This week Paul Allen of Mt Pleasant Road began circulating a petition which will call for a town meeting to reject the new teachers’ contract, now sitting out its 30-day waiting period in the office of Town Clerk Mae Schmidle. The reason for the move to reject the contract, according to a letter written by Mr Allen last week, was to “reprimand” the teachers for the strike action they took earlier this year during contract talks.

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With over 16 years in the service of the Town of Newtown behind him, Earl H. Megin of Sealand Drive retires as building inspector this Friday. The “crowning” event to honor the building inspector took place on Thursday, May 29, as Town Hall employees and officials gathered for a luncheon at the Hawley Manor Inn.

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He was seven votes shy of the town’s top job two years ago. This week Gerald J. Frawley of Taunton Lake Road said he’ll try again, and is seeking the endorsement of the Democratic Party for a run for first selectman.

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The Planning & Zoning Commission’s proposed regulations for housing for the elderly in Newtown met with general approval at the two-hour public hearing last Friday, May 30 – and with some questions, and violent opposition by one non-resident. P&Z’s proposal involves creation of a new zone, designated EH-10, for properties of a minimum of ten acres in area. Such zones could be created by the commission following application and public hearing. One of the principal uses allowed by granting of a special exception would be projects for housing for the elderly, with a maximum of 40 housing units allowed in a project developed by a non-profit Connecticut corporation.

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Negotiations between the Town and the Highway Department union may be close to arriving at an agreement. “It’s possible that we’re very close,” commented Jack Butler, president of the local road crew organization, local R-217 of the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE).

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The Conservation Commission’s proposed open space plan for Newtown has been completed by Frederick Clark Association of Rye, N.Y. Green covered copies of the report were passed out by Chairman Theodore Whippie at the June 4 meeting. The open space plan is the culmination of about a year of work on the part of planner David Portman.

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First Selectman Frank DeLucia has come out in support of the teachers’ contract ratified May 15 between the Board of Education and the Newtown Federation, as Paul Allen of Mt Pleasant Road prepares a petition to call a town meeting to reject the contract.

JUNE 9, 1950

The Bee is informed by Richard Martin, director of the State Water Commission at Hartford, that the commission will hold a public hearing on Thursday, June 15, at 2 o’clock in the Alexandria Room of the Edmond Town Hall. A sanitary survey of the tributaries of the Housatonic River in Newtown was recently made by the Bureau of Sanitary Engineering of the State Department of Health under the direction of Warren Scott, and much pollution was found to exist. The purpose of the hearing is to discuss means of correcting the existing conditions and property owners involved have been requested to attend.

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Early figures released from the US Census Bureau in Bridgeport show an increase in dwelling units in Newtown during the past ten years from 1,796 to 2,234, or an increase of better than 24 percent. Outside of Fairfield State Hospital, the town’s population increased from 2,889 to 4,317, a gain of 49.4 per cent. In 1940, patients and employees in Fairfield State Hospital totaled 1,134. The 1950 figure is 3,051.

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Newtown’s Blue Birds and Camp Fire Girls held their seventh annual mother-daughter banquet Monday night, June 5, in the parish room of St John’s Episcopal Church under the leadership of Miss Ruth Berglund, Blue Bird leader, and Mrs Austin E. Dinkler, guardian. Nearly 100 guests gathered at the huge table decorated by the girls to honor their mothers, sponsors, and a delegation of leaders of the Mid-Fairfield Council of Camp Fire Girls.

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After due consideration, a committee consisting of Mrs Isabel Davis, Edmund Foster, and Gould Curtis has chosen the Boy’s Social and Athletic Club as the recipient of the beautiful television set presented as a memorial to the late Edward H. Davis of Sandy Hook. A committee of the active group, headed by Junior President Jim Knapp, has been briefed in the care and operation of the set by J.J. Keane.

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Mrs William Oakley, Stamford, former president of the Newtown League of Women Voters, will be one of the guest members participating in the Board Training Day to be held by the state league at the home of Mrs Herman E. de Vries, Hawleyville, on Wednesday, June 14, from 10:30 to 3:15.

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Friends of Carroll F. Johnson, superintendent of schools in the towns of Newtown, Woodbury, Southbury, and Bethlehem, and Mrs Johnson, are giving a dinner in their honor next Thursday evening, June 15, at 6:30 at Hawley Manor, Newtown.

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Art lovers in the vicinity will be glad to know that the Cyrenius H. Booth Library, Newtown, has scheduled an exhibit of paintings starting this Saturday and running for about three weeks. The works to be shown are those of Mrs Laura Hall Beach, a native of Southern Connecticut, who now divides her time between Bridgeport and Ft Lauderdale, Fla.

 

JUNE 5, 1925

A carnival for the benefit of the Newtown VNA will be held on June 19 and 20. By the generosity of Miss Mary Hawley it will be held at the Newtown Inn and promises to be the big social event of the season.

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The first dance given by the Hawleyville Fire Company on Friday evening, May 29, was a tremendous success. Over 310 people danced to the music of the famous Al Beavans’ Orchestra of Dodgingtown. Never in the history of Hawleyville have there been so many cars parked outside of the Upham Food Products Company building, which reminded one of the parking space of the Danbury Fair grounds.

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In the storm of Wednesday afternoon, about 4 o’clock, a barn on George Mayer’s farm in Palestine was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. Stored in the building, a structure 25 by 50 feet, were a new reaper, two mowing machines, and a horse rake. Mr Mayer estimates there were about 18 tons of hay in the building destroyed.

JUNE 8,  1900

The Christian Endeavor Society of the Congregational Church is to take up a collection for the famine sufferers in India, and contributions from any of the citizens of the town are invited. Any desiring to give to this worthy cause can leave their offerings with Arthur T. Nettleton.

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A meeting of the Fair directors will be held on Monday evening, the 11th, at the Town Clerk’s office.

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Mr and Mrs Charles Botsford presented their daughter, Miss Mary, with a handsome carriage the other day, the occasion being her 18th birthday.