After months of intensive training, a very special member of the Newtown Police Department has been set to work. He’s Bronson, a ten-month-old Doberman pinscher, who has replaced “Lion,” the department’s German shepherd which had to be retired from duty because of illness. Bronsin, as Lion was, is in the care of Officer Robert Wrabel, who not only trains and works with him but keeps him at his home where he is a family pet. When on duty, Officer Wrabel and Bronson can be seen riding around town in a patrol car appropriately numbered K-9. The Doberman, as far as anyone knows, is the only one of its breed presently being used by a town police force in Connecticut.

***

“I think we have got the sentiment (on the purchase of the Ram Pasture),” said First Selectman Frank DeLucia at the close of the public discussion session at the beginning of the Board of Selectmen’s meeting on March 11. Almost every citizen who rose to speak expressed his opposition to spending money, even with State and Federal assistance, to buy the 12-acre meadow at the corner of Routes 302 and 25 from the Cemetery Association. Many cited other projects like a new town garage and a new school, as more pressing, in these difficult economic times.

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The Newtown Bicentennial Committee will have a general meeting on Tuesday, March 25, at 8 pm in the Alexandria Room of Edmond Town Hall, and all interested residents of Newtown are cordially invited to attend. The committee has been meeting on a regular basis and making plans for the upcoming celebration in order to come up with a well-rounded program for the year 1976. Some of the events being considered include a community church service the first Sunday in January, lecture series throughout the entire year, and industrial open house in March, a Colonial Ball either in the spring or fall, a house tour and flower show, an old timers day, band concert and muster, a community Thanksgiving service and Colonial Christmas Church services. Various organizations in town are beginning to become interested in the Bicentennial celebration, and perhaps one of the most active so far is the Newtown Beautification Committee, which is planning to have dogwoods planted in town and also is sponsoring a fall sale of daffodils so that the lawns of residences throughout town will be abloom with bright clumps of yellow in the spring of  ’76.

***

The Public Building Committee met with the Edmond Town Hall Board of Managers Wednesday, March 12, and came away with a detailed schedule of the use of all spaces in the building as a start for their survey of possible accommodations for town offices and departments. Stressing Miss Mary Hawley’s intentions that the facilities be available for community activities and recreation, with quarters designated for only two government officials, the Board of Managers agreed new quarters for the Newtown Police Department would be a large first step in relieving the pressure on the building Miss Hawley gave the town.

***

The results from the March 4 Sandy Hook Women’s Bowling competition are as follows: High single and high three, April Brown, 123-339; High no-mark, Katy Pierwola and Peggy Forbell, 86; Team high single and high three, Hearts, 431-1252.

***

Members of Newtown Hook & Ladder Company No. 1, wives and guests enjoyed the company’s annual dinner-dance at the Stony Hill Inn on Saturday evening, March 8. Lou Pelletier acted as master of ceremonies for the evening, and the program saw four members of Hook and Ladder recognized for their long years of service to the company. They were George Mayer, 36 years; Joe Wupperfeld, 26; John T. Anderson, 30 and Richard Liska, 38.

***

Mrs William Watts, 4-H Extension representative for Newtown, has announced the formation of three new 4-H Clubs. The Hundred Acres 4-H Clover Club is a group of 7- and 8-year-old boys, led by Mr and Mrs Tom Fournier. The second club will meet in the Berkshire Section of Sandy Hook. The third club is in the process of organizing in Dodgingtown.

MARCH 17, 1950

The Bee scribe has learned that at least two of Newtown’s enthusiastic skaters took advantage of the recent short period of thick ice in the Housatonic River to skate from Sandy Hook bridge to Stevenson dam - and return. Mrs Robert Raynolds and Col R.N. Mackin made the round trip, and even skated a distance up the Pomperaug as well. Many people will envy them, both for the fun of the experience and the endurance involved.

***

Boy Scouts of Troop 70, under Scoutmaster Paul A. Cullens, have undertaken distribution of posters and display coin receptacles in the local 1950 campaign of the Connecticut Society for Crippled Children and Adults.

***

Martin E. Bennett, operator of Bennett’s Garage on Connors Avenue, Newtown, received from the town last Saturday morning a certificate of approval for his application for a used car dealer’s license to buy and sell motor vehicles, to be used at the premises now known and operated as Bennett’s Garage.

***

A new bridge over the Housatonic River between Southbury and Newtown and a bridge over Alpine Drive in the Riverside section of Newtown are included in the State Highway Department’s construction program for 1950, according to disclosures given by State Highway Commissioner G. Albert Hill last week. Out of estimated expenditures of slightly over $10 million the Housatonic bridge project is expected to cost about one million and the Alpine Drive bridge an estimated $125,000. Both of these projects are to be undertaken in furtherance of the relocation of Route 6.

***

The Board of Education of Regional High School District No. 3 held its annual public budget hearing on Monday evening, March 13, at the Edmond Town Hall gymnasium. In spite of the stormy weather and bad road conditions, approximately 75 citizens attended to represent all the towns of the district.

***

On Thursday evening, March 9, the Newtown Branch of the American Red Cross held its annual meeting and election of officers in the directors’ room of the Edmond Town Hall at eight o’clock. Mrs William Hunter, retiring chairman, presided. Minutes of the last meeting were read and approved, as was the annual report of the branch treasurer. The nominating committee presented its report through its chairman, Miss Mabel Wright, naming the following persons as candidates for 1950 office: To succeed Mrs Hunter for chairman, Walter H. Bamford; to succeed themselves, for vice chairman, Mrs George H. Tower; for secretary, James S. Miner; for treasurer, H. Carleton Hubbell.

***

On Monday of this week, Judge Paul V. Cavanaugh of Newtown was re-elected chairman of the Fairfield County Chapter, National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.

 

MARCH 13, 1925

The idea of passing a law to require pedestrians on public highways, which are not equipped with sidewalks, to stay on the left hand side of the highway, going against traffic, is discouraged in a pamphlet on traffic problems issued by the Motor Vehicle Department.

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Selectman J.J. Northrop and State Engineer George Smith of New Milford were in New York City, Monday, on state road business.