First Selectman Herb Rosenthal took a few hours out from his busy schedule to play a round of golf at the annual Jack Friel Memorial Tournament at Whitney Farms in Monroe. Herb teamed up with Finance Director Ben Spragg, Jim Arconti, and tournament d
First Selectman Herb Rosenthal took a few hours out from his busy schedule to play a round of golf at the annual Jack Friel Memorial Tournament at Whitney Farms in Monroe. Herb teamed up with Finance Director Ben Spragg, Jim Arconti, and tournament director Mark Fries to take third place overall in the best-ball format.
Afterwards, the 36 foursomes (made up mostly of Newtown people) went in to the clubhouse for dinner and a roast of Newtown resident and judge Bill Lavery.
Former Newtown resident Chris Seman was back in town this week after finishing filming of the movie Black Knight in Wilmington, Delaware. Chris played a minor part in the movie, which stars Martin Lawrence and is due out next winter. Chris, who engaged in a few sword-fighting scenes in Black Knight, is trying to get into the Screen Actors Guild so that he can eventually get some speaking roles.
Two years ago, Chris was one of hundreds of extras in The Patriot, which was filmed in South Carolina and starred Mel Gibson. The 1986 NHS graduate is also expected to appear in recently completed films Shallow Hal with Gwyneth Paltrow, Jason Alexander, and Jack Black and Devine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, starring Sandra Bullock and Ashley Judd.
Jim MacNaughton was the first to report a sighting of what some believe may have been crop circles in the Poverty Hollow Road section of town this week. Jim approached one of the circles, then quickly backed away after being told there might still be electromagnetic energy in the area. Jim has a pacemaker.
I spotted Newtown Police officer Steve Ketchum out on patrol Tuesday, but not in his car. Steve was pedaling the departmentâs modified mountain bike used to patrol the streets of Newtown. Smilinâ Steve said the bike is mostly used to help promote the departmentâs public relations, seeing that there is very little street crime around here. By the way, we think Ketchum (pronounced âcatch âemâ) is the perfect name for a cop.
This is a photo of Rusty the cat, the feline who recently had surgery to remove his damaged right ear. He has agreed to make an appearance in the Top of the Mountain column for his many fans. Rusty had been a bit shy about appearing publicly without his right ear, but now has built the confidence needed to do so. His owner, Gary Frenette, the townâs zoning enforcement officer, says that Rusty recently realized he has a tail and the cat has spent quite a bit of time chasing it. Gary figures that if he could harness the energy that Rusty uses in a day to chase his tail, he could meet the lighting needs of Naugatuck for a week. I still think that since Rusty went monaural, he should change his name to Vincent.
There has been a lot of activity along Church Hill Road this week. Workers are installing sidewalks from The Bee down the hill toward the light at Queen Street, part of the boroughâs sidewalk project. Faith Gulickâs house is getting a new shake roof, historically appropriate to her 1712 farmhouse, and the house that houses the offices of Denlinger and Previdi at the corner of The Boulevard is getting a facelift.
Louise Morgan was honored by the Board of Education and Services for the Blind for her volunteer work with the program. A lifelong resident of Newtown, she has been typing in Braille for the blind since 1980 using a Braillewriter.
Wendy White donated an ice cream cake from her ice cream shop to the raffle at the fundraising breakfast for Regional Hospice this week at the Fireside Inn. Ironically, of the hundreds of tickets in the basket, the winner drawn was Anna Smollen Pendergast, one of Wendyâs longtime employees.
George Lockwood is back from Las Vegas, happy that he just about broke even. He said he couldnât say the same for Carol.
Gumby made a guest appearance at the Newtown High School graduation Tuesday night. Donna Wallace of Whisconier Middle School in Brookfield took on the task of turning into Gumby during NHS teacher Edward Oblojâs speech to the Class of 2001. I guess no one from Newtown wanted to be green since all the graduates were wearing blue.
Graduation went on without a hitch, expect of course that a few of the graduates got a bit confused about what direction they should go in to receive their diplomas. I guess straight ahead didnât make much sense; but who was watching anyway?
Friday marks the end of school for the rest of the students in Newtown. I hope they have a safe summer. I intend to be lurking around to see what summer fun they will be having. So be sure toâ¦
Read me again.