Full Text:

THE WAY WE WERE

MAY 3, 1974

Tough questioning was the order of the evening at last Friday's public hearing

on a 107,000 square foot shopping mall, proposed for South Main Street by

Cyril H. Mantell of Stamford. The questions were asked by the Planning and

Zoning Commission and its advisors, and much of the information requested was

not forth-coming from the applicants. Approximately 60 persons attended the

hearing. After nearly four hours of testimony and questions, the public had

the opportunity to comment on the proposal, and those Newtowners who stuck it

out to the end to address the proposal expressed, to a man and woman,

opposition to the idea of putting a shopping center on the site.

On Tuesday evening, April 30, after weeks of discussion and receiving opinions

of parents, school administrators and faculty members, the Board of Education

made a decision regarding school space needs for the coming year. There will

be no double sessions within the system, and the overcrowding at the Middle

School will be relieved by the return of grade 5 to the elementary schools,

which will see the addition of portable classrooms to handle the extra

students.

No, you're not going blind and you don't have to go back to kindergarten. The

signs on the highway from Bethel to Newtown do call it Route 302 instead of

Route 202. As of noon, May 1, Federal Route 202 no longer comes off I-84, runs

through Bethel to Newtown and hops on I-84 again at Church Hill. Now, state

Route 302 starts at the intersection of Route 53 in Bethel, runs into Newtown

and stops at the intersection of Route 25 at Lovell's Garage. Period.

"They're back to their old habits," said Mr Kraner of the Shell station on

Church Hill Road. "Motorists have lost their sense of conservation." You can

hear that refrain from most of the stations in the area. "Give them three

weeks and they'll be as bad as they ever were." The consensus seems to be that

the thriftiness area motorists cultivated when the lines were long in mid

winter is fading fast come spring. The Chevron on Main Street reports that it

pumps gas 20 hours a week and sells as much as when it pumped for 40 hours. Mr

Kraner estimates that he could easily sell twice as much as he is allocated.

It was about a month ago that the Arab embargo on oil ended. As soon as it

happened, gas stations reported immediate increases in traffic across their

gas islands. About sixty days was estimated for the renewed shipments of Arab

oil to find their way into gas tanks say, in Newtown. So by the first week in

June, that oil should be available.

The Newtown Historical Society's building, Curtiss House, on Main Street, has

been having extensive interior re-furbishing. Within the next few weeks, the

garden plantings will begin. Garden Club of Newtown members have voted

unanimously to plan, purchase, plant and maintain the foundation plantings and

perennial gardens at the Curtiss House. This excludes the herb gardens, lawns

and other outside maintenance. Mrs Lorin Willis, Jr, and Mrs Paul Arneth have

been selected as co-chairmen of the Curtiss House committee. Members of their

committee are: Mrs R.A. Domke, Mrs Thomas Cheney, Mrs Charles Harrison, Mrs

Louis Loutrel, Mrs Malcolm McClintock, Mrs Robert MacDonald, Mrs Francis Kirt,

Mrs Benjamin Blanchard, Mrs C.V. Lauricella, Mrs Robert Perry, Mrs Philip

Rose, and Mrs Andrew Flanagan.

The Department of Environmental Protection has joined the state Council of

Environmental Quality in calling, on April 24, for a complete stop to the

construction of the Route 25 expressway in Trumbull pending an environmental

analysis of the project. The Department of Transportation is being asked to

push back the beginning of the construction work, which has been contracted

out to the Yonkers Construction Company of New York, until the study of the

impact of the route and possible alternatives to it is completed. All penalty

costs are to be footed by DOT. Kurt Schneider of Newtown's Environmental

Studies and Protection, Inc said that various citizen groups in Trumbull,

Monroe, and Newtown are scheduled to meet with DOT Commissioner Joseph Burns

on Friday, May 3, in Hartford to discuss the possibility of delaying the

construction schedule.

The League of Women Voters will be the guest of Station WINE, Brookfield, on

May 7 at 9:30 am. The Town Government Study Committee of the League will speak

on the adoption of a Code of Ethics for Newtown. The program will include a

discussion of the present conflict of interest statement in the Newtown

charter, the advantage of a Code of Ethics for Newtown and how the League came

to study codes of ethics and conflict of interest. Committee members who will

participate in the discussion are Joan Fuest, chairman, Barbara Borello, Jean

Carnaghi, Nancy Conover, Barbara Phillips and Mickey Salkind.

Every competitive event is divided into two classes Á the winners and the

losers. The Royal Guardsmen came through the April 27 Championship Contest in

Fairfield as the winners Á with three trophies, a gold medal, and the 1974

Circuit Championship Flag. One trophy was awarded for first place "B" Guard,

another trophy for the Guard showing the most improvement during the

competition year, and the third trophy was presented to Captain Barbara

Hilario for "Best Captain of the Year" in her division. Barbara also won a

gold medal for first place Captain at Saturday's show. The Championship Flag

was awarded to the Royal Guardsmen honoring them as the 1974 Class B Color

Guard Champions.

APRIL 29, 1949

The first weeks of May again herald the approach of Newtown's spring Mardi

Gras. As in past years this gala event will be held on May 27 and 28 in the

Edmond Town Hall gym for the purpose of providing fun and entertainment for

all ages. This is a project of the Congregational Sunday School children to

raise their annual quota for the new Church House.

Henry L. McCarthy was re-elected warden at the annual borough election held in

the Edmond Town Hall on Tuesday of this week. Although the polls were open

from 9 am to 5 pm, the election was marked by an extremely light vote. Only 46

of the 398 eligible voters cast ballots. Other officers elected to the

non-partisan ticket were Miss May E. Sullivan, clerk; William A. Honan, Sr,

and John C. Beers, burgesses; Judge Paul V. Cavanaugh, John A. Carlson and

Judge Walter A. Reynolds, fire inspectors; Judge Reynolds, treasurer; Mr

Carlson, pound keeper; Gilbert Aiken and Mr Carlson, assessors; Frederic H.

Duncombe and Joseph F. Hellauer, board of tax review; William Hunter,

registrar of voters and Charles F. Cavanaugh, tax collector.

All townspeople have been cordially invited to attend the testimonial dinner

for the Hawley Girls' basketball team this Saturday evening, May 7, at 6:30

o'clock. Held in the recreation rooms of the Trinity church, the affair has

been arranged by the Newtown Parent Teacher Association in honor of the

champions who recently won the Housatonic Valley Schoolmen's League for the

third time in five years. The highlight of the evening will be a surprise

presentation given to the team by Tony Amaral in appreciation of the splendid

work accomplished by the girls this year.

The Newtown Bees won a practice baseball game from New Milford, 18 to 8, at

Taylor Field on Sunday afternoon. Joe Cavannaugh and Burr Morgan, pitching for

the Bees, held New Milford to nine scattered hits, while the Newtown batters

collected 15 hits off Handorf and Morehouse. New Milford drew first blood in

the opening inning by scoring two runs while the remaining six runs were

collected in the fifth and seventh inning.

Over a period of years, a group of ladies belonging to the Newtown Committee

for Child Refugees has been meeting every Wednesday from 10 am until 3:30 pm

in the social rooms of the Newtown Congregational Church, making garments for

the destitute abroad. Those pictured were: Mrs Burt Whedon, Mrs William Seaman

Bainbridge, Mrs Edward M. Conger, Mrs Herbert Wilde, Mrs M.F. Jacobson, Mrs

James B. Forbes, Mrs W.W. Bayley, Mrs Margaret Johnson, Mrs Ellis Gladwin,

treasurer, Mrs Bradley Randall, Mrs Sanford Mead, Sr, Mrs Jerome P. Jackson,

chairman.

A large and enthusiastic crowd was present at the annual spring dinner of the

Women's Golf Association of the Newtown Country Club on last Thursday evening,

when Mrs Henry Taylor was elected president. Other officers elected for the

current season were Mrs Edmund Foster, vice president; Mrs Joseph Hellauer,

secretary; Mrs Francis Hubbell, treasurer; Mrs Ford Cordial and Mrs Bayard

Hoppin, committee for handicaps; and Mrs Frederick Duncombe, publicity.

MAY 2, 1924

E.D. Brisco has for many years supervised the placing of flags on the graves

of veterans in our Newtown cemeteries. The money to buy these flags came from

funds in the treasury of Custer Post and money which he paid himself. These

funds are exhausted. It will take in the neighborhood of $10 to secure enough

flags. We invite big or little subscriptions from our patriotic citizens for

money enough to cover the cost of the flags.

Private First Class Louis Gavel, son of Mrs Mary Gavel, and a member of

Company D, 10th US Infantry, is reported to have made some remarkable scores

with the machine gun at Camp Knox, Kentucky. The high scores attained by this

efficient and popular soldier indicates that he is a serious contender for the

prizes to be awarded by the Regimental Commander of the soldier making the

highest number of points.

Charles D. Ferris, Jr, and Vincent Judson of Woodbury attended the cattle sale

at Northfield last week.

Ambrose Conger has purchased a Cadillac touring car. Fred B. Lake has a new

Buick touring car, bought of the enterprising Carlson Brothers.