Full Text:

THE WAY WE WERE

SEPTEMBER 21, 1973

Newtown's hopes for a new dog pound received another setback September 18 when

bids for the construction contract were opened by the Board of Selectmen and

found to be much higher than expected. The bids ranged from $41,950 to

$48,900, compared to estimates of $30,000. Special meetings of the Board of

Selectmen and the Board of Finance are scheduled for Friday evening to attempt

to change the specifications and avoid further delays. One suggestion is to

change the plan for a masonry building to one of prefab steel. Dogs are being

housed at a kennel since the pound was closed by order of the state dog warden

earlier this month.

Sen Edmund S. Muskie of Maine will make a major environmental address at a

public meeting in the Newtown High School auditorium on October 28 in

conjunction with the Housatonic Valley Association (HVA) annual meeting. The

program will be open to the public for a nominal admission fee, beginning at

7:30 pm. HVA's efforts in the past few months have focused to a large degree

on federal legislation associated with Sen Muskie's name, the federal Water

Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 which, before passage, were often

referred to as the "Muskie Clean Water Bill."

A front-page photo in this week's edition of The Bee shows Newtown end Bill

Sphunt catching a 45-yard pass from Mike Newman for a touchdown in last

Saturday's season opener with Brookfield, which Newtown won 22-8. Newman

connected with Sphunt again on a nine-yard pass for another touchdown. He

added two conversions, passing to Tom Saint and Dee Randall, and capped off

his afternoon with a 58-yard pass for a touchdown to Curt Geerer in the fourth

quarter. Newtown gained 307 yards compared to 188 for the Bobcats.

August was recorded as an extraordinarily busy month in the office of Town

Clerk Mae Schmidle. The office recorded 428 documents during the month, an

increase of almost 100 over July. The warranty deeds or actual land transfers

amounted to 105, up from 61 the previous month. The August transactions also

included an $832,000 purchase by the Newtown Real Estate Trust, which may go

down in history as Newtown's largest transaction.

When the Democratic Town Committee elected 18-year-old Roger Connor to

membership on the committee, it set an area-wide precedent, and gained a man

who considers himself a moderate. Mr Connor is a student in police

administration at Mattatuck Community College and a member of the auxiliary

police. Eventually he hopes to complete a bachelor's degree in political

science. Mr Connor believes that under Republican rule the town has remained

stagnant. He said he is appalled by the accusations which have been made in

connection with the Watergate break-in, feels the situation has been unfair to

Republican Sen Lowell Weicker, "a man I deeply admire," and has hurt the

two-party system.

There will be a furniture warehouse for Ethan Allen, but there won't be a bar

and restaurant near Mauro's Restaurant in the Taunton District of Newtown. In

decisions handed down by the Zoning Board of Appeals, Ethan Allen was given

permission to erect a two-story distribution center with a roof height of 35

feet, five more than the zoning regulations allow, adjacent to the landfill

site off Route 25. Old Colony Land and Development Company Inc failed to

convince the ZBA at the same hearing that it had a hardship case which would

make a liquor-selling restaurant acceptable within 1,500 feet of Mauro's. The

site in question is McGrath's Motel, which Roderick Thorne of Old Colony said

could only be operated profitably by putting in a restaurant. The ZBA said the

proposal was not in harmony with the zoning regulations. Both decisions by the

board were unanimous.

Mrs Marge A. Chasse, of Bradley Lane, Sandy Hook, was one of 10 people

eligible for the Super 75 drawing of the state lottery which took place

September 20 at Olde Mistick Village. Mrs Chasse qualified for the drawing by

winning $5,000 in the lottery earlier this month.

Repairs on the high school are still going on while classes are in session and

in some cases the work has caused interference with the academic way of life.

Classes had to be discontinued in the language labs because the open ceilings

cause noise interference so the students cannot hear the tapes. But a pep

rally was held in the auditorium this week while the workmen continue with

their jobs in that area.

SEPTEMBER 24, 1948

At a meeting of the First Ecclesiastical Society of the Newtown Congregational

Church Monday evening, with Arthur T. Nettleton presiding and H. Carlton

Hubbell acting as clerk, it was voted to proceed at once with the construction

of the new church house and to award the contract to Martin Sealander, general

contractor of Newtown. The present building committee, headed by Arthur W.

Reynolds, is to be continued and given the responsibility for the completion

of the project. The building, which will be two and one-half stories high and

of colonial design, will be erected on land already owned by the church in the

rear of the parsonage. It was designed by Harold F. Smith, who practiced

architecture in New York City before moving to Newtown, and Jerome P. Jackson,

a member of the church, both of whom donated their services.

Nearly 250 members and friends attended the first meeting of the season of the

Newtown Parent-Teacher Association in the Hawley School auditorium Tuesday

evening. L.E. Pelletier of the Huntingtown district presided. Officers elected

were Mr Pelletier, president; Mrs Alexander McQuillan, first vice president;

Mrs Rudolph Berkemann, second vice president; Miss Kathleen Dolan, secretary,

and Mrs Hugh Quinn, treasurer. After the meeting, an exhibit of garden

products, sewing, cooking, and canning by the school children of Newtown was

held in the gymnasium of the school under the direction of Vincent P. Gaffney,

vocational agricultural instructor, and Miss Alberta Toothacker, home

economics teacher at Hawley School.

At a Wednesday night meeting of the Board of Education of Regional High School

District No 3, bids for the construction of the planned $1.5 million high

school on district-owned property on Route 6 in Southbury were found to be

acceptable and to conform to all requirements. The board set October 6 as a

date to award a contract. But on Monday this week, J. Gregory Lynch, Waterbury

attorney, said he will seek an injunction in Superior Court to restrain the

letting of contracts and the issuance of bonds. Attorney Lynch represents a

group of opponents to the school plan in the towns of Newtown, Bethlehem and

Woodbury. Bethlehem and Newtown earlier this year sought to withdraw from the

district, but were forbidden by a decision of the Superior Court of Errors

which ruled that only the General Assembly has the power to dissolve a

regional school district.

Approximately 100 party members attended the Democratic caucus held in the

Alexandria Room of the Edmond Town Hall on Monday evening. It was a harmonious

caucus with Attorney John F. Holian renominated as the party's candidate for

representative in the General Assembly from the First District. Third

Selectman A. Fenn Dickinson was nominated as candidate for representative from

the Second District. Judge Paul V. Cavanaugh was nominated for the office of

Judge of Probate, a position he has held for the past 10 years. Candidates for

justices of the peace include Edward S. Pitzchler, Anthony Amaral, William

Kayfus, David Steinfeld, Richard J. Stanton, Fred Kuhne, John J. Keane, Henry

L. McCarthy and George R. Conger.

Edith Parker at the Parker House Hotel reports she had a very embarrassing

experience this week, but one which shows how hospitable Newtown residents

are. A couple from the Midwest and their son stopped very late at the Parker

House for lodgings one night this week but there weren't any available rooms.

Mrs Parker called around to the Sunset Tavern and Mrs Blackman without luck,

then remembered a women at the bottom of the long hill on the Danbury Road who

recently said she had two large rooms for rent. Mrs Parker thought she had the

right telephone number and called, explaining her predicament. The woman

didn't sound overly anxious to take the visitors, but she said she did have a

large guest room and would put in a folding bed for the boy, which she did. It

was much later that Mrs Parker discovered she had called a wrong number.

Grove Patterson, editor-in-chief of the Toledo (Ohio) Blade, one of the

country's best known journalists and lecturers, is coming to Newtown at the

invitation of the local Rotary Club and will address an open meeting in the

Edmond Town Hall theatre at 8 o'clock Thursday evening, October 7. Mr

Patterson has chosen the subject "The Road to Peace," a topic he is especially

qualified to discuss. Recently returned from a three months' journey to the

British Isles, France, Belgium and Germany, he will bring with him a

first-hand account of impressions gathered from talking with those whose duty

it is to rebuild Western Europe. In 1932, having attended the Disarmament

Conference in Geneva, he went to Italy and interviewed Mussolini, covering

also the Balkans, Russia, and the Scandinavian countries on that trip. In the

subsequent years, he made repeated trips abroad, frequently at the invitation

of governments involved. In 1946 he spent several weeks in Japan, Korea, China

and the Philippines as guest of General Charles MacArthur and the Secretaries

of War and Navy. He has made the Toledo Blade one of the best known newspapers

in the country.

Mr and Mrs Robert S. Leahy returned Monday from a week's stay in North

Waterford, Maine. They reported good pickerel and bass fishing although the

weather was a little on the chilly side. Mr and Mrs Leahy also visited with Mr

and Mrs Ralph Perkins of Conway, N.H., and attended the Springfield Fair on

their homeward trip.

Gus Carey has purchased the service station and garage repair business

operated by George Wheeler on Route 6 in the Glen district. The new owner is

well known in this town, having been in charge of the R.H. Holcomb gas station

and with the Dickinson service station. He has a host of friends who wish him

success in his new business.