Planning consultant Oswald Inglese of Ridgefield met for a free-wheeling discussion Monday night with the Newtown Planning & Zoning Commission members to review some of his thinking on what the next ten years should hold for the Route 34 corridor area. Retained by the commission a year ago for the study, Mr Inglese will begin compiling a “semi-final report” for commission consideration. That could incorporate some of the following points: Implementation of adjusted zoning controls to prompt “revitalization” of Sandy Hook center; provision for neighborhood shopping facilities along Route 34, possibly in the Pole Bridge Road-Route 34 area first and, as growth warrants, in the Bennetts Bridge area in the future; possible suitability of the Mile Hill-84 intersection area for light industrial uses.

***

 A new feature, one which will serve as a convenience to many, has been added to Edmond Town Hall. It is a ramp which has just been completed at the entrance to the police department. A sign by the driveway entrance to the Town Hall serves to remind visitors of the new facility. With the cooperation of the Police Department, space for temporary parking will be provided in order to provide easy access to the ramp. The ramp was installed for the convenience of the handicapped as well as to offer more ease in loading and unloading deliveries to the town hall.

***

Which Connecticut town is the largest? In the January 2 issue of The Bee, a reprint was run from the Connecticut Association of Assessing Officers Inc, which stated that Newtown was the largest geographically. As it turns out, according to the State Register and Manual, Newtown can’t make that claim. Nearby New Milford, in Litchfield County, is the largest of Connecticut’s 169 communities with 64.4 square miles. Newtown, 60.38, is the fifth largest, also trailing Woodstock, Windham County, 61.6; Stafford, Tolland County, 60.8, and Salisbury, Litchfield County, 60.56.

***

The office of US Rep Ronald Sarasin announced this week the awarding of a grant of $56,000 from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for providing a new facility for the Children’s Adventure Center, Newtown’s sole public day care facility.

***

Christ the King Lutheran Church of Newtown will celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of its founding in a special service at 10:30 am Sunday, January 25. The Rev Robert J. Riedel, LL.D., president of the New England District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, will deliver the sermon. On January 22, 1961, 86 founding members conducted their first church service in Newtown in the Hawley School.

***

Newtown Housing for the Elderly Inc, currently engaged in the building of Nunnawauk Meadows, a 40-unit elderly housing complex off Nunnawauk Road, had its annual meeting on Monday, January 19. The entire slate of officers now seated was re-elected: Stanley Main, president; Mrs Rosemarie Gollenberg, vice-president; Mrs Jean Wilson, secretary; and Arthur Scherer, treasurer. Three board members were re-elected for additional three year terms: Joseph Chase, Mr Scherer and Gordon Williams. The other six members of the board are William Denlinger, Miss M. Asenath Johnson, Mr Main, Mrs Gollenberg, Mrs Wilson and William Rafferty.

***

Mae Schmidle, town clerk of Newtown, has been elected chairman of the Board of Danbury Area Unified Social Services Inc, replacing Richard Sadosky who resigned as chairman in October. Mrs Schmidle has long been active in community affairs.

JANUARY 26, 1951

Sketches for the proposed new junior-senior high school were submitted to the High School Building Committee at its meeting in Hawley School Monday evening, January 22, by Westcott and Mapes, Inc, the architects who have the contract for preliminary plans and cost estimates. The drawings showed tentative layouts for both one- and two-story structures calculated to accommodate the expanded program developed by the local Board of Education, and along lines agreed upon, during consultations.

***

Redecoration of the interior of the Newtown Congregational Church at a cost not to exceed $3,200 was undertaken by the unanimous vote of members of the Women’s Federation of the Church at its annual meeting held in the church house Thursday afternoon of last week with an unusually large attendance of members. Mrs Carl A. LeGrow was reelected president of the organization; Mrs Carroll R. Eaton was reelected recording secretary, and Mrs Raymond L. Hall as treasurer. Mrs William H. Foote was made vice president and Mrs William J. Holcomb corresponding secretary.

***

Four Newtown young men were included in a group of 25 draftees and volunteers that left Danbury last Monday by bus to New Haven for induction into the United States Army. They were Lee W. Glover of Glover Avenue, James W. Crick of South Center District, and Lloyd Willcox of Newtown-Danbury Road, who were volunteers, and Theodore Choka of the Botsford District. Brief ceremonies held under auspices of Draft Board No. 13 at the American Legion Home preceded their departure.

***

First Selectman A. Fenn Dickinson has called a meeting of the Newtown Civil Defense Advisory Council for 8 o’clock this Friday night in the selectmen’s office. The reorganized Civil Defense Council, reactivated to serve in an advisory capacity on all matters of civilian defense, held its first meeting last December 27. It is composed largely of persons who were active in local defense work during World War II.

***

A special town meeting has been warned by the Board of Selectmen, to be held at the Edmond Town Hall on Friday evening, February 2, at 8 o’clock. As indicated in the legal call, which appears elsewhere in this issue, action will be considered to discontinue the use of a portion of the former Newtown-Danbury Road across from the Sigfried Allen residence on Mount Pleasant and a portion of the Taunton Lake Road at the point where it enters Route 6, releasing the land to Mr Allen in exchange for a small parcel of his land located between the Taunton Lake Road and the Newtown-Danbury Road, west of Castle Inn. The parcel of land to be thus obtained by the Town of Newtown will be used for the relocation of the junction of the Taunton Lake Road and the Newtown-Danbury Road, the actual road construction work to be done by the State of Connecticut, after which the Town of Newtown will maintain it.

***

The Board of Selectmen last Friday night appointed H. Gould Curtis and William H. Knox to serve on the Board of Tax Review, filling the unexpired terms of Willis F. Arndt and Selectman Edward E. Knapp, both of whom recently resigned.

***

As announced in last week’s issue, open house will be held at The Bee office on Saturday, January 27, from 2 to 9 pm, when the public is invited to come for a tour of inspection of the addition which has recently been completed. The affair will be most informal, with the editor and members of the staff on hand to greet visitors and show them through the building. Light refreshments will be served, and the hope is expressed that Saturday’s weather will be fair. The addition extends to the east and north of the original building, more than doubling the floor area, with additional storage space in the basement.

JANUARY 22, 1926

Henry Warner and men are blasting out the ledges and widening the road from Curtis Hill to Riverside.

***

On Thursday last, the Taunton farmers, who show a fine spirit of co-operation, filled the ice house of Richard Arndt. On Saturday they housed Robert N. Camp’s ice supply and had Daniel Honan’s ice house one-third filled. Monday’s rain wrecked the ice business.

***

Allison P. Smith has sold his driving horse to Mr Belfanti, the well known confectioner, fruit dealer and contractor of Washington on Friday last. This is the first time Mr Smith has been without a horse in 34 years, and he feels a bit lonely.

JANUARY 25, 1901

One lady, who braved the weather and attended the burial of Walter Glover on Saturday at the Newtown cemetery, is said to have frozen her nose.

***

Mrs C.B. Glover of the Boulevard is the proud owner of a brood of 12 young chicks. Who can beat this?

***

The Mutual Milk and Cream Company has leased the Newtown creamery of the New York and New Haven road, and they will begin business there about February 10.

***

The genial and rotund Constable Tilson went over to Curtis’ pond a fishing the other day, and in racing from one tip-up to another, he tipped up himself and fell on the ice, striking on the back of his head with a mighty thud, which was heard from Lake George to Half Way River. He caught one poor fish to pay for his luck and gave that away.