‘A Passion For Newtown’ Reflected In Choice Of Labor Day Parade Grand Marshal

By Nancy K. Crevier

The Newtown Labor Day Parade Committee’s pick for Grand Marshal of the September 7 parade is a woman who has devoted a great part of her life to the town and people of Newtown: Julia Wasserman.

Newtown’s State Representative for 18 years until her retirement last fall, Ms Wasserman has also served on the Newtown Legislative Council, the Conservation/Wetlands Commission, the Sewer Avoidance Committee, the Fairfield County Soil and Water Conservation District, and as legislator, on the Fairfield Hills Oversight Committee, and was a member of the Newtown League of Women Voters for many years.

Many townspeople are familiar with Ms Wasserman not only because of her long service as state representative and her town involvement, but as the owner of Medridge Farm Christmas Trees, an ongoing business that she and her late husband, Louis Wasserman, started on their Walnut Tree Hill property many years ago.

The selection of Ms Wasserman is in keeping with this year’s parade theme, “A Passion for Newtown,” Labor Day Parade Committee President Beth Caldwell said earlier this spring when announcing Ms Wasserman’s acceptance of the honor.

“I’ve always felt a strong commitment to Newtown since we first moved here in 1959,” said Ms Wasserman in a recent interview, but her commitment to serving the public began even prior to that. She holds a bachelor’s degree in public health from Columbia University, and served as director of health in New Fairfield for five years. She continues to serve on the Board of Overseers for Public Health at Columbia University, and at the time that she and her husband moved to town, she was on the 208 Water Quality Management Committee, a regional group ensuring that the area had pure water.

“When we came to Newtown, it was a small town and easy to become a volunteer,” Ms Wasserman explained. “There were so many unfulfilled needs. I had many opportunities to be involved in activities,” she said. Because her husband was very occupied then at Mt Sinai Hospital in New York as chief of the department of hematology, she had ample time to give to the organizations that required a dedicated amount of time.

“I think the town has experienced normal growth,” Ms Wasserman observed, reflecting on the changes in the town over the past half-century. “The major needs for residents have been, and are being met. We have good schools, a good police department, and the land use agencies are wonderful. They have progressed immensely over the years,” said Ms Wasserman.

“The infrastructure has improved a good deal — despite the flagpole issue resurfacing every five to ten years. Plus,” she noted, “there is the acquisition of the pearl of the town, Fairfield Hills.”

Even with the many issues that accompanied the purchase and development of the Fairfield Hills property, Ms Wasserman believes that it was a very good deal that will continue to be the “pearl” of the town in the future.

“Mostly, to a degree,” said Ms Wasserman, “the town has been able to preserve the rural character, if not the farm character, of the town.”

Continuing her husband’s legacy of donating parcels of land to the town — Dr Wasserman gave the triangle of property in Sandy Hook Center where the Christmas tree is erected each winter, and other pieces on Walnut Tree Hill Road — Ms Wasserman recently donated a conservation easement of 92 acres of her property to the town. “It means that it will be kept as open space forever,” said Ms Wasserman, an aspect of Newtown that she feels must be continued and supported.

“Altogether, there have been so many things that have been my commitment, even more than my passion, to the town. But always,” she said, “there has been a passion for the people of Newtown.”