The Town of Newtown will present a 1980 winter energy plan at a public hearing scheduled for Wednesday, January 2, at 7:30 pm to be conducted by the Board of Selectmen. Zita McMahon, grants administrator and assistant to the first selectman, is in process of drafting the plan and will present its basic elements at the hearing next week.

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A two-year contract between the town of Newtown and the 30-member union for the employees of the highway department and town landfill which will cost the town an additional $49,054, received unanimous approval of the Board of Selectmen at a special meeting on December 21.

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Although Newtown is a small community, its biggest news event throughout the year was the one which is facing the nation as a whole — the combination of fuel shortages and rising prices. The Bee’s back issues for the year 1979 are filled with stories of gas shortages, pictures of gas lines, and a weekly column The Bee started, called “Gas Gauge” which kept residents alert as to what the fuel situation was.

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Newtown’s estimated population as of July 1, 1979, was 17,900, according to figures released last week by the Connecticut State Department of Health Services. The town grew by 400 people from the previous July, the health department estimated, placed its growth rate of 2.3 percent ahead of the state as a whole.

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Some members of the Republican Town Committee have lined up in support of the candidacy of former movie star and California Governor Ronald Reagan, and on Monday night, Joanne Kemmerer announced she would be heading the Reagan campaign here in Newtown.

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Delicate negotiations are ahead between the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Education on the transfer of maintenance responsibility for the school system’s playing fields to the Town of Newtown, as the Board of Selectmen December 21 said a first draft of an agreement proposed by the school board was “unacceptable.” The school board voted in a major move on December 11 to enter into an agreement with the Town of Newtown for a trial period not to exceed three years for maintenance of school fields.

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Passing through the Shepaug Dam, the dividing point between Lakes Lillinonah and Zoar, was not the place to be Christmas Eve and Christmas Day for alewives as countless thousands of the small fish left their bodies floating on the surface of Lake Zoar Tuesday. The fish kill, which provided feasts for hundreds of seagulls, probably came from a sudden change in water depth and nitrogen bubbling in the bloodstream, according to a Department of Environmental Protection fishery biologist.

DECEMBER 31, 1954

Thirty-nine members of the Young Peoples Club, and drivers of the five cars and one truck in the entourage, made a highly successful trip to New Hampshire early this week for skiing. The expedition, an annual event, was led by the Rev Paul A. Cullens, pastor of the Newtown Congregational Church. Leaving from the church house last Sunday afternoon, December 26, the young people, including ten from Redding, traveled via Route 202 except for some short-cuts, to Northhampton, and New Salem, Mass., where they stopped for supper, and on to Camp Union, Greenfield, N.H., the base for the three subsequent nights.

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M. Frederick Rees of Hanover Road was administered the oath of office as judge of the Town Court on Monday by Judge Walter A. Reynolds, his predecessor. He had been appointed by Governor John Lodge to fill the balance of the unexpired term of Judge Reynolds. Judge Reynolds resigned from the Town Court judgeship after ten years in the post following his election in November as Judge of Probate.

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The Christmas doorway of the home of Cmdr and Mrs Warner W. Bayley, Mt Pleasant, and the original seasonal theme of Mr and Mrs William H. Walsh, Jr, Queen Street, were announced as the best residential entries in the Christmas Decorations Contest by the Berkshire Garden Club, sponsor of the contest. The Bayley entry was the best of the entries judged by day while the Walshs’ decoration won in the night-time judging. Newtown High School, decorated by members of the vo-ag class, and Lovell’s Garage were the winners of the day-time and night-time entries, respectively in the non-residential classes.

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Dr Henry Roger of Rolab Studios, Walnut Tree Hill, received a telephone call Wednesday afternoon from the Ford Foundation in New York City, telling him that the Omnibus television program at 5 pm on Sunday afternoon over Channel 2, will show the sequence of pictures taken at Rolab Studios on the hatching of a baby chick.

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The resignation of John R. McMahon from the Board of Education was accepted by that body at its meeting on Thursday, December 16. James N. Greene of Taunton Hill Road was named to replace Mr McMahon until the next town election, in October 1955.

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Total insured property damage in Hurricanes Carol and Edna, which struck New England areas August 31 and September 11 respectively, will be in excess of $138,000,000 and involve an estimated 745,000 claims, it was reported this week by the National Board of Fire Underwriters. The estimates do not include automobile or marine losses. Preliminary studies on Hurricane Hazel, which swept over ten states from South Carolina to the Canadian border October 15, show that insured losses for this storm will approximate those for Carol and Edna combined.

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Mr and Mrs Robert P. Stokes held open house for a number of their friends at their home on Church Hill Road Wednesday evening.

DECEMBER 27, 1929

Sandy Hook experienced the most disastrous fire in a half century, on Saturday night, when St John’s Episcopal Church edifice was burned to the ground. The fire was discovered about 9 to 10 o’clock by H.G. Warner, who with his sons, had started for Berkshire. As he approached the church going south he noticed a bit of fire on the front of the church near the chimney. Stopping his car to investigate, he hustled back to the store for pails and a fire extinguisher and returned to the church. By the aid of his extinguisher, he put out the blaze that first appeared, and Mr Warner thinks if sufficient help had been at hand at first it might have been possible to save the edifice. The fire began to make rapid headway, and although a large number of volunteer workers appeared, and a bucket brigade was organized, it was soon seen the building was doomed for destruction.

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Despite the heavy downpour of rain, dense fog, and the impossible traveling over Mt Pleasant, the second annual Christmas party of the Newtown Chamber of Commerce, held in the Hawleyville firehouse last week Thursday night, was a brilliant and social success.

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A petition has been circulated and signed requesting the selectmen to call a legally warned town meeting for the purpose of acting on the question of requesting the Finance Board to approve of an appropriation for the purchase of a fire apparatus for the town.

DECEMBER 30, 1904

Rev Otis W. Barker and George W. Clark are to have telephones placed in their homes soon.

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Miss Ina Botsford has gone to Derby where she has accepted a position.

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The Congregational Sunday school has chosen these officers for the ensuing year: assistant superintendent, George Barnum; secretary and treasurer, Miss Julia Duncombe; assistant secretary, Miss Mabel Taylor; librarian, Carleton Smith.

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Anthony France, one of the painters at the depot, fell from a ladder last Friday morning, breaking his leg. Dr Schuyler was called and set the limb.

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Miss Edna Brown, a student at the Northfield Seminary, Northfield, Ma., is at home during the holiday vacation.

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Miss Daisy N. Tyrrell closed her school last Friday for the holiday vacation. She presented each pupil with a Christmas present.

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It is rumored that one of Newtown’s famous ball players residing on Toddy Hill is shortly to take unto himself a bride. The lady has lately returned from the south. May his married life be as successful as the famous plays he performed while with the Newtown Baseball Association.

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Pa is a very appropriate appellation applied to one of Botsford Hill’s young men. “Pat” now wears a smile that don’t come off.

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The body of John Dillon, who was killed by the cars while walking on the track last Saturday afternoon, between Botsford and Stepney Depot, was brought to St Rose’s Cemetery, Sandy Hook, for burial, Tuesday morning.