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THE WAY WE WERE FOR MAY 29, 1998

JUNE 1, 1973

A hot, smokey fire almost completely destroyed Sam's Log Cabin restaurant on

Route 25 early Friday morning, May 25. The alarm for the first went out

through the police when an officer spotted the blaze while on routine patrol.

Chief Lee Glover of the Newtown Hook & Ladder Company, who was one of the

first on the scene, said the fire already was through the roof in the rear

kitchen area of the building. The United Fire Company of Botsford also was on

the scene along with tankers from Sandy Hook and Dodgingtown. The 50 volunteer

firefighters managed to get the fire under control in a little over an hour.

The east side of the building, containing the kitchen and rear entry, were

completely destroyed. Flames had mushroomed into the main restaurant area

gutting it before the fire was put out. The cause of the blaze is still under

investigation.

The rejected town budget for 1973-74 was discussed for the second time at a

town meeting Wednesday evening and this time almost all the speakers were in

favor of accepting the Board of Finance recommendations as they stand. Much of

the two-hour meeting was taken up by members of town boards to appeal to the

voters to support the budget and turn out to vote. A referendum petition had

been filed before the meeting and the machine vote will be held on June 12.

The budget will be the same one that was voted upon last month. The Board of

Finance opted not to make any cuts and to return it intact for another vote.

Four persons were killed in automobile accidents in Newtown within a week, and

the Memorial Day weekend also brought a rash of accidents. The first fatality

occurred in a one-car accident May 24 on Toddy Hill Road and killed the

driver, a Bridgeport resident. At 7:20 am on Memorial Day three persons lost

their lives in a two-car head-on accident on Route 25 near Wills Road. This

accident claimed the lives of a Trumbull couple and a woman from Bridgeport.

Both accidents are still under investigation.

The Newtown Ambulance Association has a new ambulance that was delivered on

May 31. The vehicle, on a Cadillac chassis, will be outfitted with a two-way

radio and other gear this week and will immediately go into service. The

ambulance corps is all volunteer, funded entirely by donations, and operates

without charge to Newtown residents.

After June 4 a familiar name in the Wheeler Shopping Center on Queen Street

will be gone, and a new one will replace it. On that date a new owner takes

over Borodenko's Market, which has been in the shopping center since 1962 and

is known for its high-quality, over-the-counter meats. John T. Lappas of

Pauling, N.Y., will be the new owner. The name of the store will be changed to

Newtown A.G. Market.

The Newtown Board of Education announced this week the names of an 11-member

committee that will serve as a preliminary screening committee to help the

board to find a superintendent of schools. This is a representative committee

that includes Mrs Joyce Birrell, Dr Malcolm Bowen, Mrs Polly Brody, Thomas

Carey, Lawrence F. Dieringer, Merlin E. Fisk, Mrs Ingrid McCauley, Michael

Moher, Robert Munger, Frederick Parr, and John J. Quirke. Mr Fish was elected

to serve as chairman. The group represents the community, the teachers, the

administration and the student body. Dr James B. Boyd, present superintendent

of schools, will serve until July 31. His resignation was accepted with regret

by the school board in April.

A new look at the prospects of extending the Route 25 expressway through

Newtown will be undertaken at a meeting of town and state officials on June 1.

First Selectman Frank DeLucia and other town officials hope to get some idea

of the state's plans now that the General Assembly has voted funds for

planning and designing the highway, while the Department of Transportation has

put off actual construction in Newtown for at least 10 years. If the highway

is delayed for that long, Mr DeLucia said additional studies will be necessary

to determine the impact on the town and whether the plan should ba abandoned

altogether.

JUNE 4, 1948

There was great excitement at the Edmond Town Hall gymnasium last Saturday

night when Nancy Giddings was crown Queen of the Mardi Gras for 1948. It was a

close race at the end with Christine Ann Sedor, daughter of Mr and Mrs Andrew

Sedor of Hawleyville, missing the crown by only a few votes. Anyone could vote

for the lady of choice by placing one cent or more in the hands of the Queen

committee. The Mardi Gras has become a tradition in the Newtown Congregational

Church School. It includes many game booths, a continuous vaudeville show,

performing animals, and a dance for the young people.

This month's almost continual rain let up in time on Memorial Day for

Newtown's parade in the afternoon. The units assembled at Lovell's garage on

the corner of Main Street and Route 302 at 2:15 pm and proceeded to the war

memorial at the head of Main Street where appropriate exercises were held. The

event was sponsored by the Charles W. Peck Post VFW and the Raymond L. Pease

American Legion.

The Bee office is receiving a new dress of paint, changing from the accustomed

gray to dark red with white trim. Aflred W. Nelson of Botsford is doing the

work.

The Newtown PTA held its final meeting of the year at Hawley High School on

Tuesday and elected Wendell Mansfield of Mt Pleasant Road as the new

president. The list of projects successfully completed this year include hot

lunches for the children of Sandy Hook School; help for securing individual

piano and violin lessons for students at Hawley School; operation of the

well-child clinic for pre-school children, and the completion of an art

project begun three years ago which provided reproductions of paintings by

great artists for the school walls. Membership in the PTA is well over 400.

Edward C. Minnum, head of the federal transient camp at Botsford Hill during

the Depression years, has been appointed associate professor of vegetable

gardening and Agricultural Extension vegetable specialist at the University of

Connecticut. Mr Minnum will begin his new position with the university on May

17. He and his wife will live in Storrs.

The first pet dog show to be sponsored by the Newtown Kennel Club will take

place on Sunday at the Harold F. Smith home in the South Center district. In

this show dogs entered are not limited to class or pedigree and the exhibitor

is limited to nothing except his age. He (or she) must not be over the age of

16. Prizes will be given in such categories as best behaved, cutest, smallest,

biggest, longest tail, shortest tail, and many others. No exhibitor is apt to

come away from Sunday's show empty handed. If this month's sloppy weather

continues, however, the dog show will be moved to the gymnasium at Edmond Town

Hall.

Tommy Tomlinson, popular proprietor of Tomlinson's Taxi Service, is now

driving a shiny new Plymouth sedan for his work.