September 14, 1984

The Conference Room at Town Hall South was the scene of courtroom drama Tuesday night, September 11, as attorneys representing F. Francis D’Addario, owner of Design Developers of Newtown Inc, refuted evidence that discharge from the landfill were polluting a watercourse on his Button Shop Road property. On July 2 enforcement officer James Benson had ordered the company to cease and desist the discharges. In a separate issue, the town is in court over the company’s right to operate the landfill at all. Mr D’Addario had contended that the town’s own sanitary waste landfill which is nearby is polluting the water source.

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The Parks and Recreation Commission on Tuesday night decided the 24-acre Orchard Hill property, located between Huntingtown Road and Orchard Hill Road, shall be used for passive recreation and not for constructing ball fields. It added that the land should be maintained and improved.

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Call it beginner’s luck or whatever, but Wally Brehm of Sandy Hook probably caught more fish his first time out than many catch in a lifetime. “Big” Wally, as he is known, hooked a 651-pound tuna while fishing on a charter boat off Montauk Point, L.I. September 2. It took him about 30 minutes to land the eight-foot, six-inch brute along with help from his son, Eric. When the boat returned to port, Brehm sold the tuna to Japanese fishermen who were on the dock.

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During the next two weeks, Newtown’s Right to Life Chapter will be calling the town’s registered voters to ask whether they are for or against abortion. “The objective is not to develop a conversation piece but to determine accurately which voters will vote the right-to-life as the qualifying issue…” says President of the National Right to Life Committee Mildred F. Jefferson.

 

September 18, 1959

Dr Walter E. Barton, superintendent of Boston State Hospital and recognized authority on rehabilitation and occupational therapy for mental patients, will be the principal speaker at the formal dedication of Plymouth Hall Rehabilitation Center, Fairfield State Hospital, next Wednesday, September 23, at 2:30 o’clock.

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The annual fireman’s carnival operated by Newtown’s five Volunteer Fire Companies represents the combined companies’ only appeal for maintenance and operating funds beyond the town budget. Due to the generosity of Newtown residents, this year’s profit was a record high.

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Edward J. Coleman, First Selectman and Chairman of the Parks and Recreation Commission, took part in exercises opening the park’s two tennis courts on Wednesday morning, September 16. Bertram A. Stroock of Dodgingtown, whose generous donation made possible the A. Fenn Dickinson Memorial Park, was also present on the official occasion of the opening of the tennis courts.

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The Sandy Hook school is one of 800 elementary schools chosen to participate in a new experimental science library program for elementary schools. This month the school will receive two boxes of 80 books covering subjects such as time, sound, archeology, weather, lights, planets, prehistoric animals and many more, which will be loaned to the children of all grades.

September 14, 1934

The Board of Education recently awarded a contract to James Lynch to transport pupils over the route No. 6, at $7 a school day. Other bids were received from Thomas Wright and Albert Charbonnier at the same rate.

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Mrs W.M. McKenzie has done a most commendable piece of work, the past summer, in gathering together several hundred specimens of insects found in Newtown. These, with great painstaking work, have been placed in neat boxes with glass lids, nine in all, and they are now on display in the reading room of the Cyrenius Booth Library, where they may be examined and studied by all interested. That this collection will be of great value to all students goes without saying, and how she was able to classify and arrange them is almost a mystery to the novice.

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William Rudishauser of Newtown, formerly of Bridgeport, has been recently appointed male supervisor of the general Fairfield State Hospital building. Miss Helen Rudishauser, also on the staff at the hospital, has been appointed assistant supervisor of the reception building.

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Charles Wilson, 35, of Yonkers, N.Y., and Matthew A. Egan, 44, of Brooklyn, N.Y., both members of the federal transient camp on Botsford Hill, met a tragic death, early Friday morning, when struck by a freight train on the Berkshire division of the New York, New Haven, & Hartford railroad, half a mile south of the Fairfield State hospital. The men are supposed to have secured liquor from an outside source and in a muddled condition wandered on to the tracks and met their death.

 

September 17, 1909

The buildings and grounds of the Country Club were all in gay attire by Tuesday morning and ready for the opening of the ninth annual fair of the club. The weatherman had done his best and given fine weather for the day. Inside the grounds and buildings the exhibits in every department were filled to overflowing with the best the farmers and their good wives could grow or make and soon after noon the crowds began to gather.

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Hattertown: C.D. Stillson has had his barn and outbuildings treated in a fresh coat of paint. Edgar C. Northrop is building a new picket fence in front of his residence. Thomas Perkins is building a porch, putting in new windows and working other improvements about his house. J.M. Woolsey is having all his buildings painted Edward Bevans and Levi Downs are doing the work.

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William Peck of Botsford has had a large new hennery erected just north of his house and is going into the chicken business extensively. F.A. Young of Taunton sold two very fine young cows last week, to C.H. Jennings of White Hills.

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Edward Botsford of Botsford had the misfortune to lose his horse, last week. Fred Luff of Taunton was so unfortunate as to lose a valuable horse last week.