Full Text:

THE WAY WE WERE

AUGUST 24, 1973

After more than two and a half years of frustrations, delays, and frequent

disasters for motorists traveling through Newtown on I-84, the Great

Bottleneck was finally broken at five minutes before noon on Monday, August

20, and all four lanes opened in both directions. At a ribbon-cutting ceremony

in the middle of the empty eastbound lanes a half hour before the barriers

were removed, tribute was paid to the sufferings of Newtown residents and

other travelers by George S. Koch, deputy transportation commissioner in

charge of the Bureau of Highways. The symbolic ribbon was cut by Rep Sarah

Frances Curtis of Sandy Hook. The total cost of the project was $11.7 million,

which works out to $4.9 million per mile or more than $9,000 per foot. This

includes completing the entrance and exit ramps at the Exit 34 interchange

(Exit 11) which should be finished in two or three weeks. The state now plans

a $16.4 million reconstruction of 2.5 miles of I-84 in Southbury including a

second bridge over Lake Zoar alongside Rochambeau Bridge.

On October 1 Newtown will join the growing number of towns in Connecticut that

have set up formal organizations to deal with the problems of the elderly, and

help them take advantage of the various benefits provided by state and federal

law. The ordinance establishing Newtown's Committee on Aging was adopted by

the Board of Selectmen August 21 after a public hearing the previous evening

at which almost every speaker strongly supported the proposal.

First Selectman Frank DeLucia, representing the Town of Newtown, sat down with

representatives of Local No 337 of the International Brotherhood of Police

Officers and a state mediator on Tuesday, August 21, at Edmond Town Hall for a

mediation session on the police contract for Newtown. At the end of the nearly

all-day session, an agreement was reached. Details of the contract have not

yet been released. All that is known is that it is a two-year contract and

provides for a revised pay scale. Officer Frederick Kasbarian, president of

Local 337, said he is pleased with the contract and has been advising each man

on the force of its contents.

Elvirah Perrini, dietitian for the Newtown school system, said this week that

the schools, at this point, have enough beef in stock to last through the

month of September. This would take the schools past September 12, the date

the freeze on beef is lifted. It is through that when the freeze is lifted the

beef shortage also will end. Prices will be going up on beef after that, Mrs

Perrini said. Elementary school lunches will now cost 55 cents; secondary

school lunches will cost 60 cents, and teacher lunches will cost 75 cents.

The Newtown Lions Pop Warner Football program has come a long way. This coming

season's roster will carry 138 players and 48 cheerleaders, quite a jump over

five years ago when there were only 35 players and 13 cheerleaders. The

outstanding success of this program has been made possible in part by the

generous townspeople who donate during the annual Booster campaign which will

taken place this year on August 25 throughout the town. More than $100 is

required to suit up a single player. This, plus the cost of insurance,

miscellaneous equipment and cheerleading outfits, add up to a tidy sum of

money. The first Newtown Pop Warner Football organization was formed in 1969

by Robert O'Conner and Paul Scanlon and sponsored by the Newtown Lions Club.

That same year, a non-profit organization was formed under the direction of

William Petrev to work with the young people. Mrs Ada Schnitzel directed the

first group of cheerleaders. The objectives of Pop Warner Football are to

teach boys the fundamentals of football, sportsmanship and physical fitness,

and to maintain a high academic standing in the classroom.

With an eye to the future, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport has

started work on 40 acres of land off Route 25 in Newtown for a new Catholic

cemetery. According to Vern Barone, manager of diocesan cemeteries, two plots

of the new Resurrection Cemetery will be ready for use by next spring.

Purchase of the acreage for the cemetery, located across Route 25 from the

landfill site, was approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission in 1967.

John Goett, Newtown's first full-time sanitarian, took up his duties last week

in the health office in Edmond Town Hall. Mr Goett, who previously was

sanitarian officer in Monroe, will be responsible for checking the purity of

water, air, wells, septic systems, streams and beaches in town, as well as the

cleanliness of such things as restaurants, food stores, barber shops and

housing. He is a graduate of Holy Cross with a degree in chemical engineering

and is a state-certified sanitarian.

A new approach to the problem of private roads in need of maintenance and

repair will be attempted at a meeting of representatives of Pootatuck Park,

Shady Rest and Riverside with the Board of Selectmen on September 12 in Edmond

Town Hall. The problem was raised at the Board of Selectmen meeting on August

21 by Irma Shreders of Pootatuck Park, who has on several occasions this

summer sought to have the town scrape and repair the gravel roads leading to

her home. First Selectman Frank DeLucia said the only services the town could

legally perform on private roads were defined in a resolution of a 1968 town

meeting which only empowered the town to provide snow removal and sanding

services on such roads when necessary for police, ambulance, fire and other

emergency protection.

AUGUST 27, 1948

The Newtown Board of Education, at a meeting held last Thursday evening at

Hawley School, named H. Edward Vollmers to fill the vacancy on the board

caused by the recent resignation of Dr J. Benton Egee. Mr Vollmer's

appointment will hold until the annual town meeting on October 4, when a

member will be elected for the two-year unexpired term of Dr Egee. The board

also appointed Mrs Russell F. Strasburger to fill the vacancy on the Board of

Education of the Regional High School District No 3 from which Dr Egee also

resigned. Dr Egee tendered his resignation to both positions after the town

voted in an August 14 referendum to pull out of the planned regional high

school.

At a meeting on August 22 in Woodbury, the board of Regional High School

District No 3 reaffirmed its plans to proceed with the construction of the

school despite the vote in Newtown to pull out of the agreement. The board

said that since the beginning of the plan to build a $1.5 million school, the

towns have made heavy financial expenditures. Those who have opposed the

school have not offered an alternative plan, the board pointed out. Robert J.

Clark of Hawleyville, chairman of the board, presided at Sunday's meeting.

Newtown's other two members, William K. Daniells and Mrs Russell Strasburger,

also attended the meeting. The representative from Bethlehem, Leonard Saccio,

took no official part in the meeting and did not vote.

All male citizens who have reached 18 and are not yet 26 years of age must

register under the new system of Selective Service beginning August 30 in the

court room at Edmond Town Hall. Newtown will be part of the Danbury Board No

13. The President has set by proclamation registration hours from 9 am to 5 pm

local time. The registration will be done by birth year. Men who are out of

town on their registration dates, may register at the nearest available board

in any town or state. Newtown is represented on the district board by Alvin B.

Conger. Mr Conger said he is in urgent need of volunteer workers to help with

the registration which will continue through September 18.

All residents of Newtown will receive in the mail this week a "statement and

appeal" issued by a special committee acting on behalf of the trustees of the

Cyrenius H. Booth Library. The statement explains graphically how today's high

costs, plus the reduced returns from investments which all privately endowed

institutions are experiencing, have combined to present the trustees with a

severe problem in meeting the current expenses of the library and providing

for future expansion of services. When Miss Mary Elizabeth Hawley built the

library, she also created a fund of $250,000 to provide income for

maintenance. Today the income is no longer adequate to maintain the library

even with services and personnel cut to the minimum. The letter contains an

appeal for all users and friends of the library to contribute in any amount to

a special fund. Such contributions should be sent to Herbert C. Hubbell,

Newtown, or left with him at the Newtown Savings Bank.

John Sedor, Newtown dog warden, informed The Bee that State Dog Warden Brown

will spend some time in Newtown in the near future to pick up all unlicensed

dogs. Owners of unlicensed dogs should obtain licenses at once to avoid loss

of their dogs. This is part of a campaign being conducted throughout the state

to rid towns of dogs allowed to run at large and without license tags.

The Newtown Bees clinched first place in the Pomperaug Valley League by

defeating Oxford 13-3 on Taylor Field on Sunday afternoon. John Kocet went the

distance, allowing seven scattered hits, while his mates collected 15 hits off

two Oxford pitchers. This Sunday afternoon, Newtown will travel to Stephney

for the final game of the regular season.

On Friday, September 3, between the hours of 9 and 11 am, parents of all

children who will be entering the Newtown schools for the first time this year

are asked to register them at the Hawley School office. It is essential that

school authorities know in advance the names and addresses of all children who

will attend the schools, particularly in the kindergarten classes. The Newtown

schools will open on September 8 at 9 am.

The third and final concert of the 1948 season will be given by the Newtown

Orchestral Society in Edmond Town Hall on Thursday, September 9. The program

is to be devoted to the works of Rossini, Richard Strauss, Leoncavello and

Mozart, with Johanna Maria Herzog as piano soloist. Miss Herzog was winner in

the newly inaugurated competition, which has the object of providing qualified

musicians an opportunity for solo appearances with a symphony orchestra. Lora

Brewster of Long Hill was soloist at the July concert, receiving warm praise

for the high quality of her music.