The area of Newtown has remained 60 square miles throughout the town’s history, but just 75 years ago, this was a much smaller place. So it was possible for a single local personage to loom large in the transition of Newtown from sleepy burg to thriving village. We still speak today of Mary Hawley’s foresight and beneficence in donating Hawley School, Edmond Town Hall, and the Booth Library to Newtown. And we appreciate her respect for the contributions of those who had gone before, which inspired her contributions and improvements to the Village Cemetery and the Ram Pasture and her donation of a Soldiers and Sailors Monument at the head of Main Street. Today we share Miss Hawley’s perspective and view that if one is to have a legacy, let it be made manifest first at home, in the community, among family, friends, and neighbors.

Newtown is no longer a small place, and the same 60 square miles is packed with businesses, houses, and roads with an ever-increasing pulse of people and traffic. Even Mary Hawley’s largess would be dwarfed by the current demands for open space and for municipal services and facilities. The same kind of foresight and beneficence shown by a single benefactress early in the century now require the concerted action of a community. And this week, Newtown rose to the challenge.

For approving $21.7 million for the purchase of Fairfield Hills and associated capital projects and $27 million for the construction of a new school for grades 5 and 6, the people of Newtown in 2001 will be as deserving of the same remembrance and thanks by future generations as we now accord Miss Hawley. Our gifts to the future loom larger even than hers. This action was not taken for the sake of glory, however. It was a supremely practical decision. The costs of inaction were too high. The alternatives to town purchase, which most certainly would have been just more commercial and residential development, would have meant the loss of open space and the severe narrowing of options for the town in coping with its immediate needs.

So we congratulate the people of Newtown for taking this momentous step for our sake, and for the sake of our many future beneficiaries. The decision made this week is truly one for the history books.