Is the Hawleyville mall idea out the window? In a telephone interview with The Newtown Bee recently Robert S. Young, one of the owners of approximately 100 acres in Hawleyville, which has been mentioned prominently as the location of a million-square-foot shopping mall, denied reports that the property is now for sale and that the plans to submit the mall to local zoning officials have been abandoned.

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Gov Ella Grasso announced June 9 that the Town of Newtown has been awarded a state grant in the amount of $49,626 for continuation of the Children’s Adventure Center Program. In making the announcement, Gov Grasso said, “The program provides services to 30 preschool-age children, which includes health, developmental, and educational services. A hot lunch and two snacks are provided each day.”

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The blue June sky over Newtown had an unusual looking interloper floating through last Friday that, from all reports, had people craning their necks and speculating upon its identities. The Bee received reports of people in the Queen Street shopping area peering up and wondering whether what they saw was a deflating weather baloon. And people weren’t the only curious ones as Mike Farbish of Parmalee Hill Road told us he saw some turkey buzzards and hawks circling the object, perhaps curious about the bloated, baglike object which was languidly drifting along. Neither the National Weather Service nor NASA were responsible for the phenomenon, however. In fact, the drifting balloon was nothing more exotic than 26 plastic garbage bags welded together to form a hot air balloon by fifth graders in the classes of Sheldon McKee and Gloria Palmer at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

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An association of developers and builders in Newtown is being formed, it was announced this week and an organizational dinner meeting is planned for Wednesday, June 28, at 7:30 pm at the Hawley Manor Inn.

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Two hundred and eighty-three members of the Newtown High School Class of 1978 will receive their diplomas at graduation exercises Saturday evening, June 24. The ceremonies will take place outside at the high school beginning at 6 pm. In case of rain, commencement will be moved to the auditorium. The seniors will march into the Bruce Jenner Stadium to the strains of “Pomp and Circumstance,” which will be followed by the invocation by the Reverend Dr George H. Carpenter of the Newtown United Methodist Church. The Valedictory address will be given by Douglass S. Darrow, and the Salutatory by Rebecca M. Hannah.

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Tuesday evening, June 20, the Newtown Jaycees presented high school senior Peter Kayfus with a $250 scholarship award in the memory of Fred Miller, an active Jaycee who with his brother lost his life in an automobile accident in Brookfield in February of 1977.

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The Legislative Council will try once more to bid for sale of five of the 16 round portable classroom units at the various schools which the Board of Education has determined are no longer needed. The council has decided to keep ten of the 16 units for town use, but last month the town only received one very low bid on one out of the six units advertised for sale.

JUNE 26, 1953

The destruction caused by the dropping of a hypothetical atomic bomb on Hartford or other industrial centers by an enemy, and the effects which it would have upon the rest of the state, were described Tuesday evening, June 23, by Gen William Hesketh, director of Civil Defense in Connecticut, at a dinner meeting of the Newtown Rotary Club at the Yankee Drover Inn. Nearly 40,000 deaths and casualties would result from such a blast in Hartford while a comparable number would be made homeless and would look to the country towns for supplies and refuge. The effect of an atomic blast in the state’s other industrial centers including the Bridgeport-to-Stamford area, New Haven, Bristol-New Britain and Waterbury would be nearly as severe, he said.

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The Misses Roberta Petersen and Rose Urbanovsky, members of this year’s Newtown High School graduating class, were contenders for the crown of the Queen of the Barnum Festival, to be held in Bridgeport July 1 to 5. Carrying the good wishes of townspeople they made an attractive showing in the contest held Monday night in Klein Memorial, Bridgpeort, but could not match the support enjoyed by some of the entrants from the more thickly-populated shore communities.

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 Apathy prevailed in Newtown as it did elsewhere in the state in Monday’s referendum called to effect changes in the state’s constitution. A total of 158 of the registry list of 3,114 voters appeared throughout the day to cast their votes on the voting machines in Edmond Town Hall gymnasium. The vote cast was five per cent of the total registration. Both questions of changes in the constitution were approved by an overwhelming number of the town voters. On the question of a constitutional amendment to incorporate 47 amendments made during the document’s 135-year life in a revised constitution, 141 voted “yes” while seven voted “no”. The second question, that of altering the procedure in the election and inauguration of state officials drew 14- “yes’ votes and nine “no’s.”

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 Swimming may be the most popular of the activities list under Coach Harold S. DeGroat’s summer recreation program, but the playground at Hawley School, under the direction of Miss Mary Starr Smith, came in for the share of activity this week, also with attendance records being broken from the first day.

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During Monday afternoon’s storm, lightning struck the northeast corner of the cupola of the Newtown High School. Two boards were torn off and narrowly missed hitting John Stefanko, Sr, local contractor, who happened to be working in the vicinity of the building.

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The Community Music Association of the Newtown Schools will again sponsor a summer band for the instrumental pupils of the junior and senior bands of Hawley School and Newtown High. Under the direction of William B. Jones, director, and assisted by Mrs Betty Jones and Mrs John Jay, the summer program will be held in Hawley School beginning Tuesday, June 30, and continuing for eight weeks through August 20, every Tuesday and Thursday morning from 10 to 12 o’clock.

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Completion of the Grand List for 1953 for the Borough of Newtown by the assessors of the borough reveals a total net assessors’ valuation of $2,849,390, an increase of approximately eight and one-half per cent over the 1952 net Grand List.

JUNE 22, 1928

Dwight H. Burr has been on a short motor trip with his grandfather, Henry C. Johnson. The trip included stops at New London, Westerly, and Providence, R.I.

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In the treasury of the Old Home Guard is $100, and the suggestion has been made that this be turned over to the local Boy Scout leaders for camping expenses.

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A summer school opened at the popular Newtown Academy, Tuesday. This furnishes an opportunity for boys needing additional study for the college exams in the fall.

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Local listeners-in, Station WEAF, on “Cheerio,” radio hour Monday morning, had the pleasure of hearing a former Newtowner, Mrs Adelle Van Name Clark, act as accompaniest in playing one of her own musical compositions, having set to music a poem which Mrs “Rus” Gilbert sang.

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The marriage of Irwin Cassidy of South Britain and Miss Agatha Kennedy will take place at St Rose’s Church, Monday, at 9 am.

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The Plastic Molding Corp, the company who are to occupy the Dutch Rubber Factory, are to complete the organization Monday afternoon, at 4 o’clock, when a meeting of the stockholders is to be held in the Sandy Hook office at the factory for the election of directors and officers.

JUNE 26, 1903

Charles Hawley, the liveryman, is having a piazza built across the front of his house. Botsford Brothers are doing the work.

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Charles B. Glover, the carpenter, has bought the small white house just west of Mrs Julia Hawley’s in Berkshire of Mrs Hawley. Mr Glover is tearing it down and moving it to his home on the Boulevard.

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Mrs Charles Warner of Zoar is having a large hennery erected.

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Thomas Kinsey, the expert well man, put new tile into Mrs Callahan’s well at her house opposite Troy’s furniture rooms last week.

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Edward Egan has a field of extra early potatoes, which are looking fine. He will dig new potatoes about July 1.

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Mrs C.R. Lewis of the Rackets, who has been quite poorly, is now on the gain.

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S. Curtis Glover of Cheshire Academy arrived home, last week Thursday, for the summer vacation.

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The unpleasant weather of last week disappointed a lot of children in Hattertown and Huntington. The schools closed Wednesday afternoon and on Thursday they were to unite in a picnic at Putnam Park.