A Great Idea For Newtown

To the Editor:

I have just finished reading the current issue of The Newtown Bee…the suggestion made by Mr Berendsohn, in reference to having a nanotechnology educational facility at the Fairfield Hills site…is the best idea I have heard, since Newtown decided to buy FFH!! I’m glad to know we have some good, solid, forward thinking ideas from someone who lives in our town. You don’t need to be a genius to know that’s a great ideal! How wonderful to have such a facility and perhaps draw more of the same facilities educating for master and doctorate degrees. When reading about Mr Berendsohn’s idea I found myself thinking, “how perfect for Newtown!”

I hope that this wonderful idea won’t go by the wayside and will be aggressively pursued and acted upon positively by Newtown residents. We, as residents, have got to start thinking “out of the box” so our town will not become just another stamped out suburb of New York — if we haven’t gotten there already.

It, very often, sounds to me that we have far too many narrow thinking residents in charge of our beautiful town…we must look to the future and not continue to build more and more ugly “monster” housing that has run rampant in Newtown and is a blight on our beautiful countryside. At some point our town must have the legal right to say “enough!” There is nothing wrong with imposing a cap on building, or to slow it down to make sure our schools, roads, generally speaking our infrastructure is able to support the amount of building that is being approved. There is nothing wrong with housing if it is done very carefully.

Our tax bills silently attest to the gross amount of building that has occurred in Newtown…we all know that the majority of our tax dollars go to education. We also know that taxes on one of these homes can never cover the cost of educating one child from that household, for the school year, never mind two more from the same household. Due to the large increase in the number of students that attend and will attend our schools it is frightening that the schools can barely house the number of students we presently have entering school.

As a lifetime resident, I am really tired of the “same old…same old!” Let’s try to keep our community beautiful and unique, as it has always been.

Another thought that comes to mind…let’s try to have businesses come into our community and help with the tax base. Newtown does have some very knowledgeable and capable real estate people who live and work in and around Newtown. These agents should be able to draw more desirable and suitable businesses to Newtown such as the company that recently received approval for the Newtown Manufacturing property, located on South Main Street. The property will be turned into a lovely retail and banking facility. Shopping centers do not have to be big and obnoxious. They can be of reasonable size and landscaped beautifully.

Please let’s think and work for the common good of our town. I have lived here for 68 plus years and I am very concerned about the future well being of Newtown and its residents.

Nancy Sealund

43 Dodgingtown Road, Newtown                                  August 5, 2005