After a lull following a spate of webcasts produced by The Newtown Bee in 2020, the organization is lining up a number of new programs that will be either initially available via Facebook Live, or will be uploaded to The Newtown Bee’s YouTube channel.

Besides the ongoing series of COVID-19 Clips featuring town officials addressing topical issues related to the pandemic, The Newtown Bee also hosted or partnered on webcast events that covered subjects ranging from community diversity and how businesses could better survive under COVID-19 restrictions to pre-election forums with legislative candidates, and a session focusing on the possible development of housing at Fairfield Hills.

Last week, The Newtown Bee announced its partnership with Newtown’s Suicide Prevention Initiative to host a March 29 forum focusing on youth suicide awareness and prevention.

There will also be a panel discussion of the planned Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial, on April 5 from 5:30 to 6:30 pm. Voters in the April 27 budget referendum will be asked to authorize $3.7 million for the completion of a permanent memorial to honor the 20 children and six educators who were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on 12/14.

The Newtown Bee is planning to host a discussion of the memorial’s development, with guests expected to include:

*First Selectman Dan Rosenthal, who will make brief remarks and introduce the other guests;

*Newtown Public Building & Site Commission Chair Robert Mitchell;

*Designers Daniel Affleck and Ben Waldo of SWA Group, based in San Francisco;

*Tara Vincenta from Artemis Landscape Architects of Sandy Hook and Bridgeport; and

*Construction manager Michael MacDonald from Downes Construction Company.

Another webcast under consideration for April is a similar discussion of the townwide emergency communications upgrade, which has a corresponding budget ballot authorization request for $5,041,933.

In 2020, under an executive order due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Legislative Council authorized $2.5 million for the first phase of the overall $7.5 million communications upgrade project, primarily to cover the cost of hardware and equipment that needed to be ordered in advance of installation this year.

The Bee may also host a forum featuring the candidates for the 112th District special election scheduled for April 13.

Information on those events will be announced in the coming weeks as they are scheduled.

All of The Newtown Bee’s panels and forums are free and can be viewed live on Facebook, or afterward at youtube.com/user/thenewtownbee.