Date: Fri 04-Aug-1995

By CURT CLARK

Published: Aug 11, 1999 12:00 am

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

edink-historic-survey-

Full Text:

EDINK A Forward-Looking Town

Newtown likes to think of itself as a forward-looking town. We take pains to

put down the details of our best intentions in a plan of development, we spend

our money on sewers, schools, and roads with an eye toward the future, and we

expect our town and school officials to be innovators. Staying current,

keeping up with the latest thinking, and learning new things from experience

are seen as essential to our town's progress and prosperity.

There are a few, however, who are seeking to improve the town's standing over

time not by anticipating the future but by remembering the past. They believe

that innovation is driven by knowledge, and knowledge is served as much by not

forgetting as it is by learning. With this in mind, the Newtown Historical

Society will ask the Board of Selectmen on Monday night for $5,000 to match a

federal grant for a survey of houses constructed prior to 1825.

Under the terms of the federal grant (one of just two awarded in Connecticut

this year), a state-certified researcher must be hired to fill in the sketchy

details on the origins and evolution of the estimated 250 homes and public

buildings constructed in the 18th and early 19th century. Newtown is believed

to have one of the largest collections of early homes and buildings in the

state, yet no coordinated effort has been made to produce an inventory of

these buildings.

The proposed survey will enable the town's oldest structures to be placed on

the National Register of Historic Places, according them the status and

protection they deserve as witnesses to Newtown's long history.

The Historical Society created an architectural survey committee to oversee

the project, and the head of that panel, Mae Schmidle, believes the survey of

old homes will help stimulate the local economy by promoting tourism and

enhancing the town's historic stature as a colonial community. We doubt

Newtown will become the next Sturbridge as a result of the survey, and we

expect few significant economic benefits to come out of it. But there is a

value in not forgetting our past and in preserving the continuity between

past, present and future. A $5,000 investment in remembering and understanding

our heritage will in the long range only enhance our reputation as a

forward-looking town.

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Reservoir Rd. does indeed appear to have an interesting history that I often ponder as I hike the Rochambeau Trail. Early on it was apparently part of a main route from the center of the Borough to Taunton, which went up Mt. Pleasant Rd. and then roughly followed a watershed boundary from Mount Pleasant to Taunton Hill. When the current switchback road was built from West St. to Castle Hill in the 1800s, replacing the indirect route through the campground that Rochambeau used, the part of that original route to Taunton now known as Reservoir Rd. became redundant. But on an 1868 town map and topographic maps from 1892 and 1915, it looks like both routes were still maintained as roads. By the time of the 1934 aerial survey of CT, the connection to Mount Pleasant Rd. (maybe called Reservoir Rd. by then since the reservoir is visible) even had two outlets onto Castle Hill Rd. Since it is only shown as a partial dashed line on a 1953 topographic map, it may have stopped being maintained as a passable through road by then. But on a 1963 topographic map, where the section down to Knollwood Dr. had become a normal road again, the other end is shown as a dashed-line road, still with two connections to Castle Hill Rd., and a structure on the east side where one can still find remnants of a house today. Maybe a longtime resident can add comments about what it looked like in the 1950s and 1960s?

Clarity on Reservoir Road and the Rochambeau Trail

Please stop referring to your fellow Newtowners as the Mob. I was at the Legislative Council meeting where Mr. Pisani insulted the intelligence of a room full of Newtown voters; twice, and not in a satirical way. Plenty of new projects have been given the green light - the repurposing of the Taunton Press property is a welcome addition to Town, a new retail center is under construction on Church Hill Rd there are ongoing plans for the existing Fairfield Hills campus. Newtown is a wonderful place to live. Kudos to the Town officials who have managed to grow Newtown and maintain a small town feel, which may mean saying no to development more often than you would like. There will always be two sides to any proposal - different points of view are welcome and essential - name calling adds nothing to the conversation.

Who is Calling Newtowners Stupid?

Appreciate your perspective. Rather than litiate all of your opinions expressed here, here....I would like correct your opinion about the BOS having the final authority on road discontinuance decisions. State statute (CT GS 13a-49), requires the BOS' decision to be approvate by a majority vote at a regular or special town meeting (just like the one Newtown had a few years back to decide to spend the money to build an addition onto the High School). In towns that no longer have any town meetings, that responsibility would fall on the town's representaive government, or legislative body....in Newtown's case, our Legislative Council. Failure to follow this statutory process is but one of the reasons the town/the BOS is being sued.

There are many private roads in Newtown where they property owner owns right to the center line, for example this is often true in the lake communities. Many of these roads predate and do not conform to the Town's roads standard and therefore the Town never accepted them into the Town road system. Does the Town actually own this road?

It’s important to clarify the tone and context of Derek Pisani’s remarks, particularly the satirical line about suing Newtown for "Gross Stupidity." This was clearly a tongue-in-cheek jab at the exhausting culture of legal threats that’s become a staple on the local Facebook Group forums. It was a reflection of frustration over endless regulatory hurdles and obstructionism, and the desire to avoid common sense solutions not an insult aimed at residents. Satire, is meant to provoke thought and highlight the absurdities. If we are unable to distinguish between satire and literal threats, perhaps the comment hit closer to the truth than we’d like to admit. Rather than focusing on Pisanis style, we should be discussing the substance of what he’s pointing out: that Newtown’s progress is being routinely blocked by a small but vocal contingent who seem intent on saying “no” at every turn. They are saying no to any development, no to common sense solutions to crowd control, etc. Newtown deserves leaders who are willing to call things as they see them, even if their language ruffles feathers. That doesn’t mean they lack respect for constituents—it means they care enough to challenge the Mob and push for solutions. Isn't that what we elect people to do? I applaud Pisani's dedication, he certainly has earned my vote. Regardless, let’s not reduce conversation to tone-policing and outrage. Let’s focus on the issues that matter.

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Date: Fri 04-Aug-1995

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