Two weeks ago the Board of Education heard a plea for more help in the health department at the high school when nurse Ethel Mullaney asked for three-fifths of a nurse to alleviate some of the increasing workload in her department. Right now Mrs Mullaney has the assistance of nurse Carolyn Dieselman two days a week. The other three days Mrs Dieselman is nurse at Head O’ Meadow School. However, both Mrs Mullaney and Mrs Dieselman told the board that another nurse to allow for five-day coverage is really needed at the high school.

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Initial tests of 30 stool samples of Newtown residents have not discovered additional incidence of the parasite, Giardia lambia, Newtown’s health officer, Dr Thomas F. Draper, announced Wednesday. The health officer termed this “very reassuring” as the state and local health departments seek to determine whether any water-borne infection is attributable to Taunton Pond, which supplies water to some 3,300 persons served by the Newtown Water Company.

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An amendment to the Borough Zoning Regulations which would allow designation of buildings of historical or architectural significance as “historical preservation zones” will be presented for a public hearing by the Borough Zoning Commission Tuesday, December 12, at 8 pm in Edmond Town Hall.

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At the November meeting of the Newtown Jaycees, Rocco Marciano, Jaycee president, was awarded a special plaque for “distinguished and unselfish service to the Jaycee movement.” Presenting the award was Jim McAuliffe, regional director of the State Jaycees.

***

From all indications, when the members of Hook & Ladder Company meet next Monday, followed by the Board of Fire Commissioners, they will vote to keep the fire company where it is right now, in the fire station in back of Edmond Town Hall. Both groups will meet and their opinions will be forwarded that evening to the Board of Selectmen, who will decide that night whether to recommend the purchase of the Ruwet-Sibley building on Main Street. Moving the fire department to the Ruwet-Sibley building is one of the options being viewed, and if this is done, offices now in rented space in the Congregational Church House would move to the present fire station.

***

The Newtown Board of Selectmen found the room bare of people and ideas Monday evening when it held the first of two scheduled public hearings on a grant application to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. But it wasn’t just the weather that kept people away, it was learned later…Wednesday, however, June Peck, the president of the Riverside on Lake Zoar Association, told The Bee that she intended to be at the hearing. But on Monday evening she called Grants Administrator Zita McMahon before the hearing and was told it was postponed.

***

The Legislative Council will ponder a recommendation by the Board of Selectmen next Wednesday that the town purchase a four-acre piece of residentially zoned land near the town landfill, which First Selectman Jack Rosenthal wants to use for sand and gravel mining. The selectmen recommended the purchase of the tract, owned by Mr and Mrs Richard Fairchild of Turkey Hill Road, at its meeting Monday. Following Director of Finance Robert Shaw’s recommendation, they recommended it be paid for with federal revenue sharing money.

DECEMBER 4, 1953

Newtown electors will vote this December 4 at the Edmond Town Hall gymnasium between the hours of 8 am and 6 pm in a referendum held in an adjourned session of a special town meeting, called to consider Special Act 552, passed by the state legislature to permit the zoning of Newtown by historical school districts.

***

With the launching of the annual drive in Newtown for gifts from townspeople to patients at Fairfield State Hospital, Mrs John Mason of Walnut Tree Hill, the Newtown chairman of the drive, which is being carried on in many communities in Fairfield and Litchfield counties, has asked for early donations.

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 The Fabric Fire Hose Company of Sandy Hook recently increased its operations to include a second working shift, it was announced this week by R.E. Ehrhardt, public relations manager. Charles S. Cole, general manager, said that the expansion in production was necessitated by increased demand for the company’s product as a result of a product development and improvement program which has been under way for two years.

***

Veterans of all branches of the armed services, since the end of World War II, are eligible for GI Farm Education, providing they are working full-time on a farm. This includes owners, renters and employees.

***

Playing their second game of the season last Sunday afternoon, the men’s and women’s basketball teams reversed their forms of Friday night’s opener with the high school team, with the Lassie’s defeating the Shelton Blue Streaks and the men losing a close one to the Danbury AC.

***

One of the highlights of the Thanksgiving weekend was the dance of the Newtown Assemblies held on Saturday evening, November 28, in the Alexandria Room of the Edmond Town Hall. Approximately 60 high school teenagers, many home for the holiday, danced to the music of the Merle Reed Orchestra of Weston. Mrs Berkley H. Hill, director, had arranged several special dances with prizes for the lucky partners.

***

Pfc Warren H. Hyatt, son of Mr and Mrs Charles Hyatt, Sr, of Aunt Park Lane, Newtown, left on Monday after having spent a ten-day furlough with his family, and reported to the WVMC School at Fort Dix, N.J. where he will undergo a period of six months’ study.

NOVEMBER 30, 1928

The selectmen have warned a special town meeting is to be held at the Hawley High School auditorium on Saturday, December 15, at 2 pm for the purpose of taking action on the proposed location in the Town of Newtown by the State of Connecticut of a State Hospital for the insane.

***

The northern end of the freight depot at the Newtown Station looks pretty tough. It looks as if some cyclone hit it an awful wallop. A freight car mounted the bumper and did the awful work. Perhaps it would be a good idea for the local folks to get up a whist party or a dance, and help the New Haven road rebuild it.

***

Mrs Julia Roberts of Hartford has erected a fence in front of the Botsford cemetery in memory of her husband, the late Henry Botsford.

***

Patrick M. Keating, while out hunting a short time ago, had the misfortune to accidentally discharge both barrels of his gun at once, throwing the butt of the gun against one hand and making quite a wound. Dr Desmond dressed the hand, and he is getting along well.

DECEMBER 4, 1903

The postponed hearing on the application of Harry Coger in the local Probate Court for the appointment of a conservator over his father, Henry B. Coger, to have taken place on Saturday, was once more postponed for one week.

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The winter term of the Academy begins on Monday, December 7. There are now 14 pupils enrolled under Miss Briscoe’s care.

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That veteran hunter, Edward Taylor, and his son, Merchant George F. Taylor, passed Friday in Roxbury on a hunting expedition. They secured four plump partridges and a number of quail, and had a fine time, barring the cold ride on the return trip.

***

While strolling around the farm of Burton J. Wooster at Hickory Grove, Good Hill, his brother-in-law, L.E. Nichols, picked a handful of ripe strawberries, November 24. How is this for winter time?

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W.A. Canfield is painting the buildings on the fair grounds, assisted by W.B. Davis.

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The annual meeting of the Newtown Library Association was the largest attended of any meeting in recent years.

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W. Walter Finch, chief clerk at R.H. Beers & Company’s, has challenged the operator of the Newtown station for a game of billiards in the near future. Admission free. The referee will be “Billy T.”