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On Monday evening the Republican Town Committee made the recommendation that Dr Harvey Wachman of New York City and Great Quarter Road, Sandy Hook, be considered to fill the vacancy on the Board of Education created by the recent resignation of Dr Russell Strasburger. On Tuesday night, the members of the Board bypassed the recommendation and unanimously elected Dr Ruby Johnson of Chestnut Hill Road, Sandy Hook, as their new member.

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At the special meeting of the Newtown Board of Education Tuesday night, Board member Lester Burroughs announced that Town Counsel Robert Hall had informed him that the State Supreme Court will hear the arguments on the Boyle Site case on Thursday, November 14. The case is scheduled to be on the Court docket at 2 pm. This is the court case in which the former owners of the Boyle property are asking for a new trial in order to reverse a former court decision to award the land to the town through condemnation. That decision was being appealed when the judge who was to hear it died. The Superior Court in Bridgeport denied the request for a new trial following that, and thus, the plaintiffs took the matter to the Supreme Court. Another trial in the school site controversy is still pending, and no date has been set for that. It is one for a declaratory judgment which former owners of the property and members of the Newtown Taxpayers Group are seeking in order to have the last referendum on the site declared illegal. That referendum, which voted to have the Town retain the property, was one which followed a previous one, which was declared illegal by Town Counsel since the matter of having the property change hands was not brought before Planning and Zoning for a mandatory referral.

***

The Planning & Zoning Commission of Newtown met in closed session on Friday, October 25, to vote on its reasons for disapproving the special exception application for Eagle Hill. The first vote was taken in an open meeting on Friday, October 18, with all five regular Commission members voting to disapprove the plans for the alcoholic treatment center. Last Friday, however, a new slant was added to the controversial disapproval as the chairman, Philip Kopp, changed his vote to one of approval for Eagle Hill. Several persons who were at Friday’s meeting said they were not aware that Mr Kopp had done so.

***

Republican candidates will be in the Queen Street Shopping Center on Saturday morning, November 2, to meet the voters. Fifth District Congressman Ronald Sarasin is expected to arrive at 10 am, and other candidates on hand will be Judge of Probate Benjamin Blanchard, State Rep Sarah Frances Curtis and State Senator Joseph Gormley.

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The Board of Burgesses at its regular meeting Monday, October 28, received notice from the Public Utilities Commission that the Newtown Water Company has received a 20 percent rate rise rather than the 40 per cent originally requested following a recent hearing in Newtown.

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Highway superintendent Edward Napier has reported major problems with at least two bridges in town. The bridge on Turkey Hill Road, in the South main district, has been washed out and is now temporarily reinforced, allowing passage of vehicles weighing up to four tons. Mr Napier and First Selectman Frank DeLucia are going to recommend to the Board of Education that the school buses on the road stop crossing over the bridge. A turn-around has been installed in front of the bridge. On Jacklin Road in the Dodgingtown area, a bridge lost an abutment in a washout leaving the roadway just hanging in mid-air. The road has been blocked off from the Bethel end and the Dodgingtown side. The bridge is now being underpined by Monroe Ready-Mix Concrete Company.

***

The annual meeting of the Newtown Ambulance Association Inc was October 24. The officers for the new fiscal year were elected and are as follows: Llewellyn Rowe, president; Robert S. Grossman, MD, vice president; Joan Maher, secretary; and Mary Weber, treasurer.

 

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NOVEMBER 4, 1949

 

The Raymond L. Pease Post 163, American Legion and Auxiliary is sponsoring the annual Armistice Day parade and memorial exercises in Newtown next Friday, November 11, beginning at 10 am. All residents are invited to attend and those in charge hope the community at large will participate in the spirit of the occasion by a display of the national emblem and observance of the minute of silence in memory of those who gave their lives in the service of our country. The parade will form at Lovell’s Garage at the foot of the Main Street hill at 9:45 and will proceed north to the monument at the head of Main Street, where appropriate exercises will be held.

***

On last Sunday veterans were joined by a number of townspeople in attending the open house held at the Newtown Veterans Memorial Building, which is now under construction opposite the Newtown Country Club on the east side of Route 25.

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On Tuesday of this week Mrs John F. Ross of Main Street reported picking two quarts of raspberries and one pint of strawberries in her garden, an excellent if unusual way of observing the arrival of November in Connecticut.

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Ghosts and goblins have departed for another year but traces of their one-night stand still remain. Among those acts of Halloween vandalism reported, B.A. Stroock of Buckeye Farm, Dodgingtown district, is known to have lost a gate during Monday night’s activities and would like to have it returned. It is a white gate four feet high, 50 inches wide, and is part of a three-rail fence. Also, Mrs J.A. Miller of Valley Brook Farm, Huntingtown Road, reports the loss of an expensive name sign off a high post in front of her home, and a number of  “No Trespassing” signs.

***

Larry F. Soars, Scout Executive for Pomperaug Council, announced this week that a great upsurge of interest in Scouting is occuring in this area. This is especially noteworthy in view of the current Community Chest Campaign now in its final stages. The success of the Red Feather drive will greatly influence the extent the Scouting program will be conducted in this area.

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The first ladies night of the season for the Newtown Rotary Club was marked Monday night by a buffet dinner and dance at The Pines Inn. Milton Bacon, radio commentator, lecturer, author and former Columbia Broadcasting Company executive, was the only speaker. Mr Bacon is an anecdotist and humorist of considerable note and, choosing “Fabulous America” as his subject, he entertained his audience with stories full of fun and relating to current problems of general interest.

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OCTOBER 31, 1924

Donald B. Ferris of Sugar Street is riding out in a new sports model Dodge roadster presented by his father, Charles D. Ferris,  bought through the local agent, F.A. Judd of Redding.

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The Campfire Girls of Newtown hiked to Taunton Lake on Tuesday, with their guardian, Mrs F.H. Johnston. The girls in the group are Eileen Corbett, Frances Crouch, Geraldine Culter, Evelyn Ekins, Mabel Greenman, Dorothy Jennings, Barbette McArdle, Josephine McBath, Margaret McCarthy, Helen Nichols, Louise Nichols, Grace Olmstead, Marjorie Peale, Jennie Read, Elizabeth Reynolds, Margaret Ryan and Luella Sperry.