Date: Fri 24-Apr-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

Mountain-Rid-Litter-Day

Full Text:

TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN

If the weather this week is any gauge, Sunday morning should be a great time

to get out and take a walk. I would suggest that you do what a lot of my good

friends are planning to do, which is take along a trash bag and pick up

roadside litter as you go.

The Newtown Lions Club is again sponsoring Rid Litter Day this Sunday from 9

am to 1 pm, so you can stop by their little litter station in front of the

middle school on Queen Street any time during those hours to pick up bags,

gloves, and even directions to a street that could use some cleaning up. The

actual clean-up can be done any time on Sunday. Bring the bags full of litter

to the following firehouses for disposal: Hook & Ladder, Sandy Hook,

Dodgingtown, Botsford.

To make it exciting for kids, the Lions are planting four golden cans in

undisclosed locations, which can be redeemed for prizes. Anyone finding tuna

cans can bring them to me. I will redeem them with a purr.

Herb Rosenthal thought it was a joke when he first opened an envelope from

Middletown Mayor Domenique S. Thornton last week. Believe it or not, she was

writing to see if Newtown might be interested in bringing in a juvenile

justice facility. The letter pointed out all the great benefits that Newtown

would get out of having a prison in town: new jobs, added state aid, etc.

Under normal circumstances, Middletown would welcome such a facility, the

letter said. However, this town already houses a state mental hospital.

Mr Rosenthal, whose response was a flat-out "no," said he figured Middletown

may have been trying to get back at Newtown for the mental patients

transferred from Fairfield Hills to Middletown when the local mental health

facility closed.

Marcy Becker of the Edmond Town Hall Board of Managers office reports the

telephone has been ringing off the hook with people calling to book the

Alexandria Room or the gymnasium. She's even scheduled events for the year

1999. The only problem, "I can't find a 1999 calendar," she said.

If you watch CSPAN on Saturday at 6 pm you might get to see former Newtowner

Sara Appleyard at the White House Correspondents Association dinner. The 1992

Newtown High School graduate is special assistant to Assistant Secretary

Judith E. Heumann of the US Department of Education in Washington, D.C.

Sara graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1996 with a degree in

political science and obviously has done very well since then. But mostly

she's excited about seeing some of the other guests at the dinner -- not the

White House correspondents but other notables like Tom Selleck and JFK Jr.

When I ran into Ben Spragg on Tuesday he confessed he was trying to figure out

a way to get out of his underground office at Edmond Town Hall to escape the

noise of the roofers who were throwing huge boards down from the roof to the

ground, where they landed with a thud that reverberated through the walls into

the finance office. The noise was giving him a headache, Ben said, and he

needed to find a quiet spot. Maybe the golf course?

Popular Senior Center secretary Geraldine Hughes, who doesn't look a day over

70, will celebrate her 88th birthday on Sunday. I'm trying to find out if she

holds the record as the town's oldest employee. It's not every day that

someone turns 88 and is still working. Senior Center Director Marilyn Place

hopes Geraldine doesn't have any plans to retire because everyone loves her so

much that she'd be difficult to replace.

Julia Wasserman also celebrated a birthday this week. She turned 74 on Monday.

Speaking of special dates, Don Graziano at the Newtown Package Store says his

store is 45 years old this week. It actually opened 53 years ago in Sandy Hook

Center but was moved to its current location in April 1953 by Frank Hubbell.

Mr Graziano said he has researched the history of the store in old editions of

The Bee at the library, and he thinks it may be Newtown's first package store.

Don't forget to stop by the Booth Library, the Drug Center, or Sandy Hook

School and buy a $1 raffle ticket for a chance to win the queen-size quilt "A

Walk Down Main Street" which Linda Rogers made as a fundraiser for the PTA

raffle. Second prize is a $50 gift certificate for My Place restaurant; third

prize is a $25 gift certificate redeemable at Radio Shack. The drawing will be

on May 2 at the school's Jolly Green Giant Fair.

It's time for Boston Red Sox fans to pinch themselves. The Sox are in first

place in the Eastern Division, ahead of even the celebrated Yanks. Enjoy it

while it lasts. Perhaps the Red Sox won't be in the same place next week, but

I will be, so...

Read me again.