First of all, The Newtown Bee wishes to congratulate Deputy Fire Marshall David Ober and Newtown Middle School tech support specialist Bruce Moulthrop on their retirements. Each of them served 24 years with the town.

While it is always sad to see hard working public servants go, they are moving onto the next phase of their lives to enjoy their retirement, and Newtown will begin the work of filling their very big shoes.

Speaking of filling very big shoes, in the wake of the departure of former Bee Copy Editor Kathy Ronan, The Bee is welcoming Tamar Mayer-DeAngelis as The Bee’s new copy editor. It will be their responsibility to keep The Bee’s copy as clean as possible, which is never easy as typos can be sneaky little buggers.

Also at The Bee, as mentioned last week in Top of the Mountain, are summer interns Leah Laughlin and Tyler Pruneau. Leah comes to us as an incoming senior at Newtown High School who expressed interest in a journalism career, and Tyler is a journalism major at University of Connecticut. We are enjoying having a shot of youth in the office and hope their time here can give them a leg up in their future careers. Both have been doing a great job so far. Tyler is featured as this week’s Snapshot on page 2 (Leah was last week).

The continuing saga of the Aquarion well field that has been shut down by the river culvert collapse has taken another turn, possibly for the better. In discussions with the US Economic Development Administration, it may be possible to get grant money to connect Aquarion water lines into the Fairfield Hills campus, which has its own water supply. This will allow Fairfield Hills to supply water to the area previously served by the out of commission well field, and will deliver revenue into the Town of Newtown’s coffers to boot. Truly a win-win for the town, and all who contributed to the idea should be commended.

Congratulations to Juana Geraldino, a resident at Stone Bridge Center of Health and Rehabilitation, who celebrated turning 104 with a birthday party at the facility surrounded by family and friends on Friday, July 11. For more details, see page 6.

Kent and Shelton Houses on the Fairfield Hills campus have very nearly been sold to Winn Development. One question that gets asked of First Selectmen Jeff Capeci a lot is when those buildings will begin development, due to a high amount of interest in living in the proposed residential apartments. It is good to see these two buildings may be on the verge of being added to the tax rolls, and will bring additional housing and economic development to the town.

According to a 2022 Bee story on the development, “If the mixed use project moves forward, it is estimated that it will have a $25.3 million positive impact to Town of Newtown’s direct cash flow from now until the demolition bonding payments are completed, over the next 35 years. If the mixed use buildings are renovated, it is estimated that the town will bring in $20,070,555 in revenue, with $31,659,976 in expenses, for a net cash loss of $11,589,420 over those 35 years.

“If the mixed use buildings are not renovated, it is estimated that the town will bring in $1,612,814 in revenue versus $38,477,451 in expenses, for a net cash loss of $36,864,638.

“The difference between the two is the $25.3 million positive impact, as the town will see a much smaller cash loss on the Fairfield Hills property with the mixed use buildings.”

Seeing this project come closer to fruition is great for Newtown, and those revenue numbers are expected to be higher in 2025 figures.