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Burgesses this week gave the Historic District Study Committee authorization to take whatever steps are necessary to give borough voters another chance to establish an historic district on Main Street. The action came after several months of study on the part of the burgesses as to what course of action to take after the plan was narrowly rejected last July.

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A proposed school budget for the 1984-85 school year was unveiled by Supt John Reed at Tuesday’s Board of Ed budget session. The entire package, which will be broken down section by section in forthcoming meetings, is $13, 180,002 — $1,203,429 over last year’s budget — an increase of 10.05 percent.

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A fire of undetermined origin at the Charles Batchelder Company on Swamp Road caused damage to an indoor shed at the factory on Friday morning, January 13. Firemen from Botsford, Hook and Ladder and men with Tanker 9 from Sandy Hook spent nearly an hour and a half at the scene.

 

January 23, 1959

Selectmen this week officially appointed a five-member Building Commission for Newtown, with the duty to name a building inspector, to keep the building code up to date by recommending changes the commission sees fit, and to act as a board of appeals, in which the commission will hear appeals from decisions of the inspector.

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Brian O’Brien of Obtuse Road, Hawleyville, a man with both imagination and talent, has written a book, which E.P. Dutton Company of New York published this Wednesday, about a woman he not only never saw but who was dead long before he heard her remarkable and moving story. The book, She Had A Magic, is the biography of that woman, Mary Slessor, a Scottish missionary who spent nearly 40 years in the savage West African bush country and who died in 1915.

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Patricia Gilmore, nationally famous vocalist with the Enric Madriguera Orchestra, will highlight the entertainment program of the Mardi Gras Dance, which is to be held at St Rose Parish Hall on Friday evening, February 6. Miss Gilmore, a popular recording artist, will offer an evening of song.

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Everything was in readiness for the party, the decorations looked lovely, the refreshments were just waiting to be served. The hostess, Mrs Robert Fairchild, greeted the guests as they came bringing their remembrances for the new baby-to-be. But where was the guest of honor, Mrs Daniel Wann? Well, it turned out that Mrs Wann, at the exact moment that her baby shower was about to begin, was in Danbury Hospital giving birth to a son. Little Alan Wann, who so upset his mother’s plans, was born in Danbury Hospital on Monday, January 19, at 2 pm. The gifts were delivered to little Alan’s home.

January 19, 1934

Hugh Quinn, manager for the Newtown Ice Co, finished filling his ice house, this week, with fine clear 11-inch ice. Mr Quinn cleaned and drained the pond, this fall, and his ice crop is entirely free from foreign matter.

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The A&P Store in the Street was entered by night marauders some time in the early hours of Monday morning. The visitors gained an entrance by the rear window of the store. Then they also entered the Flag Pole Lunch of Harold Smith, getting in by way of the cellar stairs. It is understood they took quite a sum of money from the A&P, but only two or three boxes of candy from the Flag Pole Lunch.

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Selectman S.J. Blackman was in Hartford, Monday, to confer with the state C.W.A. officials. Selectman Blackman has received 60 pounds of butter, 80 pounds of beans and 110 pounds of pork for distribution among the poor and needy.

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Sandy Hook residents were sincerely shocked, and saddened, Friday afternoon, when it became known that Thomas Francis Mahoney, a young man of about 25 years, had been found in a field about 1,000 feet east of the residence of M.A. Corbett on the hill by a group of children at play. The body was lying with face upwards with a one-barrel shot gun lying beside it. Thomas Mahoney was generally liked throughout Sandy hook. He was a most gentlemanly, polite young man, of excellent habits and clean and straight forward in his manner of speech. Members of the family and the young man’s friends could hardly understand how the accident occurred.

 

January 22, 1909

Miss Hubbell of Bridgeport has been engaged as organist at Trinity church, and officiated at the organ, Sunday. Miss Hubbell makes her home with Mr and Mrs Lawrence Taylor while in town.

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The Borden’s Condensed Milk Co. began harvesting ice, Monday, from the Foundry pond. Fifteen teams were kept busy hauling the ice. Manager Stevens expects under ordinary conditions it will take 10 days to fill the two houses. The ice was from eight to nine inches in thickness, Monday.

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Don’t miss the stereoptican lecture given by Prof W.B. Bailey of Yale University, on the subject, “The Dark Side of Our Cities,” under the auspices of the Men’s Federation at the Town hall, Thursday, January 21, at 8 pm. Admission, adults 25 cents, school scholars 15 cents.

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Preparations are now under way for the annual library benefit dance. The date is to be Friday evening, February 12, and an orchestra of first class musicians will furnish the music. Tickets are now on sale and you should procure yours in order to encourage those in charge. Keep the date, February 12, in mind and make your plans to go.