July 14, 1995

A red bud tree, the state tree of Oklahoma, was planted in front of Edmond Town Hall this week in memory of the victims of the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19. The tree was suggested by Waltha Kollmeyer, an Oklahoma City native who has lived in Newtown the past two years. It was donated and planted by Chuck Newman, proprietor of Planter’s Choice nurseries, a wholesale nursery in Newtown.

***

The Merryhill Child Care Center has been given a reprieve from the state until July 1996. The state’s Office of Policy and Management decided this week to allow the daycare center located at 49 Queen Street on the Fairfield Hills campus to remain open through the next school year, even if the mental hospital complex is closed earlier as planned... Therese Hychko, director of the center, said she was relieved to learn that Merryhill wouldn’t have to close when its lease expires in September... The reprieve will give the center’s board of directors time at least to look into what other space might be available in town.

***

The Board of Education and the school system’s custodial union have agreed upon a three-year contract, which includes three percent raises. The custodial union, which has 39 members, is the first school union to agree to a managed health care system.

***

Jim Crouch is fond of saying that if something unusual is going to happen, it usually will happen in Newtown. The chief of Newtown’s 911 emergency dispatch center was proven right again this week when an apparent power surge knocked out the computer program on the dispatch console... Dispatcher Carol Mayhew was on duty at the time but didn’t realize that anything was wrong until she tried to tone out the Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company... Carol said that at first she thought she had done something incorrectly. “But then I looked at the console where the numbers of the pagers should come up and they weren’t there...” She remembered, however, “that about five years ago,” someone mentioned that tuning forks were still stored in the dispatch center... Sounding the tone over the airwaves opens the beepers carried by the emergency service personnel. “I was petrified the tuning fork wouldn’t work, but it did.”

***

Dylan Corrao, 2, of Newtown, will be competing in the Baby Boy division of the 1995 National Finals of the All-American Girl and Boy Pageant, which will be held at the Crown Plaza hotel in New York. The pageant is one of the largest children’s pageants in the world.

***

Major League baseball great Bobby Thompson, who broke the hearts of Brooklyn Dodger’s fans in 1951, when he hit the famous “Shot Heard Round The World,” for the New York Giants, made a special appearance and threw out the first pitch at the Newtown Diamond Invitational on Sunday, July 9. Thompson then spent several minutes signing autographs for young ballplayers in the audience.

July 10, 1970

The Bee announces a subscription price of the paper, effective August 1, 1970. While we dislike to become a part of the inflationary trend, the mounting costs of publishing a newspaper leave us with no choice. This is particularly true in reference to the present cost of newsprint and the drastic increase in postal rates projected for the near future. The increased price from $6 to $7 a year (less than 2 cents a week) has been kept as modest as possible. The rate for six months will be raised from $3.50 to $4. The single copy price will remain at 15 cents. Subscribers with expiration dates prior to August 1 will, of course, renew at the old rate.

***

Although no one went swimming at Dickinson Town Park on the Fourth of July, a record crowd enjoyed the fireworks display on the evening of July 3... Art Bennett, park superintendent, reported the crowd at the fireworks was much larger than last year, as was the group of young people that stayed for the dance at the Pavilion afterwards.

***

On June 21, the United Methodist Church of Newtown welcomed the Rev and Mrs Eugene L. Crabb to the parish. The Rev Mr Crabb takes over for the Rev Eugene Fowler, whose illness forced his retirement... Mr Crabb received his new assignment at the annual conference in Hartford, June 18... They find Newtown a most attractive place and are looking forward to their work here.

***

The agenda for the Tuesday evening meeting of the Board of Selectmen was a long one, with many items covered rapidly, but lengthy discussions on the acceptance of Blakeslee Drive and Newfield Lane and on the removal of earth materials at the site of the new landfill on Route 25... A public hearing on the reorganization of water companies, including the Newtown Water Company, was noted.

***

The United States Bureau of the Census has informed First Selectman Timothy B. Treadwell of a reasonably self-evident fact: Newtown has grown. The 1960 census counted 11,373 Newtowners, not counting the population of Fairfield Hills Hospital. The 1970 figures show a total, again without the Hospital, of 16,848.

***

The first row of blacktop in the town park pool was laid at about 9:30 this Thursday morning, with Mark Hayes, chairman of the Parks and Recreation Commission, William Honan, Jr, former chairman, Arthur Bennett, Sr, park superintendent, and a host of kids watching. Plans call for the spreading of about 1200 tons of the black stuff, which should take four days. Three inches will be spread at the thickest point. If all goes according to plans and the weather stays in good favor, swimming will not be far away and a dedication ceremony might be in the offing for July 18.

July 6, 1945

The need for nurses to serve in Hawaiian hospitals is very urgent. In fact, Dr Maurice de Harne, hoping his wife might enlist a few volunteers for the hospital of which he is in charge in Wahaiwa, called her recently by transpacific telephone to ask her to spread the news in this locality. Many wounded servicemen are being hospitalized in Hawaii, which puts a great burden on the hospital facilities and personnel.

***

The April issue of Information and Education, a US Army publication from the Mediterranean theater of operations, devotes a page with illustrations to a public address system devised by Capt Paul A. Cullens for the 105th Station Hospital with the peninsular base section in Italy. Capt Cullens, minister of the Newtown Congregational Church, on leave in the chaplaincy, is given considerable praise for developing this “core” for his program.

***

“Wild guesswork and all wrong,” was the dictum of Dr M.D. Corrigan, ace tennis player, regarding reports that he was suffering from a heart condition... It took an electrocardiogram by one of the country’s leading heart diagnosticians to prove that nature, in a sportive mood, had been feinting with easily misunderstood symptoms... The devotee of net and racquet spent last Sunday morning in a game of singles with H.C. Honegger and played doubles in the afternoon.

***

Over thirty children who will enter school in the fall were given physical examinations in the Summer Round-Up held last Friday morning at Hawley School.

***

Wind and lightning caused considerable damage in the Newtown area when a thunderstorm blasted violently through here around six o’clock Sunday evening. The large barn on the property of Mr And Mrs Martin R. Shannon, Walnut Tree Hill, was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. The porch on the home of Miss Sally E. McNeill, School House Hill Road, was also struck and damaged, and enormous limbs from a tree which fell in front of the George Beers home took utility wires with them in their fall. A large tree in the yard of Hawley Manor was blown over, and interruption of both telephone and electrical services, although quickly restored in most cases, was common.

***

From May 1 through October 31, sugar stamps for home canning will be issued. Application should be made on Form R-341, and be accompanied by Spare Stamp No. 13 from the War Ration Book 4 of each person listed. This year the maximum amount of sugar which can be issued for canning is 15 pounds per person, and no more than 120 pounds “per family unit” may be issued... At the moment, sugar coupons are being issued only to cover people’s immediate canning needs.

July 2, 1920

The microfilm containing 1920 Newtown Bee editions is kept at the C.H. Booth Library, which is temporarily closed due to coronavirus health precautions.

Your memories are the ones we want to share! Do you have photographs of people or places in town from a bygone era? The Way We Were is the perfect landing spot so that your photographs can be enjoyed by Newtown Bee readers. Images can be e-mailed as attachments to editor@thebee.com, subject line: Way We Were photo. When submitting photographs, please identify as many people as possible, the location, and the approximate date.