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THE WAY WE WERE FOR AUGUST 6, 1999

AUGUST 9, 1974

First Selectman Frank DeLucia and Road Superintendent Edward Napier are on

vacation this week, but when they return to their desks they are going to find

a heap of complaints waiting for them from the employees of the town's public

works department. Some 15 employees of the highway department and landfill

workers picked up signs reading "Town of Newtown Unfair" and picketed in front

of Edmond Town Hall for over an hour on Tuesday afternoon. The men are all

members of the union chapter formed four months ago, local R217 of the

National Association of Government Employees. John Butler, an equipment

operator for the highway department, who is president of the local union, told

the press that negotiations for establishing a contract with the town are at a

standstill after three months.

The appointment of Elsie Ryan as Postmaster of Hawleyville has been announced

by Northeast Regional Postmaster General William F. Bolger. The official

appointment became effective July 20, 1974. Mrs Ryan is the wife of Robert E.

Ryan, Newtown's Assessor. Mr and Mrs Ryan have lived in the Hawleyville

section for the past 28 years.

A few weeks ago Democratic Town Committee chairman Jack Rosenthal, acting at

the behest of his committee members, had an article in The Bee challenging

Republican Town Committee chairman Clifford Bulmer to field a team for a

softball game on Labor Day, September 2, at the town park, as part of the

Summer Festival. Obviously, it will shape up as a real partisan battle, but

Mr. Rosenthal has not yet heard from his Republican counterpart. Come on, GOP!

It is "not an unusual practice," says the First Selectman; "It's a lousy

practice," says the Board of Finance vice chairman; "I was never told about

it," says the Democratic selectman. "It" is the question raised at last

Thursday's meeting of the Board of Selectmen about whether a bridge repair

job, done in one fiscal year, should be paid for in the next fiscal year.

First Selectman Frank DeLucia thinks it was acceptable practice. Jack

Rosenthal, as a Board of Finance member, and Selectman Gerald Frawley do not.

The bridge in question is located on Mile Hill Road. It was damaged last

October by a tractor trailer truck and the repair job was awarded to local

contractor Frank Lyon, the low bidder, by the insurance company.

The Summer Festival co-chairmen have announced that Richard D. Hibbard will be

honorary marshal of Newtown's Annual Labor Day Parade. Mr Hibbard has lived in

Newtown since 1942. From 1949 to 1963 he owned the "Flagpole Fountain" in the

Chase Building on Main Street and now owns The Smoke Shop.

Newtown's inland-wetland regulations have been informally approved by the

State Department of Environmental Protection, Conservation Commission chairman

Theodore Whippie has learned in a letter from Atty Samuel Chambliss of Easton.

Mr Chambliss said that he had received a call from DEP saying that the

regulations were approved without change and that official notification would

follow.

On Tuesday, August 13, the Planning and Zoning Commission will have a public

hearing at 8 pm in the gymnasium of the Edmond Town Hall relating to the Town

using the former Stefanko property on Philo Curtis Road for a town garage. The

Stefanko property is town-owned but a special exception must be sought in

order to build the garage since the property is in a residential zone. The

garage and accompanying outdoor storage area for public works equipment is

proposed for a 10.311 section on the land, with access by two rights-of-way

from Philo Curtis.

An architect has been chosen to design the 40 unit elderly housing project

proposed for Nunnawauk Road by Newtown Housing for the Elderly Inc. Richard P.

Donahoe of Sherman was picked out of the seven candidates from all over the

state to design a low-rent apartment complex for elderly citizens on 20 acres

of land promised by Fairfield Hills Hospital.

AUGUST 12, 1949

Extension of the time limit for completion of the reappraisal of all taxable

property in Newtown from August 1 to September 1 has been asked for and

received by E.T. Wilkins and Associates and the New England Survey Service,

Inc., who are doing the work. The extension is given largely because of the

great amount of detailed research needed in covering the properties, mostly

subdivision lots, in the Lake Zoar area. These extend all the way from Shady

Rest in the Riverside district to the Great Quarter district near the eastern

limit of the town, held mostly for summer use. Many owners can be reached on

the properties only at weekends.

Plans for the coming season of the Newtown Parent Teacher Association got

under way this week with a meeting of the Executive Board on Monday night. The

first meeting is to be held at Hawley school on Tuesday, September 20. Vincent

P. Gaffney and the new teacher of Home Economics will organize an exhibition

of agricultural and homemaking products by Newtown children.

Robert Ryan of Hawleyville was elected chairman of the Newtown combined fire

companies at the quarterly meeting held Monday evening of this week in

Hawleyville. Mr Ryan, who will hold this office for the ensuing year, will

select his own secretary in the near future.

Townspeople gathered in the Newtown Congregational church at 2 o'clock

Wednesday afternoon to pay their respects to the memory of the late George W.

Trull, a member of the firm of Knapp, Trull and Meyers, whose death occurred

just before noon on Monday. The service, as conducted by the Rev Paul Lynn,

was simple and eloquent, as was the committal service later at the Newtown

Village cemetery. The Rev Mr Lynn was pastor of the local church during the

war years, while the regular minister, the Rev Paul A. Cullens, was on leave

of absence serving as chaplain with the armed forces overseas. It was during

this period that Mr Trull came to Newtown, when in 1942 he formed a

partnership with Albert J. Knapp to operate a combined grocery and meat market

on Newtown's Main street.

The Newtown Visiting Nurse Association, Inc, will open its annual campaign for

funds to support its program of community health and personal nursing service

on Friday, August 19. Mrs Ellis Gladwin, president, has announced that Miss

Katherine Kirby will again be chairman of the campaign. Assisting her this

year will be Mrs Renwick M. Brown, Mrs James Brunot and Mrs Dale E. MacKenzie.

More than 400 persons from 15 towns, members of the Housatonic Valley Clean

Waters League, condemned the inaction of town officials in curbing pollution

of Lake Zoar and other valley waters at a meeting held last Friday evening in

Edmond Town Hall gymnasium. The two-year-old group elected a board of

directors to lead the fight to clean up the Western Connecticut lakes and

streams, explained the purposes of the organization and presented resolutions

in protest of the "inaction of officials."

AUGUST 8, 1924

Just 90 members of the Church School of the Congregational church journeyed by

auto to Lake Quassapaug Friday for the annual picnic of the school. Dinner was

served in the pavilion, under the direction of Mrs Arthus Stowe, Mrs A.W.

Reynolds and others. The sports for the young people were under the direction

of Rev G.H. Ekins. In the afternoon came a ball game between nines,

representing the single men and married men, when the latter were beaten with

the score of 22-5. Married Men: F. H. Duncombe, C.; Rev G. H. Ekins, P.;

Walter Reynolds, 1st b.; J.J. Northrop, 2b.; Sanford Mead, 3b.; A.W. Reynolds,

C.F.; A.P. Smith, L.F.; W.R. Turner, R.F.; Frederick Crouch, S.S. Single men.

Bill Perry, C.; Frank Hopkins, Jr, P.; Willis Arndt, 1st b.; Sanford Mead,

2b.; Fred Mead, 3b.; Charles Phillips, S.S.; Wilson Reynolds, RF.; Lawrence

Reynolds, L.F.; Donald Mead, C.F.