connecticut, who was three times Democratic candidate for governor and served in the state legislature as a representative from Newtown, died on February 9. Mr Morris took a long and active part in public affairs in Newtown.

***

John Thomas McCarthy, 64, of 20 Main Street. Long prominent in Newtown and Connecticut, died Saturday following a heart attack in Hollywood Beach, Fla. Mr McCarthy, an organizer and president of American Brush Wire Company, served as Connecticut Commissioner of Motor Vehicles for several years, and his party as Democratic State Chairman. More than 40 years ago he came to Newtown and became a partner in the former Newtown Coal and Grain Company.

***

Nearly 100 persons turned out to give overwhelming approval to requested additional snow funds and installation of two-way radios in town trucks at the special meeting Friday evening at Edmond Town Hall. A total of $15,000 was appropriated for snow removal purposes, and $3,500 for mobile radio equipment.

 

February 14, 1936

A truck loaded with nine tons of coal enroute from Bridgeport to Danbury caught fire on the Bridgeport-Newtown Road in Upper Stepney, last Thursday morning. The truck was driven by Peter Slais, who drove the truck into a snow bank and ran a half-mile to the nearest house. The coal was saved, but the truck was badly damaged.

***

Levi C. Morris has been presented a walking stick by A.E. Radcliffe, which he carved from a timber taken from the Congregational church during recent alterations. The wood in the cane is over 100 years old, and in it is a hand-made nail, which Mr Radcliffe purposely left in the stick.

***

Attention of the residents of the town is again brought to the necessity of cleaning the chimneys in their homes. The firemen have been called to extinguish fires in chimneys of homes in the rural districts on several occasions of late. The snow-filled roads make the task of getting the heavy fire truck to the scene a hard one.

***

Dr Waldo F. Desmond, who was appointed Health Officer of Newtown on October 7, 1935, succeeding the late Dr Edward L. Kingman, wishes to emphasize to parents and teachers, regulation 8 and 9 of the Connecticut Sanitary Code. These regulations require every teacher or parent to report immediately to the Health Officer the name and address of any pupil or person in the home, either ill or exposed to a communicable disease. In this way teachers may help to prevent the spread of disease.

February 17, 1911

The dance given, Friday evening last, by the young ladies under the leadership of Miss Caroline George and Miss Charlotte Minor, marked the height of the winter’s social season. A fine evening, nicely decorated hall, splendid music, and a congenial gathering of the young folks made it a very successful event.

***

Representative Johnson and Gallagher can confer no greater benefit on their constituents than by opposing the imposition of another state tax. Newtown’s share of the state tax, last year, was $1,050 and had it not been for this, the town officials could have “gotten by” without borrowing money last spring. Let us hope our legislators will practice economy, oppose the raising of all salaries and lay increased taxes of necessary on the telephone and other like corporations, where it belongs.

***

Rehearsals for the ladies’ white minstrels are in progress, and the event to take place at the town hall on the eve of Washington’s Birthday, February 24, under the auspices of St Rose’s church, will without doubt prove a delightfully entertaining evening.

***

A popular member of the Bee force is an optimist and believes in an early spring. In prophesizing an early spring, Tuesday, he was amazed, Wednesday, on awakening, to find six inches of snow on the ground. John says he didn’t hear the birds sing, as he pushed the snow plow up the sidewalk, to the edification of the Street, and the birds were still silent, Thursday, as John looked through the icicles on his eyebrows at the thermometer, which dropped to below zero.