One of the FAQs we receive from visitors doing tours of our building is “Where do you get your story ideas from?” While many stories recap planned events such as Town board and commission meetings or sporting competitions, sometimes they walk right in our front door. We thought that happened about a week and a half ago, when Jan and John Holly stopped in the office. The Hollys visited because they held — or so they thought — documents that showed some of Jan’s ancestors were early settlers in our town. We made plans to sit down further with Jan and John after last week’s deadlines, took photos of the documents for some pre-interview reading, and even took their photos for a potential story. All was set … until Jan called back about an hour later and said they’d been able to meet Town Historian Ben Cruson. Ben took a quick look at the papers and clarified what they were looking at. It turns out Jan’s ancestors settled in then-named Newtown, N.Y., which was later renamed Jamaica. Jan called, still laughing over a very understandable error, and said John was already resetting the ol’ Garmin to help them find their way a little further south.

The Hollys should be safely home by now. We hope they enjoyed Newtown, Conn., and Newtown/Jamaica, N.Y. I know we enjoyed meeting them, and now we all have something to laugh about if we’re lucky enough to see them again down the road.

Final reminder this week that the annual maintenance at Newtown Community Center and Newtown Senior Center is scheduled for Monday, August 26-Sunday, September 1. The building will also be closed Monday, September 2, for Labor Day. Definitely mark your calendar so you aren’t disappointed by showing up any of those days to find the doors at 8 Simpson Street locked up tight. There will be activity inside the building, of course, but nothing for the public to take part in.

I hope everyone is drying out after last weekend’s record-breaking rain. I give both paws up for those who responded to all the calls for help when people started having water pour into their homes or had other frightening things start happening because of surging water. I know many people are contending with water damage inside homes and elsewhere on property, and I feel for you. Others needed to call 911 after they drove into standing water and found themselves not only in vehicles that couldn’t go any further, but also in danger of being swept away.

Props also to those who were out there on Sunday and beyond, repairing more than three dozen local roads that washed out. It was an amazing turnaround, going from about 40 roads that were fully or partially closed Monday morning, to just four or five still fully impassable by Tuesday morning. Those last few are going to be stubborn problems for a while, but we’re lucky everyone can now at least get around town again even if it means planning further ahead for potentially longer routes.

The co-coordinators of Newtown’s National Night Out — already postponed from earlier this month due to weather — ended up cancelling the event this year, which had been rescheduled to Tuesday, August 20. It was a tough decision, according to co-organizer Matt Ariniello. The director of Newtown Community Center said on Monday that with “many of our local first responders … currently tied up assisting residents and their communities during the natural disaster … we have made the difficult decision to cancel this year’s National Night Out.” Similarly, fellow co-organizer Newtown PD on its Facebook page said it too had “made the difficult decision to cancel our National Night Out event in order to direct our emergency resources to flood recovery for the foreseeable future.” Fortunately, both entities mentioned looking forward to next year, so there’s that.

If there hadn’t been so much rain and local damage, it would almost be ironic that a car wash planned for last Sunday was postponed ... due to the weather. Volunteers could have saved some water if the weather had cooperated just a little better — just look at how well the Knights of Columbus did back in April, when they had a Saturday morning car wash planned and there was rain at the onset of that event. They held on, the rain cleared, and the Knights still did well with their fundraiser. The Newtown High School Wrestling Alumni, Families & Supporters couldn’t follow the same game plan last weekend, however. Their August 18 car wash, a four-hour event to be conducted at Newtown Middle School, was postponed to Sunday, September 15. Washes will be done for donations and the event will still run from 10 am until 2 pm. If you’d like to support the team but can’t get to the event that day, they do accept Venmo (@NHSWrestling).

I hope everyone who enjoys using our Town beach got their final swims in for the summer because Eichler’s Cove is closed for the season, a little earlier than planned following last weekend’s rain. Treadwell Park Pool was closed on Monday, but reopened Tuesday on its shorter late-season schedule. Lifeguards are currently working weekdays from 4 to 7 pm, and weekends from 9 am-7 pm. Treadwell Pool will continue on that schedule for the week of August 26-September 1. Hours for Labor Day Monday, September 2, will be 1-7 pm. The pool will then close for the season.

Speaking of last weekend’s storm one final time, belated birthday wishes to Maureen Will. The director of emergency communications for Newtown spent a good part of her birthday Sunday with fellow Emergency Management directors at the Emergency Operations Center.

Let’s look forward for at least a minute, shall we? Organizers of the 2024 Newtown Arts Festival this week announced the headliners for Friday night’s Music Under the Stars. Quietly, organizers still have a lot of volunteer openings for the three-day weekend that will dominate the Fairfield Hills campus September 20-22. This is a great opportunity for individuals, couples, families, friends — anyone! — or all ages to spend some time immersed within the arts. There are many openings still available as of this week, some beginning as early as Thursday, September 19. There’s everything from general site team assistance and artisan setup to musician assistance, traffic control and perimeter security, assisting with various activities, and even breaking down/cleanup. Visit newtownartsfestival.com/volunteer for full details.

I hope that’s enough storytelling and information sharing for one more week. Don’t forget, I’m now Facebook (TopOfTheMountainCat) official and I have a Beemail address (mountain@thebee.com). I love hearing from friends and fans, and look forward to sharing another batch of collected items when you come back next week to … read me again.