Tuesday night the Board of Selectmen signed an agreement with the highway department employees for a wage settlement for the 1975-76 contract year. The agreement gives the men a 25 cents per hour increase effective July 1, and will give them another 25 cents effective January 1, 1976. Signed also by Jack Butler, president of the National Association of Government Employees, Local R-1-217, the document ratifies a handshake agreement reached between the men and the town on July 1. On that day a four and one-half hour strike by the employees occurred after their previous contract expired midnight, June 30. Under the agreement, the men will work 40 rather than the 42 hours they worked up to June 30. The wage settlement replaces the lost overtime pay and gives the men an average 1.4 per cent above last year’s levels.

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As one facet of Newtown’s Bicentennial celebration, the Newtown League of Women Voters is busily preparing for publication a book entitled Newtown Past and Present, a volume which will trace the history of this pre-Revolutionary town from its beginnings in 1705 up to the present time. In a way, this is the second time Newtown Past and Present has been compiled by the League, for in 1955 as part of the 250th celebration of Newtown’s founding, the League published the first Newtown Past and Present. The one planned for the nation’s bicentennial year is a revision of that 1955 edition.

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The choice of the Democratic Town Committee for its candidate for the top spot in the November election was overwhelmingly Jack Rosenthal, longtime town committee chairman, who is making his fifth attempt at the first selectman’s seat.

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Cadets Jo-Marie and Mary Kenney, daughters of Mr and Mrs Martin Kenney of Glover Avenue, are two of the more than 30 teenage cadet members of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) who have been participating recently in a five-day Air Force-sponsored Christian Encounter Conference at the YMCA camp in Silver Bay, N.Y.

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The rains came, alternately as light as mist and as heavy as lead shot, dropping on Newtown between four and seven inches of water, a full month’s quota, in only five days. Otter Brook in Riverside, usually a clear, shallow stream, began to grow dark with silt and rise precipitously. Louder and louder the water sounded as it flowed over a small weir into the swirling pool in front of the bridge carrying Alpine Drive over the brook. The two culverts under the bridge were submerged and the water rose higher until it finally spilled out over the banks, over the bridge, and down toward the lake. The officers of the Riverside on Lake Zoar Association watched helplessly as their parking area, beach, and boat launching ramp washed quietly away into Lake Zoar, leaving craters and gullies reminiscent of World War I combat. The waters started to expose the footings of the ROLZA pavilion, a place where much of the association’s summer activity takes place. More serious than any of these is the damage done by the cascading water to the bridge. A great hole appeared on the lakeward side as the seven tons of road patch which the association had dumped to repair the damage of a previous flood simply slid down and away as water undermined it. At 3 pm, July 14, the bridge was closed to traffic.

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Chief topic at the July meeting of the Newtown Beautification Committee Monday morning, July 14, at the home of Paul S. Smith, was a report on the Beauty Contest for Service Stations which is now in progress for the second year. An inspection of all 20 service stations in town was made by two members of the committee at the end of June. It was reported with much satisfaction that almost every service station has shown improvement over last year.

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Boy Scout Troop 370 of Newtown held its “First” Family Campout on the weekend of June 20, 21, and 22, 1975, at Camp Toquam in Goshen, Conn. Twenty-nine Scouts and 21 families with over 125 people enjoyed some of the best weather so far this year which helped make for a truly successful camping weekend. The efforts of Sally and Mike Chrissanthis, Betty Anne Lawton, and Barbara and Gordon Palmer for well over two months in planning and executing such a mammoth task really paid off.

 

JULY 21, 1950

Services to dedicate the new organ recently installed in Trinity Episcopal Church were held in the church last Sunday evening at eight o’clock, with the dedication ceremony conducted by Rev Gordon D. Pierce, D.D., church rector. An impressive audience of more than 200 persons paid tribute to the value of the new addition to the church services.

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More than a half dozen youngsters between the ages of five and seven gathered on the lawn of the Cyrenius H. Booth Library on Wednesday afternoon of this week for the first session of the Story Telling Hour being conducted by Miss Joan Hibbard of Brookfield.

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Electric power service in parts of Newtown and Monroe was disrupted for more than two hours early Tuesday morning when a large trailer truck carrying four new Chevrolet autos bound from Tarrytown, N.Y., to Derby overturned while descending the long hill on Route 34 leading to the crossing of the Housatonic River at the Stevenson Dam. The driver, John Haggerty, 27, of Tarrytown, was trapped in the cab and endangered by power lines falling from a pole the truck had knocked down after it left the road. Removed to Griffin Hospital, Derby, Haggerty was reported by hospital attendants to be in critical condition from chest and back injuries and injuries to his right hip and leg.

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Through the generosity of Mrs Samuel E. Stern of New York City, the Sandy Hook Social and Athletic Club has received a donation of $100, which Mrs Stern, formerly of Walnut Tree Hill, has given in loving memory of her husband.

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Reservation of two stocked brooks for the use of fishermen under 16 paid off in the thrill of a lifetime that came to Danny Saunders, son of Mr and Mrs H. Horton Saunders, Walnut Tree Hill District, in the last hours of the trout fishing season Sunday night, when he landed 15 inches of sporting quarry from the rippling waters of McCarthy’s Brook near his home. It was Danny’s fifth trout in three days and brought to 15 his season’s catch in this one stream.

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In an effort to promote more active participation of citizens in government, the local League of Women Voters has compiled a pamphlet containing information for Newtown voters. Between 1,500 and 1,600 of these were mailed to townspeople late last week by Mrs Milton A. Mandelson and Mrs James Brunot.

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Several more invitations have been received for children from New York’s tenements to visit Newtown from August 3 to August 17, the local committee reports. The Herald Tribune sends these carefully chosen children, insured, with their expenses paid except for the roof and food which are offered them by their hosts. Two weeks packed full of sun, good air, wholesome food, and country play will brighten the whole year of a city child’s life.

 

JULY 17, 1925

Senator Philo T. Platt is out riding in a new 1926 Nash four-door coupe, bought of John A. Carlson, the local dealer for Nash cars.

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The Congregational Sunday School, to the number of 80, enjoyed a fine picnic at Lake Quassapaug Wednesday. The weather was ideal and Mr O’Connell, the proprietor of the park, was an ideal host. An excellent dinner was enjoyed topped off with ice cream. An exciting ball game between nines captained by Willis Arndt and G.H. Ekins took place, the former winning, 8 to 7.

 

JULY 20, 1900

Chief Ginty of Danbury arrested several young “hoboes” near Hawleyville on Tuesday, thought to be concerned in Danbury burglaries.

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On Monday, the residence of Philo H. Skidmore was entered by burglars, but they secured nothing, as they were probably frightened away by the barking of Attorney Northrop’s dog.