January 4, 1994

It was just after 8 am and Tracy Lewis was looking the window behind her house on Locust Lane. Her window overlooked Lake Zoar. About 150 feet from shore, Ms Lewis saw a small black dog on the snow-covered ice, looking into a jagged hole. In the hole was what appeared to be a furry animal. To Ms Lewis, it looked like a woodchuck. With a set of binoculars, she took a closer look. It was not a woodchuck, but a light-colored dog. At about this time the black dog also fell into the icy hole. Ms Lewis dialed 911. Next, Ms Lewis called Thomas’s Deli. Shortly before, her husband Roddy had left for work. She knew he would be in the deli for his usual doughnut and coffee. Mr Lewis got home before firefighters arrived from Sandy Hook and Hook & Ladder. The dark dog had gotten out of the hole and trotted off to safety. But the light dog (a big yellow lab) was still in the hole, barking every now and then. “I had to do something,” Mr Lewis would later recall. He was about halfway between shore and the dog when firefighters arrived. Tom Cassin of Hook & Ladder talked Mr Lewis out of his dangerous position. More firefighters arrived. Mr Cassin and Mike McCarthy and Tim Powell and Kent Bonsignore set off wearing cold-water gear and buoyant rescue ropes. Rescue workers took a Zodiac boat, figuring they would haul the dog back to shore, but once the shivering dog was lifted to the ice, it was able to walk back to shore with Mr McCarthy.

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Fire completely destroyed a house trailer at 19 Midway Trailer Park off Route 6 in Hawleyville early in the morning on January 2. Fire Marshal George Lockwood Sr said the fire was caused after resident Kevin Pattit fell asleep while smoking. Damage is estimated at $30,000. The fire caused less serious damage to two nearby trailers.

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ON THE ROAD: Here’s an interesting concert to open the new year with. RUN-DMC will be at Tuxedo Junction in Danbury next Thursday night for an all-ages show. The good news this week is that it looks like there will be more than tennis being played at the Connecticut Tennis Center, home of the Connecticut version of the Volvo International, this summer. I don’t know who will be bringing shows to the New Haven venue, or who will even be playing, details are sketchy right now, but it looks like six concerts will be set up. This isn’t the first time for the stadium to be hosting concerts … Crosby Stills & Nash played there in July 1992, remember?

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On Wednesday, January 12, The Society of Creative Arts of Newtown, Inc (SCAN) will host a demonstration of watercolor painting by award-winning artist Janice Amidon Papayani of Newtown. Ms Papayani will take a creative approach watercolor painting starting with a wet-into-wet style which will lead to tighter washes for the finish of the piece. The artist is fascinated by the relationship of one object to another in nature. She paints the flow of a shape or shadow, paying particular attention to the shapes between objects. This is the basis of her abstract, semi-abstract, and very realistic painting.

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Some of the big names in Newtown High School basketball history will tip off on Saturday night at the NHS gymnasium in an alumni game organized as a lacrosse team fundraiser. A group of NHS coaches including Kevin O’Sullican, Bob Zito, Jim Bowers, John Murphy, and others, will face the high school seniors. Following that game, the alumni game will begin, featuring such players as Randy Gunther (one of only two career 1,000 point scorers at the school), Pat Sullivan (fifth on the all-time scoring list), Scott Terrill (single-season three-point field goal record holder), Rob Bassett, Steve Bigham, Richie King, Dave Samoskevich, Jim Shpunt, and Todd Suhar, among others.

January 10, 1969

Announcement of the winner of the First Baby Contest cannot be made in this issue because — wonder of wonders — no contenders for the title of first baby of 1969 have arrived. The Bee hopes that before another week rolls around there will be a winner for the announcement in the January 17 issue. Many fine gifts from local merchants are waiting.

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Work has progressed at the new high school in Sandy Hook despite weather the famous Farmers’ Almanac did not predict. Pre-stressed concrete floors have been laid in the auditorium wing. Fuel is being delivered to the classroom wing where floors were being poured. Space heaters keep the indoor temperature up to the point where concrete pouring is possible. So far the wing is not closed in except with plastic to keep out wind, but some interior walls are in place and door frames are to be delivered shortly. No estimate of how far behind schedule the work is can be made before spring, according to Harry Greenman, chairman of the Public Building Committee.

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It is announced by the state Finance Commissioner George Conkling that the State Bonding Commission voted last Friday to provide funds for the acquisition of a 790-acre tract of land in Newtown. This land, bordering Lake Lillinonah, is owned by John J. Mullikan of New Canaan, president of the Gilbert and Bennett Manufacturing Company in Georgetown. Acquisition will be made by the state by condemnation. The bond authorized for the purchase is $520,000. Newtown’s Conservation Commission, along with the Planning and Zoning Commission, and many townspeople, have long hoped that the property could be kept as open space, rather than developed into residential sites.

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Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas! Mrs Jaskolka, a 2nd grade teacher, has gone to Arizona to be with her husband, who is in the Air Force. Mrs Thompson is the new teacher in her place. Mrs Thompson’s class is studying about cleanliness. They have a bulletin board about it. Boys’ basketball is now having practice every Monday and Wednesday after school under the supervision of Miss Keating. Girls’ basketball is also in session every Tuesday and Thursday under the supervision of Coach Mahailoff. Everyone in the first grade must have been good, because Santa Claus was quite generous. Mrs Graf’s second grade is learning to tell time using many different clocks.

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Cub Scout Pack 270 will have a paper drive all day Saturday and Sunday, January 11 and 12, at the Middle Gate School parking lot. A truck will be waiting in the lot on Cold Spring Road, off Rt 25, both days for the scrap paper collection. This is one of the Pack’s major fundraiser for the season’s activities and also the very best way to get rid of old papers.

January 14, 1944

A letter has just been received by Paul S. Smith at The Bee office from Corporal Steve Simek, who has been on maneuvers in Tennessee. He reports the first snow he has seen in two winters there. He wishes to express his thanks to the folks in Newtown for the Christmas package he received from the Rotary Club. Steve says he is well and expects to be moved soon to a camp in North Carolina. He is mail clerk for his company.

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Newtown residents will regret to learn that John F. Troy, radio operator on the U.S.S. Turner, which blew up in New York harbor on Monday, January 3, is reported missing. Mr Troy is the son of John J. Troy, a former resident who now lives in New Haven.

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I wish to thank all for their recent acts of kindness during my recent illness, most especially the Newtown Congregational Church for their Christmas flowers, and the Newtown Ambulance for transporting me to and from the hospital. —Mrs Myra Crouch

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I wish to extend my sincere thanks to Wilbur Briscoe, the Newtown Fire Company, and others who so willingly rendered assistance when a truck belonging to me caught fire on Newtown Street on Tuesday morning. —James Metcalf, Woodbury

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Mr and Mrs Arthur H. Denault of Hawleyville entertained a group of friends at a buffet supper on Sunday afternoon, following the baptismal ceremony of their infant daughter, Doris Ann, at St. Rose Church. The sponsors were Miss Louise Violette and Raymond Denault.

January 10, 1919

Mrs D.C. Bacon, of the Borough, who is 83 years old, has just completed her 44th sweater for the Red Cross. Beside the sweaters, Mrs Bacon has knit many wristlets and scarfs. Surely she has done her mite in helping our boys win the victory for Liberty and Right. It is estimated that to make these sweaters it took in the neighborhood of 608,000 stitches, certainly a marvelous record, when considering it has all been done since August 1917.

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Frank Banks has a handsome new Studebaker car to begin the jitney business, early ‘18 model.

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The rain and sleet of last week caused the ropes on the Liberty flag pole in the Street to become frozen. For this reason, the flag could not be placed at half-mast, Tuesday, out of respect for the late Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt. On Wednesday it thawed and Mrs Beers had the flag flying at half-mast in his honor.

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John Edward Keane has taken a position as time keeper with C. W. Blakeslee & Sons of Steveson.

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Tax Collector R.P. Shepard, who has been confined to the house for 10 days with a cold, expects to report on Friday to the store of Morris and Shepard.

Please consider sharing your old photographs of people and places from Newtown or Sandy Hook with The Newtown Bee readers. Images can be e-mailed to kendra@thebee.com, or brought to the office at 5 Church Hill Road to be scanned. When submitting photographs, please identify as many people as possible, the location, and the approximate date.