Lee Davenson told the Parks and Recreation Commission Tuesday that the town should know within two weeks whether federal Bureau of Outdoor Recreation funds will be available for development of a second town park on the town-owned Stefanko property on Philo Curtis Road in Sandy Hook. If the Interior Department bureau approves the grant application, the commission will have to submit a final budget program to the federal agency and then come to the town for $358,000 funding, 50 percent of which will be reimbursible to the town when the work is done.

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 Can the Newtown Planning and Zoning Commission institute a moratorium on residential development in certain sections of town because of the effect it would have on services? Planning and Zoning Commission Vice Chairman Arthur Spector posed this tough one at Friday night’s meeting, asking Town Counsel Paul E. Pollock to explore the legality of such a move.

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Monday evening was nomination night for the Newtown Republicans as members of the town committee gathered to list a slate of candidates for the fall election. Topping the list as the only candidate announced or nominated at this point is Maxine Ginn, who announced her candidacy last week and was formally nominated before the GOP committee Monday by Robert Munger with seconds coming from Robert Hall, Bryant Edgerton, Bob Smith, and Harvey Wachsman.

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On Saturday, July 9, installation of an aeration system in Taunton Lake was completed with the laying of 500 feet of perforated hose on the bottom of the lake along with 1,000 feet of feeder hose. The hose is lead-weighted and is fed with air from three compressors installed in the Newtown Water Company pump house. The system was purchased by the Newtown Fish and Game Club and will be maintained and operated by Newtown Water Company. Both organizations took part in the installation.

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An August 15 date has been set for a public hearing on the Town of Newtown’s proposal to construct a new day care and multiple use center on town-owned land at the corner of Riverside Road and Dickinson Drive, by the Newtown Conservation Commission. The property in question is intended to be the site of new quarters for the Children’s Adventure Center, Inc, Newtown’s public daycare facility, and for a multiuse building for the senior citizens’ nutrition, health, and recreation programs, with space for meetings and other community activities during the hours the seniors are not using the building.

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There’re always a few people who spoil it for others, and in the case of the Newtown Shopping Center, some youths who gather nightly to make the place a hangout have forced a 10 pm curfew to be instituted. The center invoked the curfew, in cooperation with the Newtown police, on May 6, and center manager William E. Stratford thinks the curfew is working. So do the merchants in the complex. Under it, Mr Stratford said, any person on the shopping center property after 10 pm can be considered a trespasser and subject to police authority. Also, any motor vehicle within the parking lines after 10 is subject to being towed away at the expense of the vehicle’s owner.

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A New York City-based subsidiary of ITT has proposed a Botsford location for a 350-foot tall microwave telephone repeater tower. United States Transmissions System has applied to the Newtown Board of Zoning Appeals for two variances to locate the tower on a 5.10 acre parcel of R-2 residential property off Swamp Road near the Newtown border.

JULY 18, 1952

Judge Paul V. Cavanaugh of Newtown, who for the past 14 years has been chairman of the Fairfield County Chapter of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, was honored at a testimonial dinner at the Yankee Drover Inn on Wednesday evening, July 9. Before a gathering of about 80 friends of the Fairfield Chapter, Judge Cavanaugh was presented a wrist watch from the County Chapter and a certificate and pin from the National Foundation, given to him by Dr H. Wesley Gorham, of Norwalk, for his faithful service, 12 years of which were spent as chairman of the Fairfield Chapter.

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The Sandy Hook Fife, Drum, and Bugle Corps took part last Sunday in the Hudson Valley Drum Corps Association competitions held at Newburgh, N.Y., with other contesting corps registered from as far away as Brooklyn and Yonkers, N.Y., New Jersey, Massachusetts, and other points in Connecticut. Miss Ann Shaw, 14-year-old daughter of Mr and Mrs Irving F. Shaw of Glen Road, present female junior state champion bugler, and also female junior northeastern states champion bugler, won first prize, a gold medal, in individual competition of junior buglers last Sunday. This is the sixth first place award won by Miss Shaw.

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A traffic survey is being made at different times this week by the State Highway Department, checking cars traveling on Route 6 as a means of obtaining information on the origin and destination of Danbury traffic in connection with the development of plans for the relocation of US Routes 6, 7, and 202 through Danbury.

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Newtown suffered its second casualty in the Korean warfare when Pfc Daniel G. Hill, son of Mr and Mrs Arnold Hill of Brushy Hill Road, was killed in action on July 4, 1952. Word of their son’s death was received by Mr and Mrs Hill in a telegram from the War Department which reached them last Thursday, July 10. Pfc Hill was 24 years of age. He entered service on October 26, 1950, leaving his studies at the Northwood Bible School in Northwood Narrows, N.H.

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Great interest by residents has been shown in the creative handwork and collections of hobbies on display at the Cyrenius H. Booth Library during the month of July.

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A special town meeting has been called by the Board of Selectmen for this Friday, July 18, at 8 pm in the Alexandria Room of the Edmond Town Hall to enact an ordinance regulating sewage disposal within the Town of Newtown as well as an ordinance regulating the operation of trailer camps in the town.

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The 16th annual Honegger Invitation Men’s Doubles tennis tournament will be played on Saturday and Sunday, July 19 and 20, on the court at the home of Mr and Mrs H.C. Honegger on Walnut Tree Hill.

JULY 15, 1927

The school board has engaged Mr Job of Hicksville, N.Y. High School as principal of the Hawley High School beginning September 1927. Mr Job is a graduate of Yale and comes very highly recommended.

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Austin Hurd is rebuilding the dam between his property and the Sandy Hook Library on the Pootatuck River and soon this pretty little pond will be restored in its former beauty.

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Mrs Frank Mitchell has just completed the Living Flag for the Town of Newtown in memory of our beloved and honored Dr Charles H. Peck.

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Selectman and Mrs T.F. Brew, Miss Mary Crowe, and Miss Ann Gallagher motored to Savin Rock Sunday, and enjoyed a shore dinner at the Wilcox Pavilion.

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The Hawleyville Volunteer Fire Company will hold its annual carnival August 3, 4, 5, and 6. It promises to be bigger and more attractive than ever.

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Miss Helen Houlihan entered the Columbia summer school in New York on July 11.

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Mrs Sarah Beers Mitchell and children and Mrs Kurtz Wilson, Jr, and daughters are passing the month of July at Fort Trumbull Beach.

 

JULY 18, 1902

Rattlesnakes seem to be numerous in Zoar district. Elliott Beardsley killed one with ten rattles, John Donlon one with ten rattles, and James Hunihan one with eight rattles.

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Three of the largest red adders ever seen in these parts were killed by workmen near the Lee place down the river, one day last week.

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P.L. Ronald is expected at Ronald Castle about August 5.

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The Sunday school of the Congregational Church had an attendance of 93 Sunday, the largest number this year.