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THE WAY WE WERE

JUNE 28, 1974

William H. Johnson reapplied last week to the Planning & Zoning Commission for

a special exception to locate a treatment and therapy center for alcoholism on

his 10.96 acre property on Alberts Hill Road, Sandy Hook. The proposal for the

facility, called Eagle Hill, is Mr Johnson's second. In 1972 he submitted

plans for the hospital to the Planning & Zoning Commission, which approved

Eagle Hill by a 2-1 vote. However, a group of residents of the area appealed

the decision to the Court of Common Pleas in Bridgeport, which handed down a

decision in May of 1973 that the Commission had not acted on the application

by a majority of its five members and the P&Z vote was nullified. Planning &

Zoning will hold a public hearing on the application. The hospital for

alcoholics is allowed in the two-acre zone as a special exception under the

zoning regulations.

Charter Revision Commissioners on June 26 voted to include a code of ethics in

the proposals they will offer Newtown voters in November. The proposal that a

board of ethics be established to investigate complaints and enforce the code

was defeated despite the efforts of seven members of the League of Women

Voters to defend the concept of an ethics board. "I approve of having a code,

but what can a board do that we can't do with the machinery we have now?" was

the query with which Ronald Costa turned back a motion by vice chairman

William Lavery to establish a board and have the board promulgate a code and

rules for enforcement.

Tennis balls, balloons and fireworks... all will be launched in the name of

Summer Festival fun during the coming week. "Balloons to the Moon" and rockets

in the sky are scheduled for the evening of July 3 at the Dickinson Town Park.

Starting at 6:30 pm, children (and adults, too) may put their names and

addresses on cards, attach them to hydrogen filled balloons and watch them

float off into the distance. Each balloon will cost 25 cents or $1 per family.

For one lucky balloonist the investment will reap a super return: a "summer

fun package," donated by Time-Out, Inc, Wheeler Shopping Center, Newtown. The

person whose card is returned from the most distant point by August 3 will

receive the prize, which includes the following: swim mask, frisbee, mini

flashlight, portable hammock, badminton set, giant tic-tac-toe game, duncan

yo-yo, and a swim raft. In addition, there will be a prize for the person who

sends back the winning card. The fireworks display will begin at dark. It

promises to be a very fine Independence Day show.

Following its regular meeting on June 25, the Board of Education authorized

architect Richard Butterfield to prepare specifications for the relocatable

classrooms which will be placed at the elementary schools this summer. The

Board also prepared an invitation to bid for the installation of the

classrooms, and the legal notice for the invitation appears in this week's

issue of The Bee in the classified section. The project will be for the

installation of the portables at Hawley, Sandy Hook and Middle Gate elementary

schools.

If the members of the Newtown High School Class of 1974 got together and said

some special prayer for good weather on commencement night, their efforts were

certainly more than successful. When 6 pm came on June 22, it was a benevolent

sun which shone in a clear blue sky as 253 seniors filed to their seats in the

high school stadium. Giving the valedictory address was Cynthia St. Jean, and

the commencement address was delivered by a member of the graduating class,

Kathleen Addis, who began her talk with a quotation from Thoreau.

Mr and Mrs David E. Brown, directors of the American Adventurer Travel Camps

in Newtown announce that all staff and equipment are ready to begin this

summer's travel camping program on Friday, June 28. This summer's program

includes an 8-day trail hike leaving June 28 and a canoe trip leaving July 8.

Bike trips to the Green Mountains will leave July 8, to Cape Cod will leave

July 21, to Block Island will leave August 12. Assisting this summer will be

Judy and Brian Newton of Newtown.

State Rep Sarah Frances Curtis of Sandy Hook reports that she has received

word from the office of Commissioner of Transportation Joseph Burns that a

contract has been let for the construction of a permanent, paved car-pool

parking lot on Route 25 in Hawleyville. The cost is estimated at $27,986.20

and the project is expected to be completed in two months. Construction should

start soon on this parking area which is one of the first of its kind in the

area.

State Representative Sarah Frances Curtis of Newtown has received a letter

from Joseph B. Burns, commissioner of the State Department of Transportation,

regarding the proposed construction plans for the Rochambeau Bridge which

spans the Housatonic River between Southbury and Newtown on Route I-84. Rep

Curtis has announced her opposition to the construction plans, as has Rep

Eloise Green of Southbury. If the bridge work were to be done, it would affect

homes in Newtown and Southbury, with the greater number taken from Southbury

residents. No timetable has been set for the beginning of the construction but

the state has started to negotiate to buy properties along the proposed work

area, and plans are drawn up for the work.

JULY 1, 1949

The combined fire companies of Newtown, Dodgingtown, Hawleyville and Sandy

Hook are holding their annual carnival for four days next week beginning on

Wednesday and running through Saturday night. The location is Yale Field,

opposite Lovell's garage, at the junction of Route 202 and 25. The big parade

will take place Thursday night and a special program will mark each of the

four nights of the carnival. Fire Marshal Walter L. Glover states that, in

view of the ban on wheels of chance, substitute games of skill and other

entertainment will be provided, as the committee has already ordered several

hundred dollars worth of merchandise to be disposed of at the carnival. The

giant parade will take place Thursday night, forming at the foot of Mt

Pleasant and starting at 8 o'clock.

To many children the Fourth of July without fireworks is like celery without

salt, and this year the Newtown Senior Boy Scout troop has planned to highly

season its holiday. Beginning at 9 o'clock on Monday evening, an exhibition of

fireworks will be displayed at Taylor Field in back of Hawley school. The

public has been cordially invited to attend the affair, and it promises to be

a bang-up time with enough soda and ice cream on sale to satisfy all. The

town's young fries will especially enjoy the display. The event is being

sponsored by the Boy Scouts and the Scout Troop committee for the camp fund,

and it is hoped that all who can will attend. A donation will be solicited at

the main entrance. The committee in charge of the affair includes Paul

Cullens, Scoutmaster; James Osborne, Tom Conway, Sandy Allport, fireworks;

Dominic Digilio, lighting; Roy Byrne, refreshments; Aksel Jensen, finance; and

Donald McCain, Fred Bauer, William Knox, Harold DeGroat, Henry McCarthy and

Richard Hibbard, members at large.

An audience composed of parents and friends and filling the auditorium enjoyed

the Commencement Exercises, held last Thursday evening at the Edmond Town Hall

for the graduating class of Hawley High School. Following the traditional

processional "Pomp and Circumstance" by Elgar, during which the Senior Class

marched to the stage under arches of ferns held by girls of the Junior class,

the Invocation was given by Rev Walter R. Conroy, pastor of St Rose church.

From that point an innovation from the usual commencement speeches took place

and proved most entertaining and worthwhile for all present. The theme, "The

House We Live In," was opened by Miss Doris Pully, salutatorian, who spoke on

the subject, "America, The Promised Land For Whom?"

Governor Chester Bowles on Wednesday night announced interim appointment of

several minor court judges as he completed selection of judges for the minor

courts of the state. John F. Holian was named judge of the Newtown court, with

Fred J. Carmody as deputy.

With all the dash and color of former years, Newtown will enjoy another

Independence day parade on the morning of the Fourth of July. Fully a score of

organizations will be represented in the mammoth parade, which will be

balanced with marching units, floats and fire apparatus Á all interspersed

with marching musical corps. It will form at 10 o'clock Monday morning at the

rear of Edmond Town Hall. The line of march will be down Main Street to the

flag pole and then down the hill to the fire house at Sandy Hook.

A special town meeting has been called by the Board of Selectmen for Thursday

evening, July 7, at the Edmond Town Hall at 8 o'clock. The purpose of the

meeting is to provide a one-man Assessor for the town of Newtown, in place of

the present three-man board.

JUNE 27, 1924

"The Old Orchards" tea room at the attractive old Peck homestead on Mt

Pleasant, now owned by H.H. Taylor, will formally open for the season on

Saturday of this week under the management of Mrs H.H. Taylor and Mrs Laurent

Fernier of Brooklyn, N.Y. They will serve tea, cake, cream and meals as

desired.

The graduation exercises of the Hawley High School will take place on Thursday

evening, June 26, at the Hawley school auditorium at 7:30 pm. The program will

be as follows: Song: By the School. Invocation: Rev G. Herbert Ekins. Song: By

the School. Salutatory, Frederick Child Mead. History, Jesse Harriette Tarbox.

Valedictory, Anna Marie Keane. Violin solo, Miss Carolyn Washburn. Hartford

School of music piano accompaniment, H. Carlton Hubbell. Piano solo,

Rachmaninoff's Prelude, Natalie Ellen Kiernan. The members of the graduating

class are: Evelyn Louise Bresson, Helen Veronica Casey, Wilbur Allen Griscom,

Ruth Madeleine Hanlon, Anna Marie Keane, Natalie Ellen Kiernan, Frederick

Child Mead, Jessie Harriette Tarbox, Charles William Phillips, Ruth Hubbell

Wheeler.