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THE WAY WE WERE

DECEMBER 7, 1973

The first returns of the Board of Selectmen's questionnaire about the future

of Newtown were received from 22 residents this week, and they were in

unanimous agreement that the town needs a housing authority for the purpose of

obtaining state funds for housing for the needy elderly at moderate rentals.

On all other questions there were considerable differences of opinion. Next to

low-cost housing for the elderly, the most popular proposal was building a new

town garage, but while 15 respondents wanted it built with federal revenue

sharing funds, only five were willing to use town tax revenues. Similarly the

vote on a proposed new police station was 13 for revenue sharing, four for

town taxes.

Newtown Police Union Local 337 of the International Brotherhood of Police

Officers has sent an open letter to the town indicating it intends to file a

grievance over working conditions. The grievance protests the town's decision

to place the supervising sergeant on the desk to replace the lack of

dispatchers or patrolmen who are, by contract, required to be scheduled for

that position, thus freeing the sergeant to supervise on the road or inside,

wherever he is needed. For the past few months the Board of Police

Commissioners has been trying unsuccessfully to obtain additional men for the

force. Instead, the Board of Selectmen is recommending to the Board of Finance

that $11,000 be appropriated to take care of overtime for the rest of the year

and $4,000 be paid to the men in lieu of vacations.

Mr and Mrs Bertram A. Strook of Newtown were among the new officers elected at

the annual meeting of the Danbury Hospital on December 3. Mr Strook was named

as a manager of the hospital, and Mrs Strook will serve on the Board of

Trustees. John W. Hoffer, president of Viking Wire Company, was elected

president of the Board of Trustees at the hospital's annual meeting on

December 3.

A number of informational meetings have been held in the past week about the

referendum which will be held on December 11 on whether the town should

continue its litigation over plans to use the Boyle site on Boggs Hill Road as

the site of a new elementary school. At one of these meetings, held at the

home of Ruby Johnson on Chestnut Hill Road, School Board Chairman Russell

Strasburger said that despite last week's efforts by a group of townspeople to

put an option on the Allen property on Route 6, this location is not suitable

for a school. He said the location, on top of a hill, would be problematical

and the sight lines along Route 6 are not acceptable.

Joan Rinaldi and Kathryn Lauterbach, both teachers of special education at the

Middle School, are forming a chapter of the Connecticut Association for

Children with Learning Disabilities (CACLD) for concerned parents in Newtown.

The organization is an outgrowth of interest and attention that has been paid

by the educators of Newtown to children with learning disabilities. Currently,

the schools within Newtown have been going away from the traditional

self-contained classroom for children with learning problems and have been

phasing in regular class mainstreaming, something which allows students to

spend the majority of their school day in a regular classroom while spending

small blocks of time with the special education teachers.

A number of young evergreen trees have appeared in the traffic circle near the

transfer station at Newtown's landfill, thanks to the work of Wayne Erickson.

Wayne, a member of Boy Scout troop 770, is working toward his Eagle rank and

undertook the project as his community service requirement for the rank. He

spent Saturdays and Sundays for a month and a half transplanting trees and

landscaping the traffic circle. He is the son of Mr and Mrs Charles R.

Erickson of Brookwood Drive, Dodgingtown.

At the first of two public hearings called by the Charter Revision Commission,

the overwhelming majority of those present agreed that Newtown should change

its form of government. Although the commission had specifically mentioned the

Representative Town Meeting form of government in its studies, there did not

seem to be a majority in favor of one form of government over another. Members

of the commission include Lillian Goosman, Ronald Costa, Irene Forcht, Lyman

Rogers, Donald Studley, Ray Marcus, Fred Marchionna, William Lavery and the

chairman, Robert Hall.

The Grand Union Company, the nation's fifth largest food chain, this week

announced the formation of a 700-member energy and resource conservation task

force to deal with the current energy crisis. It is now virtually impossible

to do anything in the course of a day without recognizing the energy crisis. A

trip to the gas station is one of chance and many public buildings and

businesses have the heat turned down significantly. Grand Union has drawn up

detailed guidelines on energy and resource conservation and sent them to its

536 supermarkets, 23 Grand Way general merchandise stores, 28 E-Z Shop

convenience food stores, 60 Triple-S Blue Stamp redemption centers and 18

Grand Catalogue Showrooms.

DECEMBER 10, 1948

On Tuesday evening, November 30, an organizational meeting was held at the

Hawley Manor for the purpose of establishing a Lions Club chapter in Newtown.

The following officers were elected to serve: George W. Trull, president;

Raymond L. Trimpert, first vice president; Dr George B. Kyle, second vice

president; Harry F. Greenman, third vice president; Henry L. McCarthy,

secretary; Louis Oetjen, treasurer; William A. Bowen, lion tamer; Paul V.

Cavanaugh, tail twister; Arthur W. Carmody and Willis R. Tomlinson, directors

for one year; Dwight W. Carlson and Edward G. Egan, directors, two years. IT

was agreed that the club would meet twice monthly at the Hawley Manor at 7 pm

and a Charter Night will be held on January 22, 1949, the time and place to be

announced later.

Skewers for fireplace cooking are nothing new but Kabobs, the name applied to

a new type of skewer, are. They take their name from a famous Armenian dish,

sish-kebab. Mr and Mrs Farnum S. Underhill of the Grays Plain District with

their friends, the G. Stafford Broughtons of Main Street, devised some skewers

which were immediately popular among their social set. Their friends wanted to

buy some. Eventually the Kabobs, as they came to be known, were being produced

commercially. In the spring of 1948 they were introduced to stores in New York

City. The Kabobs were featured in House and Garden magazine and soon began to

practically sell themselves. The most expensive set is the one made in either

plain or stainless steel and that is the one most customers prefer. Orders

have come from some exotic places. It is hard to say why the American embassy

in Lima, Peru, should think itself inadequately equipped without a rush order

of Kabobs. But its request was no doubt as valid and its money every bit as

good as that sent in by an individual in Alaska.

Seventy people met in the auditorium at Southbury Training School last

Thursday evening to form an organization to work for the completion of the

regional high school. Membership is open to all who favor the new high school

for Regional District No 3. Officers will be elected and regular meetings will

be held at least three times a year. Each of the four towns -- Newtown,

Southbury, Woodbury, and Bethlehem -- will have five representatives on the

board of directors. A slate of officers was elected to serve until a regular

election in May. They include Dr Herman Yannet of Southbury Training School,

president; Mrs Norman Fedde of Newtown, vice president; Mrs A.J. Raymond of

Bethlehem, secretary; Gerard Heslin of Woodbury, treasurer. The next meeting

will be held on January 26, 1949.

Through the courtesy of the late Mrs Turney Northrop of Stepney, The Bee has

received five early copies of the newspaper dating back to 1887. Many

interesting items have been noted in these papers. The November 25, 1892

edition records the moving of the Newtown Academy building from Sunset Hill to

the position which it occupied for so long as Newtown High School on the site

opposite St Rose Church on Church Hill Road, until it finally burned. The

mover was paid $700 for the job, hardly comparable to the $350,000 which the

town now must spend to expand Hawley School. It took 11 weeks in 1892 to move

the building. H.H. Botsford, who had nine men on the job, has done it at a

financial loss. The Academy will open with 110 students and is in flourishing

condition, the paper of 1892 reported.

The first formal concert of the Hawley Chorus, a group formed last year after

the appointment of Mr William Jones to serve as musical supervisor in the

local schools, will take place next week. The place is Edmond Town Hall

Theatre at 8:30 o'clock on Thursday, December 16. The chorus is made up of 100

mixed voices. A varied winter program will be presented.

Representatives of the youth clubs of Newtown will attend the Monday night

dinner meeting of the Newtown Rotary Club at the Parker House. The youth

service committee of Fred Bauer, Frank Hawley, and Coach DeGroat will head up

the introductions. A program of movies will follow, then the young people and

their representatives will meet to talk over their ideas regarding the 1949

Jamboree and help to plan the forming of an advisory recreation committee that

may fill in a vacant spot in Newtown's numerous projects. For two years, the

town recreation director has been unsupported by such a committee. The failure

of a Hallowe'en party recently is attributed to this missing link.

Raymond B. Fosdick was elected president of the Board of Trustees of the

Cyrenius H. Booth Library Tuesday evening at the library. The resignation of

Arthur T. Nettleton, past president of the board, which was accepted in

September, became effective at this time. It also was reported at the meeting

that 267 people had contributed to the current campaign for funds for the

library. Residents and library users are used to make their contributions to

the treasurer, Carlton Hubbell, at the Newtown Savings Bank.

Friends will be pleased to know of the return of Col C. Sidney Haight from the

Army hospital at Hot Springs, Ark., where he has been receiving the benefits

of treatment for arthritis.

Mr and Mrs Samuel Nezvesky of Huntingtown district announce the birth of a

son, Joel, at St Vincent's Hospital in Bridgeport on December 6.