Tercentennial Bocce Tourney Back On

By SHANNON HICKS

Published: Jul 29, 2005 12:00 am

Newtown resident and recreational bocce player Rosemary Zanfini has stepped in to organize a bocce tournament on Saturday, August 6. The event will be part of the All-Day Birthday Celebration for Newtownâs Tercentennial.

Although the tournament has been listed on various calendars and notices around town for months, the status of the tournament in recent weeks has been questionable. Ms Zanfini decided to step in to coordinate the event after learning that it would be canceled for lack of organization.

There is no charge to participate, and players of all ages and levels are encouraged to join the fun.

The tournament will be held at The Pleasance, the public park at 1 Main Street.

Play is expected to begin around 9 am, and games take about an hour to complete. Bocce equipment will be supplied. Competition will be single-elimination play, with teams of four players.

Ms Zanfini is looking for people to sign up in any configuration; singles, doubles and triples will be combined into teams of four, while those who sign up as a team of four will play together.

For additional information or to join the fun, call 270-7098.

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I have to say, I don’t understand how this project could be considered “morally wrong.” That kind of language feels more like obstruction than constructive dialogue. What is morally wrong is leaving seniors in our community without enough housing options. Right now, Newtown does not have adequate senior housing, and the few developments that exist, like Naunawag Meadows, already have waiting lists. As for the comment that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” that simply isn’t accurate. The system is broken when residents who’ve lived here their whole lives cannot find an affordable and appropriate place to age in town. Responsible development that balances environmental concerns, safety improvements (such as traffic calming measures and sidewalks), and the needs of our seniors is exactly the kind of planning Newtown should be doing. This isn’t about wanting or not wanting something in one’s backyard—it’s about building a community that takes care of its people. Please don't get scared away by the nimby mob.

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It seems a lot of the discussion around the flagpole focuses on vilifying drivers who pass on the right, but the real issue is being overlooked. If Chapter 248 Section 14-251 were enforced, we wouldn’t see this problem to begin with. That statute prohibits stopping in the middle of a roadway to yield to cross traffic—as so often happens with cars waiting to turn from Church Hill. When vehicles stop illegally in the travel lane, they effectively create a blockage. Other drivers then either sit through unnecessary delays or carefully pass around them on the right, which is fully permitted when the vehicle ahead is “illegally parked” in the roadway. Instead of punishing drivers reacting to the obstruction, enforcement should focus on the cause: vehicles unlawfully stopping and backing up traffic in the first place. If that behavior were addressed, the need to “go around” would largely disappear.

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John, you raise an important point — these situations are tragic, complicated, and often far less clear-cut than the headlines make them seem. In the Fredericksburg case, the full facts still aren’t publicly known, and like so many of these stories, there’s conflicting information. It was apparently the back door at 3 a.m. — was it justified to use deadly force? We don’t know yet. What we do know is that the homeowner has been charged, and as you rightly noted, that is very serious. But this is also where perspective matters. These cases are quickly sensationalized in the news and on social media, yet when the dust settles, the outcomes are rarely publicized. People forget that in our system, you are innocent until proven guilty. Try to find much coverage of the convication in the case of the Fairfield Realtor vehicle homicide, or updates on the woman who shot her husband a couple of Christmases ago, or even the pedestrian death in Sandy Hook a year or so back. The follow-through simply isn’t there, and public opinion is often shaped only by the first round of headlines. At the end of the day, these situations remind us how split-second decisions in the middle of the night can change lives forever — which is exactly why the right to protect one’s property, home and family is so fiercely debated, and lucky constitutionally protected.

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Tercentennial Bocce Tourney Back On

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