Newtown is now in the last year of a three-year study of subsurface sewerage disposal failures in areas of Newtown, and by September of next year an engineering firm, the Center for the Environment and Man Inc, will submit a report recommending what should be done to solve that pollution. Townspeople will receive recommendations of whether sewer mains and a treatment plant should be installed, and whether community leaching fields, individual lot improvements, and other means can be employed as well to solve existing pollution problems.

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With Republican Selectman Noris Donlon the swing man, the Board of Selectmen voted Monday to recommend a $1.25 million special appropriation to the Legislative Council to fund an 8,800 square foot addition and renovation for the Cyrenius H. Booth library. First Selectman Jack Rosenthal voted for the third time in favor of the plans advanced by the library’s Board of Trustees. Second Selectman Jack McAuliffe, maintaining better utilization of existing space in the 47-year-old library has to be made before an addition is built, again voted against the plan.

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Newtown Housing for the Elderly Inc, the non-profit corporation which owns Newtown’s housing for the elderly project, Nunnawauk Meadows, was in a holding pattern at mid-week as a result of over-budget bids received November 30 to build 40 more apartments. Arthur Scherer, president of NHE Inc, said a scheduled meeting with the federal Farmers Home Administration to discuss the high bids was called off by the federal agency. Farmers Home, which provided the $860,000 mortgage which built the initial 40 units of Nunnawauk Meadows, has committed a second building mortgage of $1.2 million for the expansion.

***

“This is a new philosophy, Boards of Education traditionally have been very territorial. I hope this speaks well for the board’s interest in the young people of the town,” Patricia Llodra told fellow education board members Tuesday night after they passed a motion which will lead to turning the authority for maintenance of the school playing fields over to the town.

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The fatal accident at the Newtown flagpole Sunday, December 2, has caused renewed calls for the removal of the symbol of Newtown from the middle of Route 25, and installation of traffic control devices there. But First Selectman Jack Rosenthal says he has no plans to discuss removal of the flagpole at any Board of Selectmen’s meetings. Mr Rosenthal read a letter at the selectmen’s meeting Monday from Clare York of 47 West Street, who urged the flagpole be removed as a traffic hazard. Mrs York noted in her letter that Newtown “is not a horse and buggy town any longer.”

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An unforeseen need to replace the roof on the former Lovell’s of Ruwet-Sibley building at 3 Main Street, which the Town of Newtown has purchased as a new police station and for office space, has added an additional $66,000 estimated cost to the already strained $600,000 budget for renovating the building.

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Santa Claus will arrive on Saturday, December 15, at 12:30 pm by fire truck. Santa will listen to children’s Christmas wishes in the lobby of Edmond Town Hall and pass out candy canes, sponsored by the Newtown Chamber of Commerce.

 

DECEMBER 17, 1954

A highlight of the program of Christmas activities for patients at Fairfield State Hospital will be a Christmas program of entertainment climaxed by a tableau of the Nativity scene, produced by the student nurses with the assistance of members of the hospital staff.

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The Cloverettes, 4-H girls of Newtown, will entertain 15 orphan girls from Southbury Training School at a Christmas party in the Congregational Church House next Thursday afternoon, December 23, starting at 1 o’clock. Santa Claus will be present and is expected to have a doll for each of the visitors. The party is being paid for by funds which the Cloverettes raised as a club project. The members sewed dolls clothes, dressed the dolls, and sold them to raise money. Enough extra money was raised to allow each member to purchase a gift which Santa Claus will present to another member. The officers of the Cloverettes are: Ellen Shusalek, president; Theresa Feli, vice president; Joan Rumble, secretary; June Meyers, treasurer; and Donna Lee Richards, reporter.

***

Newtown High School, its plant, faculty and program, underwent a searching study by over 40 specialists of the State Department of Education and principals and teachers of other high schools of the state, on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. The occasion was the first state evaluation of the high school as a professional critique of the school plant and its operation for the guidance of the local school authorities.

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The many friends in town of Dr and Mrs Waldo F. Desmond and family will regret the fact that they are leaving this week to make their permanent home in Winter Park, Fla.

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“Operation Snowball,” a disaster test and a Christmas present of service to the towns of Fairfield County from their Civil Defense organizations, is being planned for this Friday night, December 17, Alden A. Ameden, area civil defense director, announced this week. Convoys of fire fighters, bulldozers, rescue teams, Red Cross units, radiological monitoring squads, mobile food canteens, military and police units are expected to arrive at an undisclosed “aid check point” from a dozen different towns throughout the county. Their purpose is to bring support to a bomb-stricken area.

***

The singing of Christmas carols in various parts of the town will take place during the first part of the evening’s program of the Couples Club this Saturday, December 18. A heated bus will leave the Girl Scout cabin at 7:30 and upon their return, the carolers will be served hot coffee and refreshments.

***

The Newtown High School Athletic Association and the Newtown Athletic Club will join in a benefit event on the high school court next Thursday evening, December 23. The high school will open the evening with a game with the Ridgefield High School team. Coached by a new Springfield College graduate, the Ridgefield boys have applied to enter the Housatonic Valley Schoolmen’s League. The Newtown AC will tangle with the high powered Barden’s team from Danbury. This event should show some real fireworks. The local team has been strengthened by the addition of Marvin Shreders recently back from Korea. He tossed in the final shot last Sunday afternoon that won the game 93-91 in the overtime period against the Ochman Appliance team of Bridgeport.

DECEMBER 13, 1929

The fine old homestead in Palestine District owned by Mrs Julia T.E. Hillhouse and son, Harry Hillhouse, was burned to the ground Wednesday, the fire breaking out shortly after 1 o’clock. Mr and Mrs Daniel Benedict, who were driving by enroute to Danbury, saw the flames coming out of the roof and went in and notified the astonished members of the family. Mr Hillhouse hastened to the third story and found the attic chamber all on fire. Word was telephoned to Newtown, Dodgingtown, and Danbury for assistance.

***

Mrs Irving S. Jones gave a very enjoyable bridge party of six tables on Thursday afternoon at Holcomb Tavern. The prize winners were Mrs Walter Glover, Mrs Charles Meeker, Mrs Sarah Mitchell, and Mrs Hobart Curtis.

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Mr Le Grow, the capable and popular principal at the Hawley School, and Mrs Le Grow, took possession of their new home Monday night, in one of the attractive houses C.B. Taylor has erected on Taylor Avenue.

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William N. Burroughs, the Sandy Hook coal dealer, has sent out to his friends and patrons a very neat blotter with a calendar for 1939, which will be very handy on the businessman’s desk.

DECEMBER 16, 1904

Mrs George B. Beers, Miss Jessie Taylor, and Miss Julia Duncombe went to Bridgeport Friday to buy Christmas gifts for the children of the Congregational Sunday school.

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A local citizen who lives within sight of the Berkshire division tracks counted the trains one day last week that passed over the road form 7 am to 8 pm. There were 45.

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The thermometer registered ten degrees below zero at the resident of W.M. Reynolds Sunday morning and two degrees below at C.B. Taylor’s.

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W.C. Johnson’s span of horses broke through the ice at the Foundry pond, Friday while John P. Egan was engaged in scraping the snow off the ice. One of the horses lay down in the water and refused to help himself, and it took nearly three-quarters of an hour to get him out. As the result of energetic rubbing and care, the horse appears none the worse for the experience.

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Miss Clara Beers and Clinton Beers gave a party to a few of their friends at their home last Friday evening, the occasion being the 14th anniversary of their birthday.

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On Monday night only four persons, Rev O.W. Barker, Dr F.J. Gile, Ross Jewell, and Allison P. Smith, tramped down through the snow storm to the high school building to meet to confer as to an Old Home Day celebration to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the purchase of the land in Newtown from the Indians.

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Leon Bourquenez started his steam saw mill last week and is now prepared to do all kinds of log sawing at the mill near his home in Botsford.