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THE WAY WE WERE

SEPTEMBER 7, 1973

Thousands of people turned out on Monday for the unofficial end of summer,

Newtown's Labor Day parade. The parade stepped off almost on schedule, led by

summer festival chairmen Mr and Mrs Richard Sturdeveant and honorary marshals

Mr and Mrs Paul Smith in the car behind. The heat did not stop any of the

parade marchers from smiling or stepping high. This year's parade judges were

Mrs William Walsh, Mrs Walter Motyka, Miss Gail Hubbell, Stanley Main, Donald

Leavitt, Dr Raymond Craven, and Dr Robert Murren.

The contract between the town of Newtown and the International Brotherhood of

Police Officers Local 337 has been ratified by the local and the Board of

Selectmen. The two-year contract is retroactive to July 1, 1973, and will run

through June 30, 1975. The contract is basically the same as the previous one

but one new major change is a new article listed as "manpower." This section

of the contract guarantees that there will be a minimum of two cruisers on

patrol 24 hours a day and that all shifts shall have a supervisor with a rank

of sergeant or higher. Another change in the contract says that each employee

will be allowed a total accumulation of 90 days sick leave with accrual

credited January 1 of each year. The previous contract had allowed 54 days

accumulated sick leave. Salaries will be scaled on a five-year basis for

increases. A patrolman entering the force will begin at $8,125 with his first

pay increase coming in six months, working up to $10,885 in the fifth year.

The Old Rock Road Corporation has taken its planned racetrack away from

Newtown but the land they wanted to build it on is still here and last week

the same group of investors, with the help from a few others, took title to

almost all of it. The total purchase price of the 365-acre tract, as recorded

by the town clerk's office, was $832,000. Title was taken in the name of the

Newtown Real Estate Investment Trust, Burton J. Jacobson, trustee. What the

group plans to do with the land remains to be seen, but their attorney

indicated the decision will mainly depend on where the proposed Route 25

expressway will be built through Newtown. If it is built on the so-called C4

route, the entrance and exit ramps will be on High Bridge Road on land owned

by the group, making it a prime spot for commercial development. If the B

route is followed, the same land would be separated from the expressway and

thus more suitable for residential development.

The first formal step toward organizing Newtown's participation in the 1976

Bicentennial celebration was taken September 4 when the Newtown Summer

Festival Inc was designated to represent the town in dealing with federal and

state bicentennial commissions. The designation was made by a unanimous vote

of the Board of Selectmen after it was proposed by David Larson, chairman of

the festival's advisory board. Mr Larson said the festival board will act as a

steering committee and seek the aid of all organizations and individuals in

town that want to participate.

The John Kipp residence on Nettleton Avenue was badly damaged by fire on

Friday afternoon, August 31, and 22 men from Newtown Hook & Ladder Company No

1 worked at the scene for several hours. The alarm was called in at 2:11 pm by

neighbors and the police, who noticed smoke. When the firemen got to the house

the second floor was completely involved and fire was beginning to break

through the roof. Indications are the fire began in the upstairs master

bedroom around 11 am but the actual cause as not yet been determined. The Kipp

family was not at home at the time of the fire but some animal friends were --

two cats, numerous gerbils and fish, all saved by the firemen.

Schools opened in Newtown on Wednesday and apparently all went well despite

the heat wave which caused some other school districts to shorten their first

day of school. Overcrowded conditions are more evident this year. At the

Middle School all children bringing bag lunches will eat in the classrooms

because the cafeteria space, reduced to one room last year because of the need

for additional classrooms, is too small. Also, at the end of C wing is a new

portable classroom which houses a grade 5 cluster. The biggest change is in

the bus routes and walking distances were extended for all students this year

because of a $30,000 cut in the transportation budget after the entire school

budget was considerably reduced. For the first time since the new high school

was built four years ago, students living within two miles will have to walk.

Mrs Violet Moore, a retired Paris dressmaker who at 92 still makes

hand-braided rugs in her home on Hemlock Trail, Sandy Hook, is in danger of

losing her house to make way for the new construction on I-84. The home of her

next-door neighbor, Mrs Jean Mark, also will be demolished. The houses won't

be in the path of the highway but will be doomed by a kind of domino effect.

To broaden I-84 to modern standards where it crosses Lake Zoar, the state

proposes to build a new bridge parallel to Rochambeau Bridge a little way to

the north, and relocate the westbound lanes to pass over it. The new lanes

would occupy the space now used by Riverside Road, which would therefore have

to be relocated. This would cut off access to Hemlock Trail, a private gravel

track which climbs steeply up the hillside to a small group of summer homes.

Representatives of Ethan Allen Inc appeared at a hearing before the Zoning

Board of Appeals Wednesday evening to seek a variance for a proposed furniture

warehouse to be built off Route 25 near the town landfill. The company seeks

to build an 84,000-square-foot, 35-foot high structure in the B-2 zone where

town regulations allow 30-foot high buildings. The warehouse will serve as a

distribution center for the Ethan Allen stores in Connecticut, Western

Massachusetts, and western New York. A company spokesman said six to 10

tractor trailer trucks could be expected to visit the plant each day, and 25

to 30 persons would be employed there.

SEPTEMBER 10, 1948

School began in Newtown this week with a first-day enrollment of 578 pupils.

Hawley School, combining an elementary school and departmentalized junior and

senior high school, is particularly crowded, with elementary classes of 26 to

32 students. Another grade 5 is being conducted at Flat Swamp School by

teacher Morris Izen with 17 students. Grade 6 at Huntingtown School has Miss

Aloise Heller in charge with an enrollment of 31 and there is another grade 6

at Lands End in Hawleyville with Mrs Clara B. Jillson, instructor, and a total

of 30 pupils. The first-day enrollment in Regional District No 3 was 1,426.

On Tuesday evening, the board of Regional School District No 3 met in the

Southbury Consolidated school at 8 o'clock with all members present. Also

present were representatives from the firm of Kilham & O'Connor, architects

from New York City, who are designing the new regional high school. Members of

opposition parties in the towns of Newtown, Bethlehem and Woodbury were on

hand, their spokesman being Attorney J. Gregory Lynch of Waterbury. Board

member Leonard Saccio of Bethlehem made a motion that the requests for bids be

tabled until after the state legislature convenes, but the motion was

defeated. Board members in addition to District Superintendent Carroll F.

Johnson and Mr Saccio who were present include Robert Clark, William Daniells

and Mrs Russell Strasburger from Newtown; Ross Newell and Ernest Lawton,

Woodbury; Sam Hart and Mrs Gordon Schielke, Southbury.

Miss Margaret Winchester has just returned to Boston after a month's visit at

the home of her parents, Rev and Mrs Benjamin S. Winchester of Currituck Road.

Miss Alice Winchester of New York also has spent a weekend here before

departing for a six-week's trip abroad to gather material for the magazine,

Antiques , of which she is the editor. The trip, made entirely by plane,

includes London, Paris and points in Ireland.

The Newtown Bees were defeated by Stephney, 14-4, in the first game of the

Pomperaug Valley League tournament. The game was played under protest because

Stepney used an ineligible player. Bud Luckner started on the mound for

Stepney and was replaced in the ninth by Ralph Decker. Kearns starred at bat

for Newtown with a double and two singles in four times at bat. Jim Cavanaugh

knocked a home run in the ninth. Buckley and Duda of Stepney collected four

for five.

A ballet dancing school is to open shortly at the Edmond Town Hall gymnasium

under the direction of Jack Quinn, manager of the Southbury Playhouse. Mr

Quinn has been a ballet dancer for more than 25 years. For 11 years he was

with the Metropolitan Opera Company, the Ballet Russe and a dancer in the

movies, taking part in several Hollywood productions.

For rent/lease: A sawmill, cider mill and gristmill. Contains planer that will

plane up to 20 inches in width, and a shaper and joiner. Sawmill powered by

water power. Other machinery powdered by individual electric motors. For more

information, write to Albert H. Nichols, Newtown.

There was a near catastrophe at the Parker House Monday night. In order to

accommodate the new teachers who are staying at the hotel on Main Street, the

staff had to make some changes in the room assignments. Since John Sealander

was away for the holiday, he didn't know that has room had been changed.

Arriving late, he tried unsuccessfully to get into what he believed to be his

room. But George Crump came to the rescue as usual and showed him to his new

room.

Two local brothers, Robert McCarty, 14, and LeRoy, McCarty, 10, who won awards

in gardening, sheep and poultry at the 1946 agricultural fair, can be expected

to show at the PTA Agricultural and Home Economics exhibit at Hawley School on

September 21. Both boys have outstanding records in 4-H work in a relatively

short period of time and are a good example of the youth in Newtown. They are

the sons of Mr and Mrs Warren McCarty of Old Bethel Road.