If you’re spending time in some of Connecticut’s coastal towns and inland eastern regions this summer, Connecticut’s state health commissioner wants you to know you may become attached to some unwanted , disease carrying company. “We’re talking about a tiny deer tick, smaller than a dog tick, that carries a bacterium which can cause an arthritic condition known as Lyme Disease, says state health commissioner Frederick Adams. Lyme Disease was originally identified in 1975. State health officials tracked the disease in 1984 and 1985, and found a total of nearly 1,150 cases in those two years alone.

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The board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce decided June 17 to discontinue its sponsorship of annual summer sidewalk sales in town. Directors had questioned whether the Chamber should continue these sales, due to the general lack of merchants’ enthusiasm and involvement in the past. Subsequently, the Chamber mailed surveys on the issue to retail members; relatively few retailers responded to the survey in support of the sales.

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The Borough Zoning Commission approved the application for the building of temporary classrooms at Hawley Elementary School at the meeting on June 11. The Board of Education will build the 3,600-square-foot addition behind Hawley Elementary School on Church Hill Road. The three classrooms, which are planned for third or fourth grade students, will hold about 20 students in each classroom. The building will be permanent but only used for classrooms as need dictates.

June 22, 1962

Charter members of the Newtown Historical Society nearly filled the Alexandria Room of the Edmond Town Hall last Thursday evening for the Society’s organizational meeting. Those present, numbering about 125, showed considerable enthusiasm in starting the organization.

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Announcement is made this week that superintendent of schools James F. Hinckley has submitted his resignation to the Board of Education. Mr Hinckley came to Newtown in 1953 from Groton to become principal at Newtown High School. In May of 1959 he was selected to succeed Carl  A. LeGrow as superintendent. No reason was given for the resignation.

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The State Highway Department started on Monday removing dead elm trees from Newtown’s Main Street, and pruning those needing it. Two trees have been removed in front of Lovell’s Farm Equipment, and several others are slated to go. There has been a marked change in a number of the old elm trees within the last few weeks, showing that many of them are victims of the Dutch elm disease.

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Roderick Stephens, Jr, as well-known in yachting circles as his brother, Olin, who designed Columbia, Vim and other famous racing yachts, places the Stephens reputation on the line each year in the Bermuda race, a 625-mile course from Newport. He gathers together the best racing crew obtainable to drive his “mustang” to a good showing. Serving as navigator for the 1962 race aboard Mustang is Stuart Hotchkiss of Hanover District, hard by Lake Lillinonah.

June 18, 1937

Capturing an owl with a wing spread of four feet barehanded is not what one might consider real sport for a Sunday afternoon, but that is what Mr and Mrs Edward Dinkler succeeded in doing while out picking flowers last Sunday. Mr Owl, while preparing for a nice meal of crow’s eggs or little crows, was ganged up on by a large flock of the corn field ravagers, who had him down for the count of nine when he made a forced landing in a small sampling. Due to exhaustion and the bright sunlight, Mr Dinkler was able to capture the bird. With the owl now on their hands, the Dinklers are in a quandary as to what they might do with him. Mr Owl will, perhaps, be more polite to his feathered friends and neighbors another time. It just doesn’t pay to never care a Hoot!

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Miss Sarah Farrell will open her play school for the summer at her home in South Center district on Monday, June 21. The school will be held three days a week. Anyone wishing further information is asked to communicate with Miss Farrell by telephone. Her kindergarten school closed a successful season with the last session on Friday.

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On Monday afternoon about 4:20 o’ clock, a large truck, operated by Connecticut branch of the Shaefer Brewing company of Bridgeport, turned over just below the sharp turn on Whisconier Hill in Hawleyville. The body of the truck was considerably damaged, but neither the driver, Victor Gleason, nor his helper John McGuire, were injured. The bottled and canned beer on the truck were a total loss, while the barrels were returned to Bridgeport.

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Frequently during the last two months the question has been asked: “When do the auctions start at The Auction Barn?” The answer is, that Mr Lackaye begins his season of auctions of antiques on Wednesday, June 30. The beautiful setting in which the auctions are held, the pleasing luncheons served on the premises by “The Kegs” and the lovely old furniture and glass offered to the highest bidder make a day at the Auction Barn in Sandy Hook an experience which every one who has been there hastens to repeat.

 

June 21, 1912

The committee appointed by the Men’s Club to raise a fund and erect a liberty pole in Newtown Street have decided on a handsome wooden pole, which when erected will cost $280. The Men’s Club, after listening to plans of the various poles, instructed the committee to put up the best one. This will be an ornament to the Street.

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A popular Newtown young lady, while out riding with a friend, Wednesday, spied a young crow. She insisted on catching the bird and in less than a minute was sprinting down the road at the rate of a mile in three minutes. She caught her crow, but it was so noisy one friend she met suggested using it for an auto horn, but after holding on to the beauty for half an hour, this tender hearted naturalist finally set the beautiful bird at liberty.

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E.F. Northrop of Hanover had the misfortune to lose a valuable heifer, last week. He got out of the pasture and strayed on to the railroad track, and was killed by a train.

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John H. Blackman, the genial Sandy Hook market man, was so unfortunate as to have quite an accident while peddling meat on his wagon in the Gas Street section. The king bolt of the wagon came out, and the wagon was overturned. The horses ran as far as Mr Jacobson’s. Fortunately, neither Mr Blackman nor his horses were injured.