At its Tuesday, December 16 meeting, the Parks and Recreation Commission approved a budget recommendation for the next year that includes a request for $750,000 to complete phase three, the pool complex, at Treadwell Park. The pool complex plan has been defeated previously.

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Settlements of nearly $1 million awarded to the families of six teenagers involved in a 1982 high speed chase with two Bethel police officers, which ended in a fatal crash, were revealed on December 11, after the jury cleared the Bethel police of any fault for the accident. In total, the insurance company for the Town of Bethel paid out $787,500 and Mr Staudinger’s (the driver) insurance company paid $200,000, making it a total of $987,500 in awards to the families who settled out of court and didn’t wait for the jury to make a decision.

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Newtown High wrestles have spent more time grappling with the flu than with opponents lately. On Tuesday, before practice, Coach Paul Horton said, “About one-third of the kids in that practice room are sick.” Not only is Newtown ailing on the varsity level, but the junior varsity team has four or five players ill, as well. For now, it seems Newtown’s toughest match is with the flu.

December 22, 1961

The effect of Saturday’s opening of the western Connecticut stretch of the new Yankee Expressway, Interstate 84, has been immediate in Newtown. Resident State Officer, Sergeant James Costello, estimates the traffic on Church Hill Road has been cut from 30 to 35 percent.

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The annual Christmas Doorway Decorations Contest has this year drawn one of the largest numbers of entries for this holiday event, and when the closing date for entries arrived Tuesday there were 89 families and business establishments and civic organizations which had signed up for the contest.

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The latest addition to the mechanical equipment at The Bee office is an Intertype linecasting machine, equipped with a Teletypesetter attachment. The Teletype attachment on the Intertype machine permits its automatic operation, setting type from a perforated tape.

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The Newtown Rotary Club held a gala dinner — meeting at the Yankee Drover Inn on Monday evening, to honor the high school’s outstanding soccer team, which ended its season as runner up in the state’s secondary school championship, with the entire team and its coach, Bob Sveda, as guests of honor. The guest speaker was John McKeon, coach of the Bridgeport University soccer team, who spoke of the growing interest in this country in soccer as a first class sport.

 

December 18, 1936

The fire department was called to the home of Thomas O’Connell in Zoar district Monday morning, to extinguish a blaze that had started in the chimney. When the firemen arrived, the fire had been put out by neighbors, with no damage resulting.

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A reinforced concrete bridge, 40 feet long and 23 feet wide, spanning the Pohtatuck River in the Shady Rest section, has just been opened. The old bridge, which has been in use for over half a century, was partially wrecked during the ice jam last spring.

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A word of praise is certainly due Arthur J. Smith, manager of the Edmond Town Hall. He has been cited by Paramount Pictures for his selection of moving pictures shown at the Edmond Theater, ranking first among other picture houses throughout the State. Modest though Mr Smith may be, The Bee takes occasion to compliment him on the job he is doing, not only in conducting the theater, but in managing the entire building.

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A Community Chorus of 50 voices which has been rehearsing for the past few weeks on three choruses from Handel’s “Messiah” will combine with the strings from the Newtown Orchestral Society on Sunday evening, at 8 o’clock, in the Congregational church, in a sacred Christmas concert. The chorus is fortunate in having a soprano soloist, Miss Peggy Bower of Hartford, who is also studying music in New Haven. She, with Mrs E. Sanford Brown of Park Street church, Bridgeport, will sing the arias in the first section of the “Messiah.”

 

December 22, 1911

Under the leadership of L.C. Morris, 30 people gathered at the Sunday school room of the Congregational church, Tuesday night, and finished in one night the task of tying greens and decorating the auditorium and Sunday school room. One gentleman in the party had assisted in this pleasant task at this same church for more than 40 Christmases.

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The night of the burglaries in Newtown Street, the chicken roost of Mamert Woicehowski was visited and several hens taken. They took a pair of overalls from the clothes line to carry the chickens in. Mr Woicehowski heard the prowlers about, but did not go out to investigate.

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The second annual masquerade, which is to take place at the Town hall on Friday evening, December 29, will be the event of the season by the appearance of the subscription list. Woodhull’s orchestra of Bridgeport, composed of six musicians, will furnish the music for the occasion. The grand march will be one of the spectacular features of the evening. Four hundred tickets have been ordered for this masquerade, of which nearly all are spoken for.

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Charles R. Taggart, the entertainer, made a decided hit in his entertainment in the lecture room of the Congregational church, Monday night, before an audience which numbered about 100. His descriptive selections and songs, recitations, and character sketches, ventriloquial dialogues, and violin mimicry kept his audience in a gale of laughter for an hour or more.