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THE WAY WE WERE

FEBRUARY 8, 1974

There is a total of 268 teachers and specialists within the Newtown School

System who are involved in the present dispute over teachers' salaries, and on

Tuesday evening, February 5, 200 of those people gathered in the auditorium of

the middle school to vote on acceptance or rejection of the advisory

arbitration award of an across-the-board 5.5 percent increase for the 1973-74

salaries. All but three of them voted to approve a resolution which flatly

turned down all points of the award. Everyone voted to accept a second

resolution which stated NFT would seek round-the-clock negotiations beginning

Wednesday evening, February 6.

In response to the long lines at gas stations and the resulting short tempers,

the selectmen, including Newtown First Selectman Frank DeLucia, and officials

of eight area towns met on February 6 to recommend that a modified "Oregon

Plan" be adopted in their towns starting February 11. Ridgefield already has

such a plan in operation but Newtown, Brookfield, New Milford, Redding,

Bethel, New Fairfield and Danbury agreed to urge service station owners and

the public to cooperate with the plan. The Emergency Gasoline Allocation Plan

will be based on the last digit of the license plate and the odd and even

numbered days of the month. When the day of the week is an even number, all

vehicles with an even numbered last digit will be able to purchase gasoline,

when available. When the day of the week is an odd number, all vehicles with

an odd number last digit will be able to purchase gasoline, when available.

License plates with letter combinations will be considered to be an odd

number.

The Town of Newtown, the Board of Education, the State Department of

Education, Selectmen Frank R. DeLucia, Thomas Goosman and Gerald Frawley, and

three Newtown attorneys, C. Harold Schwartz, William J. Lavery and David R.

Chipman have been summoned to appear before Superior Court in Bridgeport on

Tuesday, March 5, at 10 am. The summons, which lists George Grosner, Rosemary

Nelson, Thomas F. Murphy, Paul McElroy, Rose Stillwell, Evylin Waite, Mrs

Lyman D. Rogers, Thomas L. Cheney, trustee, and Albert Goodrich Jr, all of

Newtown, as plaintiffs, is asking for a declaratory judgment on the legality

of the December 11, 1973 referendum on the Boyle site. The summons was

delivered to the defendants on Tuesday, February 5. In the December referendum

in question, voters of the town opted to return the Boyle site to its former

owners, thus putting a stop to having the Board of Education proceed with

condemnation so that a school could be built there. However, following the

vote, the three attorneys listed as defendants above wrote a letter expressing

their opinion that the referendum was invalid because the question of

abandoning the property had not gone before Planning and Zoning as a mandatory

referral as laid out in state statutes.

Mrs Shirley Camejo of Hundred Acres Road, Newtown, has been chosen the

outstanding woman scouter in northern Fairfield County for the Scatacook

District. Mrs Camejo received the Ralph Herald Award, presented annually, and

is the first woman to be so honored.

Cub Pack 170 held its annual "Pinewood Derby" at the Sandy Hook School on

Thursday, January 31. The winners of the dens, after many close decisions,

were as follows: Den 1, Mark Rice; Den 2, Andy Forbell; Den 3, Tom Warzecha;

Den 4, Christ Weldon; Den 5, Robert Nagel; Den 6, Gordon Palmer; Den 7, Karl

Svensson; and Den 8, Frank Villafana. Webelos: Cheetahs, Mark Allen; and

Flaming Arrows, George Lockwood.

After an awkward start when faced with two agendi, the Charter Revision

Commission began to analyze the functions of a proposed town fiscal officer in

its February 6 meeting. The commission accepted the invitation of the

Democratic Town Committee to attend the Committee's February 14 meeting and

agreed to ask for a meeting soon with the Republican Town Committee. Atty

Robert Hall, chairman of the commission, and Atty William Lavery, chairman of

a subcommittee studying the feasibility of having a town fiscal officer, each

distributed an agenda in which the material to be discussed was similar but

the priorities differed.

The Voters Action Committee (VAC) of Newtown held a general meeting Tuesday

evening in the Undercroft of Trinity Church. VAC and town residents heard Town

Counsel Robert Hall speak on where the town stands legally regarding the Boyle

property and Edward Sullivan of the site committee address the topic of "why

the Boyle property" for an elementary school.

February 28 is the date tentatively set by the Board of Selectmen for a town

meeting which could decide to hold a second referendum on whether or not the

town should retain the controversial Boyle property as a school site. First

Selectman Frank DeLucia revealed, however, at the meeting on February 5, that

a court action has been brought by a group of citizens, including George

Grosner, Thomas Cheney and Albert Goodrich Jr, to have the December 11

referendum, which voted to return the property to its original owners,

declared valid. The group is looking for a declaratory judgment on March 5.

Officials of Newtown and the Board of Education have received summonses to

appear.

FEBRUARY 11, 1949

The 1948 Grand List for the Town of Newtown shows a gross valuation of

$8,535,443, as recently completed by the local Board of Assessors. Exemptions

of $290,307 leave a net valuation of $8,245,136. The gross valuation for 1947

stood at $8,065,007, with exemptions of $207,997, leaving a net valuation last

year of $7,857,010. There is an increase therefore of $470,436 in this year's

gross valuation over the 1947 figure. Some two hundred thousand dollars of

this increase appears under the item of cables, pipes, etc, and represents the

gas main laid through Newtown by the Danbury and Bethel Gas and Electric Light

Company.

The Newtown High School girls were guests to the Danbury High School

basketball teams Tuesday afternoon on the Edmond Town Hall court. The varsity

game ended with Newtown the winner, 48-21. The opener between the junior

varsities saw Newtown also the winner, 40-11. In the JV game, Irene Hornbeck

tossed in 13 points, Nancy Oberstadt eight and Marion Drew five. In the

varsity contest Audrey Wood led with 17 points, Pat McMahon made eight,

Marilyn Platt seven, and Joan Glover was next with six.

The Bee feels that many Newtown residents will be interested to know that

running in the current issue of Mademoiselle's LIVING is a feature story on

Georgia and Chris Sidenius of Sandy Hook. The article concerns the home the

young couple designed and built on Route 34. It is entitled "They Built Their

House of Stone."

On Tuesday, February 8, the Flagpole Fountain Lunch, a convenient and popular

store located in the Atchinson block in Newtown Center and conducted by Harold

F. Smith for the past 16 years, changed hands. At that time it was sold to

Richard Hibbard of South Main Street, who assumed his new duties as proprietor

immediately.

Connecticut 4-H Club members who were selected from among State 4-H Dairy Club

members for having made outstanding records in their dairy projects for 1948

were feted at the Bryant and Chapman and New Haven Dairy annual 4-H award

dinner Saturday, January 29, at the Hotel Bond in Hartford.

Anthony Amaral, owner of Amaral's Service Station of South Center district,

attended the preview showing of the new 1949 Chrysler in Atlantic City

Thursday and Friday of last week. The preview was also in commemoration of the

25th Silver Anniversary of the Chrysler Corporation. This week Tony attends

the showing of the new Plymouth in New York City.

The monthly meeting of the Men's Literary Club of Newtown Street was held at

the Parker House on Wednesday evening with Charles G. Morris as host. The

speaker of the evening was Dr Waldo F. Desmond who addressed the group on the

subject of the heart. A discussion period followed the talk.

On Wednesday afternoon the Newtown basketball team lost, 46-39, to the fast

hard-playing Danbury Henry Abbott Tech team in Danbury. Newtown scored first

but trailed as much as 20 points during part of the game, closing the gap

during the final quarter to lose by seven points.