May 29, 1981

State and local fire marshals are investigating a suspicious fire which destroyed a Sandy Hook home on Sunday, May 24. According to Newtown Fire Marshal George Lockwood, the blaze began after a series of explosions at 7:50 pm at the Robert Mandulak home on Lyrical Lane. No one was home at the time of the fire. Estimated loss to the interior and exterior of the ranch-style house is $70,000.

 

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First Selectman Jack Rosenthal, referring to the May 13 referendum in which voters turned down a budget approved by a town meeting on May 28, pointed out that there had been considerable debate about whether voters turned it down because the $15.6 million budget was too high or too low. The first selectman suggested one way to eliminate “all this confusion” would be to separate action on the Board of Selectmen’s and Board of Education’s budgets at the town meeting.

 

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A panel of three attorneys is expected to submit changes in an attempt to salvage the Legislative Council’s proposed ordinance regulating false fire, hold-up and burglar alarms when the council meets next Wednesday, June 3. The ordinance would require the chief of police to issue permits for alarm systems which are connected into the Edmond Town Hall communications center. It would also enable the police chief to order repairs to be made on malfunctioning alarms.

 

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The Newtown High School Singers, a group which represents some of the school’s most exceptional voices, captured a silver medal at the 1981 International Music Festival in Montreal, Canada, last weekend. The NHS Concert Choir came home with a bronze medal. Musical groups from all over the world competed in the festival, all being judged against a universal standard of excellence established for nonprofessional music groups.

 

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Paula Anne Fitzpatrick assumed her duties as Newtown’s new senior sanitarian this week, moving into the health department office at Town Hall South for her first day of work on Tuesday, May 26. She was hired by First Selectman Jack Rosenthal after Sanitarian Robert J. Jontos, Jr resigned April 17 to take a job in private industry.

 

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Members of the Borough’s Board of Burgesses joined the Newtown Planning and Zoning Commission Tuesday night as planning consultant Humbert Sacco outlined recommendations he plans to include in the town’s updated plan of development regarding town, and particularly, borough, traffic. A key problem is that Church Hill Road is the only east-west access between Sandy Hook and the town’s center. Planning commissioner Ted Whippie suggested building a new road between Dead Man’s Curve on Route 25 and the Exit 11 interchange of I-84 in Sandy Hook would reroute traffic that now passes through the center of town.

 

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The first week in June has been proclaimed Fresh Air Fund Week in Newtown in honor of the program which has been sending inner city children to stay in local homes for the past 20 years. The Fresh Air Fund, a nonprofit organization, is looking for host families who will open their homes to these children for two weeks this summer.

 

June 1, 1956

A new admission-intensive treatment building, the first of its type in Connecticut, will be dedicated by Governor Abraham A. Ribicoff at Fairfield State Hospital on June 19. Dr William F. Green, superintendent, who made the announcement, said the building will be named for Mrs Alice R. Cochran of the hospital’s Board of Trustees. Dr Green said, “It is symbolic that the Cochran Building faces the town road, for its program is oriented toward the community.”

 

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THYER HOMES Open The Door To Better Living 3-BEDROOM RANCH $11,000 Other Models $8,900 to $25,000

Inspect Models Now Under Construction Built on Your Lot FHA and VA Approved Mount Pleasant Corporation Pioneer 8-0870 NOW OPEN SUNDAYS Route 6 Stony Hill, Bethel

 

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The opening games of Newtown Little League placed the Red Sox and Yankees at the top of the pack with the Giants and Dodgers bringing up the rear. Starting last Saturday, May 26, with the official opening of the fully-equipped small-scale diamond at Taylor Field, each team played three games by Wednesday, and each tasted victory and defeat.

 

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If residents of the Sandy Hook area wondered why the fire siren appeared to be stuck Memorial Day evening, it was because of a general alarm bringing out volunteers in force. The alarm was sounded when it was thought that Jeffrey Drews, seven, and an 11-year-old guest from the city were lost. Jeffrey’s parents, Mr and Mrs Stephen Drews, of Bennett’s Bridge Road, became alarmed when the boys, who had gone for a walk in the early afternoon, failed to return for supper.

 

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At the next regular meeting of the Newtown Parent-Teacher Association, M. Frederic Rees, chairman of the Educational Planning Committee, will be guest speaker. Newtown’s need for new schools is a subject that is apt to be slighted, since the junior-senior high school is comparatively new and the elementary school is not yet completed.

 

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Two hundred and 67 persons have responded since May 8 to the Cyrenius H. Booth Library’s annual appeal for funds, the Board of Trustees announced this week. Although many of the contributions are small, it is heartening, trustees say, to see such an immediate response on the part of townspeople. A surprising number of contributors, they add, are newer residents of town.

 

May 29, 1931

An Open Letter To The Bee: Years ago we used to drive through Newtown and we always felt its charm. It seems to belong to home lovers: the lawns were so well kept, the lovely old houses so freshly painted, the glimpses of gardens so gay and the churches taking their rightful places in the very center of village life. Later we came to live here and now we share heartily in the pride of Newtown…. Now we are to have a War Memorial and we fondly hoped it would be simple and appropriate, fitting into our lovely old street. Instead, we are shown a tall, gaudy monument, not even the work of a sculptor, a stone-cutter’s dream or night-mare. Would it be possible for the townspeople to see some of the other 27 models from which this one was selected? I ask our committee to listen to my humble request. Grace L. Conger

 

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The annual cradle roll party will be held on the parsonage lawn, next Tuesday afternoon, at 3 o’clock, DST. The plans are being made by Mrs George Canfield, superintendent of that department. All the mothers and children under five of the parish are invited to be present.

 

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The big radio show and contest under the auspices of Pootatuck Grange, which will be staged at Edmond Town Hall, Monday and Friday nights, June 1 and 5, with Louis Reis, station manager and program director for Station WBNX in the Bronx, New York City, and one of the best known radio personalities of the East, promises to be the most unique form of entertainment ever staged in Newtown. A replica of a broadcasting studio will be placed on the large stage at the theater, which will have a glass front, from back of which performers will go out “on the air.”

 

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With weather favoring the exercises on Saturday, Memorial Day promises to be an appropriate success. The procession will form on Gas Street, Sandy Hook, and start from the square at 9 am, led by the marshal of the day, George M. Stuart, and men and ladies on horseback.

 

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The contract for the erection of Newtown’s new fire house was awarded, Tuesday, to Contractor Thomas F. Brew, at a figure of $11,498. The building will be a fireproof structure and will be erected a short distance northwest of the Edmond Town hall. It will be built of Harvard brick, with marble trim, in conformance with the material and architecture of the town hall.

 

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A group of local aviation enthusiasts have been discussing recently the possibilities of forming a Flying Club in Newtown. There are several fields available in town and several low priced planes on the market that would be very suitable. A government licensed transport pilot, formerly an instructor with the Curtis-Wright Flying School has offered to give free primary instruction in order to help get things started.

 

June 1, 1906

One day last week as L.S. Patterson was leading out his horse behind a horse belonging to S.E. Sanford & Co, which stood in the next stall, the horse belonging to Sanford & Co kicked, hitting Mr Patterson three or four times, cracking one or two ribs and bruising him on the leg and shoulder quite badly. His glasses were also broken and his watch stopped. Although quite lame, Mr Patterson is able to be about.

 

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Hermon Erickson was put off conductor Thorpe’s train at Newtown, one day last week, for being abusive and threatening. He boarded the next train for Botsford and rode as blind baggage. The conductor sent for Sheriff Johnson, who took the man in custody. He was brought before Justice E.D. Briscoe, who fined him $2 and costs, amounting in all to $14.56, which he settled.

 

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Last Friday afternoon sparks from the engine set fire to the grass near the old Julia Roberts place at Botsford. It being so dry, the fire spread until it reached the house, setting fire to the building and burning it to the ground. The house was in a dilapidated condition and the loss will not be very heavy.

 

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The horse which was stolen, last week, from Michael Cavanaugh’s in Hanover was found just below Upper Stepney, on what is called Booth Hill, tied in the woods, and it has been returned to him. Homer Hubbell of Stepney was passing on the highway and heard the horse whinner and in that way found the horse. The horse was a very valuable one, and was attached to a nice rubber-tired turnout.

 

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At a meeting of the directors of Newtown Water Co., Friday night, held in the rooms of Newtown Saving Bank, it was voted to call a meeting of the stockholders for June 1 at 7:30 pm, for the purpose of increasing the capital stock of $10,000 to $20,000. Messrs C.B. Taylor and D.C. Peck were appointed to lay out and build a road to the power house. The actual construction on the water works plant will probably be begun in a few days as the Italians who are to do the digging have arrived and are quartered in J. Albert Blackman’s small house.