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THE WAY WE WERE

JANUARY 18, 1974

State Representative William Ratchford carried his week-old campaign for the

Democratic nomination for Congress in the 5th District to Newtown on Monday

night. The 39-year-old attorney, who represents the 109th Assembly District,

Danbury, picked up his eleventh town committee endorsement from the Newtown

Democratic Town Committee, out of 26 Fifth District communities.

The Planning & Zoning Commission at its meeting on Friday, January 18, will

make its decision on three mandatory referrals. The meeting gets underway at 8

pm and the Commission will make its views known on whether the Boyle land on

Boggs Hill Road should be used as a school site, and whether the town should

purchase the 22-acre Allen land on Route 6, according to Chairman Philip Kopp.

Another mandatory referral, dealing with the town accepting a three acre

parcel for open space, is also on tap. The parcel, part of a subdivision, is

near the proposed Black Bridge Road park.

The Board of Selectmen has called a Special Town Meeting for Wednesday,

January 23, at 8 pm in the gymnasium of the Edmond Town Hall. Three items

appear on the call to the meeting, and all are for special appropriations. The

first will be to vote upon $36,500 to be added to the police budget; the

second, $1,580 for the Registrar of Voters' budget; and the third, $48,000 for

a front end loader for the sanitary landfill.

It was the vision of high school boys and girls walking along narrow

snow-banked roads in the black pre-dawn using flashlights to see their ways to

their bus stops, coupled with the stories of near misses as cars swept

unseeing by the students, that prompted the Board of Education to postpone for

an hour the opening of all Newtown's school until February 15. The reaction to

this move has been varied among the people affected, but in general, the

dislocations have been accepted and adjusted to without great complaint.

School principals have received few calls from irritated parents.

The first portion of the Public Building Committee's report on recommendation

for Town Highway Department garage facilities has been presented to the Board

of Selectmen. The report says that the existing town garage on Church hill

Road is completely inadequate and recommends that a new facility be

constructed on a new site. The report of the committee, which the selectmen

charged with the responsibility of determining needs for a garage, says that

such Occupational Safety and Health Act standards as sufficient toilet and

washroom facilities, locker or change room space and separate lunchroom

facilities are not met. In addition, State building code requirements for

ventilating systems and a separate boiler room also are not provided in the

present facility. The truck bays, according to the committee's findings, do

not provide adequate space for town trucks with sanders mounted, and trucks

with plows cannot fit into the bays.

The youngest Lion in the Newtown Lions Club is 18-year-old Clifford Rothe.

Lion Rothe was installed at a regular meeting held at the Alpenhof Inn on

January 9.

The Charter Revision Commission met on Wednesday evening with the Board of

Selectmen to get ideas on that board's opinion of certain Charter changes, and

the evening proved to be an interesting and lively one. Several ideas were put

forth by each of the Selectmen. At times they were in agreement with each

other and at times their opinions differed. All three selectmen seemed to

agree that a fiscal officer was needed for the town and also that the job

description for the position, at least in the beginning, should be a broad

one.

Vacancies on Borough boards, possible parking regulations in the Borough and a

septic tank testing proposal were among the topics discussed at the Borough

Board of Burgesses meeting on Monday, January 14, in Edmond Town Hall. Paul

Alexander of Taunton Lake Drive was elected to fill the vacancy on the

three-man Board of Fire Inspectors. No candidates were offered to fill the

vacant spot on the Board of Tax Review alongside John Singlinger of West

Street. The Borough tax review board is required by law to meet at least one

Saturday in July to hear tax complaints.

JANUARY 21, 1949

The last barrier to the sale of the Parker House was removed on Saturday. Then

it was that the Zoning Board of Appeals, to whom a petition had been addressed

requesting that alterations be permitted to be made to the Parker House

property, acted favorably by granting the request. The decision followed a

large public hearing attended by approximately 300 townspeople in the

Alexandria Room of Edmond Town Hall last Thursday evening. Principals involved

in the transaction are Mrs Edith C. Parker, owner and operator of the landmark

known as the Parker House, and two prospective purchasers, John D. Gerald of

Roxbury and Charles R. Hamilton of Shelter. Acting as spokesman for his

partner and himself, Mr Gerald very ably sold his audience on their intentions

to restore the Parker House to its former type of Victorian architecture. He

came equipped with two color drawings of the exterior of the building as it

will look when the proposed alterations have been made.

Birth statistics show a decrease as compared with last year's total and an

increase in number over the years preceding 1947. There were 34 boys and 33

girls, a total of 67 births, for 11 months, in 1948, as compared to 46 boys

and 31 girls, or 77, in 1947. The number of marriages for the complete year

1948 also slumped with a total of 62, six less than 1947's all-time high of

68. Wedding ceremonies in 1948 still top those prior to 1947; there were 53 in

1946, 35 in 1945, 21 in 1944, 32 in 1943 and 56 in 1942. During the twelve

months of the past year death took from our midst 41 residents. This was a

decrease over 1947's total of 49. Of the town residents who died in 1948 two

were aged 86. There were nine others who had reached an age of between 80 and

85, and 12 were between 70 and 80 years old. Of the total number of deaths two

were infants.

The newly organized Lions Club of Newtown will have its Charter Night on

Saturday evening, January 22, at 7 o'clock in the Alexandria Room of the

Edmond Town Hall. The feature of the dinner-dance will be the formal

presentation of the Charter to Newtown Club president George Trull by District

Governor Roy L. Heck.

Connecticut got off to a good start as an automobile manufacturing center

during the early days of the industry. Twelve makes of passenger cars, an

equal number of trucks, a bus and a motorcycle were manufactured in the state

between 1904 and 1928, according to State Motor Vehicles Commissioner Elmer S.

Watson. Some of the vehicles were manufactured for several years, while others

were produced for only a few months.

Stamping itself as one of the outstanding church teams in the state, and

proving itself worthy of high ranking even among the independent teams, the St

Rose Church basketball team gained sweet revenge over a power-laden Lee Hat

team in an overtime period, 57-56, at the Edmond Town Hall gym on Sunday

night. The Rosettes girls' team made it a perfect evening by turning back the

U.S. Rubber girls' team of Naugatuck, 22-10.

Both local churches, the Newtown Congregational and Trinity Episcopal, held

their annual meetings and elections at which time reports were submitted and

accepted for the year just over. In each instance the meetings were preceded

by family suppers and were well attended events, marking the end of the old

year and the beginning of the new year.

Town Players elected its officers for 1949 at the annual business meeting and

banquet at the Parker House on January 14. Harold Smith will be chairman for

the coming year. Other officers are: treasurer, Charles Goodsell; business

manager, Julian Drew; publicity, Allen Reed; recording secretary, Estelle

Penning; and corresponding secretary, Isabelle Davis.

That this has been a most unseasonable winter to date was graphically

demonstrated one day last week when Otto Gustafson of New Milford took

advantage of the spring-like weather to get some plowing done. Mr Gustafson

operates a vegetable stand for which he grows all the produce sold, and it was

that plot of land he decided to prepare for his spring planting. According to

Mr Gustafson there wasn't the slightest trace of frost in the ground.