Saturday, June 21, members of the Class of 1975 will bid a final farewell to Newtown High School during commencement exercises.The graduation ceremony will begin at 6 pm as the blue-robed seniors march to the strains of the processional, “Pomp and Circumstance,” played by the high school concert band under the direction of Joseph Grasso, music director. The traditional fern girls, members of the junior class, will hold arches of ferns through which the seniors will file to take their seats. The valedictory address will be given by Suzanne J. Kopple and the salutatory by Deborah Brody. The commencement address will be given by graduating senior Timothy Kayfus. His talk is entitled “Jason and the Golden Fleece.”

***

The Board of Finance approved unanimously a bond issue of $3,250,000 for constructing an elementary school on the so-called Boyle property on Boggs Hill Road at its meeting Wednesday night, and the next step is a town meeting. Jack Rosenthal, vice chairman, objected to “being under the gun,” however, noting he received word of the resolution only four hours before the meeting. He moved that consideration of the bonding be tabled to a meeting on June 24 so more study could be made. The motion failed as no second was put forward.

***

A vitally important town meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, June 26, at 8 pm in the auditorium of the high school. This is the meeting which will ask voters to approve a recommendation of the Board of Finance that $3,250,000 be appropriated for the construction, furnishing, and equipping of an elementary school on the former Boyle property on Boggs Hill Road.

***

Ten-year-old David Herscovici was the winner of the Newtown Junior Chess Club championship tournament, triumphing over other youngsters ranging from kindergarten to 8th grade.

***

“Now you can reject this thing honestly,” F. Farny Eilers of Currituck Road told the members of the Conservation Commission around midnight of Friday, June 13, as the Boggs Hill School site wetlands public hearing drew to a close. “You have plenty of reason to throw it out,” he concluded as opponents of the proposed school punctuated his statement with loud clapping. So ended the seven-hour, two-part hearing on the Board of Education bid to fill a 0.44 acre “tongue of wetland” which, according to the architect’s latest plans, is situated right where the northeast corner of the Boggs Hill school should go.

***

The Visiting Nurse Association scholarship committee has completed its sixth year with nursing scholarship awards to two Newtown High School girls. Dawn Connelly, daughter of Mrs Joyce Connelly, Danbury-Newtown Road, has been chosen the 1975 recipient of the Anna E. Clow Nursing Scholarship. Mary Beth Allen, daughter of Mr and Mrs Robert Allen, Diamond Drive, is the recipient of the VNA’s second scholarship made available through an anonomous donor.

***

At the monthly meeting of the officers and directors of the Newtown Chamber of Commerce held Wednesday noon, June 18, at Hawley Manor Inn, a motion was passed voicing the Chamber’s endorsement of the proposed forty-unit housing project for the elderly to be built on Fairfield Hills Hospital property as a non-profit organization.

***

Barring the possibility of an appeal referendum, the town finally has a Board of Education budget approved for fiscal 1975-76 in the amount of $6,642,435. The vote to approve the budget came at a town meeting in the high school auditorium on Monday evening, and although discussion was fairly short on the resolution, the motion for a paper ballot vote delayed proceedings for nearly an hour since the persons eligible to vote had to be checked with the voting lists by the registrars and issued paper ballots. The final outcome of the balloting showed a tally of 290 persons voting for the budget and 58 opting to turn it down.

JUNE 23, 1950

A joint meeting was held in the Alexandria Room of the Edmond Town Hall on Tuesday evening, attended by members of the Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance, Town Development Committee, and the five volunteer fire companies in Newtown. Judge Paul V. Cavanaugh presided and presented a proposed plan for reorganization of the Newtown Fire Department and the Board of Fire Commissioners, which as they now exist were established by an ordinance passed at a town meeting in 1942.

***

At the regular meeting of the Newtown Lions Club, held on Wednesday evening, June 14, at the Parker House, Miss Patricia McMahon of Hawley High School was the recipient of the first annual award to be made by the Lions in memory of their late President, George W. Truss. The award is to be made annually to the Newtown student selected by the faculty at the close of the school year as the best all-around student of the year.

***

Following the all-inclusive pattern of former years, plans are in operation for a Newtown Fourth of July parade in which all organizations, groups, and individuals will take part as they see fit, with floats, apparatus, and marching units. The parade is again sponsored by the Sandy Hook Fife, Drum, and Bugle Corps, with First Selectman A. Fenn Dickinson again serving as grand marshall, Louis Carbonneau as treasurer, and J. Robert Lockwood as secretary. George A. Powell will have charge of refreshments for participants. Serving as judges will be Mrs Edith C. Parker, Mrs Waldo F. Desmond, Mrs George B. Kyle, and Mrs Joseph L. Levy.

***

Ground was broken Monday morning by George F. Wheeler on his Queen Street property in preparation for the shopping center which he will erect there. Plans for the building, as drawn by O.C.S. Ziroli, architect, of Bridgeport, call for a building of Colonial design, two stories high in the center, with a wing on each end. The center portion of the building will provide for a large food store on the first floor and six offices on the second floor.

***

Members of the Newtown Mothers Club elected Mrs William H. Walsh, Jr, as president at their last meeting of the season which was held on Monday evening, June 19, in Trinity Church rooms. Other officers chosen at this time were Mrs Gilpin Johns, vice president and program chairman; Mrs Roy Byrne, secretary; Mrs Stephen Kovacs, treasurer; Mrs Harold Carey, hostess chairman; Mrs Frank Nichols, hospitality, chairman; Mrs Thomas Ramsdell, ways and means chairman; and Mrs Herman Parker, publicity. These officers will assume their duties at the club’s first meeting in the fall.

***

A delightful  evening was enjoyed by Rotary Club members and Rotarians at a ladies’ night dinner and dance held at the Newtown Country Club Monday night. Hawley Manor served as caterer for the smorgasbord dinner and a Bridgeport orchestra furnished music for the dancing. The committee on arrangements was Edmund C. Platt, II, Donald R. McCain, and Harold E. Harvey.

***

Rumor has it that the Popsicles (fathers of SAC members) have been holding secret practice sessions – getting themselves generally in condition for nine innings of baseball against the SAC team.

 

JUNE 19, 1925

Mine Host Parker, as his contribution for the carnival for the VNA, will serve hot clam chowder. You will want to buy a plate.

***

Miss Adaline E. Hurd gave an enjoyable party at the Country Club, last Thursday evening, to about 30 friends. Bridge was enjoyed.

***

There was quite a gathering at whist, last Monday night, at the Newtown Country Club. Miss Ruth Shea, who is about to leave town for a teacher’s position at Fulton, N.Y., entertained. The highest scores for the evening were made by Mrs Sanford Mead, Mrs Arthur J. Smith, John C. Beers, and Charles A. Peale.

JUNE 22,  1900

Wednesday evening about 9 o’clock the Orlando Platt house was discovered to be on fire. The building was unoccupied and there being no apparatus to draw water from the well it soon burned to the ground. It was owned by Burr Hawley of Stepney who had just begun to make repairs on it.

***

Mrs Laura Leonard, Miss C. Belle Bloom, Miss Parce and Messrs W.A. Leonard and A.F. Clarke went to Hartford on Friday, where they took the boat to New York. They passed the day in New York, returning via the steamer Rosedale to Bridgeport.