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The Newtown United Methodist Church will fill with joyous strains of organ music this Sunday, slightly subdued in deference to the Lenten season, but definitely uplifting. Organist Sue Klein will play worship music she has been perfecting since February 24 when the new Allen digital computer organ was delivered to the sanctuary. The congregation will unite in a song of thanks because their ten-year goal has been achieved.

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As a result of heavy rains on February 21, Sandy Hook Elementary School experienced roof-leaking problems which interfered with teaching in at least four classrooms and created inconveniences in several others. The roof is the subject of a lawsuit the town has filed against the company that installed the roof on the addition in 1980.

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First Selectman Jack Rosenthal is proposing the town sell the former highway garage property on Church Hill Road, and use the money to build a new storage building at the site of the present garage. The old garage was built in 1945 at 53 Church Hill Road. The new garage was built eight years ago.

March 3, 1961

Otto W. Heise, president and founder of Heise Bourdon Tube Co., Inc, has established, through the Otto W. Heise Foundation, an annual award of $500 to a member of the graduating class of Newtown High School on the basis of science achievement and particularly physics. Mr Heise, a physicist and inventor, has been a resident of Newtown for about 25 years.

***

Newtown won the State Class B Badminton title last Thursday, as the team won from Norwich for the second time. The Newtowners can place the two new trophies of this year alongside the Class C trophy of last year.

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Girl Scout cookie sales reached a record high this year with a total of 183,396 boxes ordered in the towns of the Southwestern Connecticut Girl Scout Council. The orders show an increase of about 6,000 boxes over the number ordered last year.

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David Mends of Sandy Hook and Paul Voltaire of New Milford have been awarded a patent for a combination groove wobble and eccentricity gauge for ball bearings, which patent has been assigned by the Inventors to the Bardon Corporation in Danbury.

 

February 28, 1936

Will 1936 be a caterpillar year? State entomologist W.E. Britton looks about at the signs of the times and believes it will be. Plagues of tent caterpillars are as old as American history. The records in New England go back to 1646. They have been exceedingly abundant every ten or eleven years. Aside from injuring our aesthetic sensibilities, tent caterpillars do actual damage. Many trees are completely stripped of leaves during their six-week feeding period.

***

Myron Beal, artesian well driller, of Bethel, is drilling a well at the home of Alfred C. Ray in Berkshire district. Anyone who plans to have a well drilled this spring would do well to get in touch with Mr Beal while his machine is in this section.

***

Residents of Newtown are asked to aid in the feeding of birds and animals, who through this hard winter are in danger of starving. The following feed dealers will give grain to all who call for the purpose of feeding the birds: R.H. Holcomb, Newtown Coal & Grain Co., W.A. Honan and George Rasmussen. The feed should be place on cleared ground and if possible, in a bunch of hay.

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On February 14, the candidates of the Girls’ Friendly Society enjoyed a Valentine party. They were very much pleased to see and eat a two-layer or two-step heart-shaped cake frosted and decorated with hearts, made by one of the mothers.

 

March 3, 1911

The SNET Co is extending their line in Palestine to take in the residence of Harlow Benedict and Charles E. Blakeman. Mrs Ruth Augur has had a telephone installed in her residence.

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Sereno F. King met with a painful accident, last Monday morning, while working on the steam shovel for the H.N. Beard Co., on the state road, across the river at Sandy Hook. A piece of flying glass from the steam gage hit him in the eye, inflicting a bad wound. He was taken to the hospital in Bridgeport for treatment.

***

A.T. Nettleton, treasurer of the Newtown Savings bank, had a hair-raising experience, the other night. On coming home late, he put the key in the door and it broke off. He could not open it, neither could he arose anyone. Selecting a ladder, he espied a window open on the third floor, and finally reached the safety of his own quarters. His agility in climbing the ladder in the shimmering starlight was a subject that would make a poet rave. He is asking his friends not to mention the subject.

***

Mrs William Hall and Mrs Benjamin Snow of Danbury had a narrow escape from a serious accident, Monday. They had just seated themselves in E.J. Hall’s buggy when his horse, a fast stepper, suddenly wheeled around in a circle, throwing Mrs Hall and Mrs Snow out on the ground. Mrs Hall was badly bruised about her side and Mrs Snow was thoroughly shaken up.