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WAY WE WERE

MARCH 23, 1973

A vacant summer home on Kittross Lane in Sandy Hook, owned by Mr and Mrs John

Kittross, was completely destroyed by fire on Wednesday evening, March 21, and

two 12-year-old boys have been apprehended by the Newtown police for alleged

arson. The call for the fire came in at 6:45 pm and by the time volunteer

firemen arrived on the scene the structure was completely involved in fire.

About 50 men fought the blaze under the direction of Sandy Hook Chief Herb

Lewis. The fire marshals believed the fire to be of suspicious origin and

called the police to investigate. Officer John Qubick began the investigation,

and Officer Robert Taylor of the detective division also was assigned. During

the course of the investigation, two juveniles were arrested. Both were

released to the custody of their parents.

Just minutes after a special children's movie began at the town hall on

Saturday, a bomb threat was called in to the building, the fourth in a series

of six such threats which have taken place in the last two weeks. The police

were called in as were members of Newtown Hook & Ladder Company No 1 and the

Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire Company. All of the children in the theater were

evacuated to the adjacent Hook & Ladder fire house. Following a complete

search of the building, where no bomb was found, the children were permitted

to return to the theater to see the movie. Making a bomb threat is a class A

misdemeanor and carries a maximum penalty of $1,000 in fines and a year in

jail. It also costs the town approximately $750 every time there is a bomb

scare, and it means that emergency personnel are tied up, leaving the town

vulnerable in the event of a true emergency.

Detailed figures in the Board of Selectmen's proposed budget of $2.6 million

for 1973-74 were made public this week. The budget shows an increase of 13.9

percent over the current budget. Part of the increase is because of an

increase of nearly $50,000 in "wash items," for which the town is reimbursed

at no cost to the taxpayers. There also is an increase of $55,000 in proposed

capital expenditures, and the provision of $25,000 to cover one third of the

cost of revaluing the properties on the grand list as required by state law.

To keep the budget within the town's ability to pay, the selectmen cut more

than $200,000 out of departmental requests, and will recommend that

approximately $85,000 of federal revenue sharing funds be applied to the

budget to reduce its impact on the tax rate.

A good-sized crowd turned out last Friday night in the lower meeting room of

Edmond Town Hall to listen to Mr and Mrs Richard Hammann of Osborne Hill Road

slug it out verbally with attorney Frank Mercer over developer William Laws'

subdivision plans for Osborne Hill Estates. The Laws-Hammann confrontation was

part of a continuing difference of opinion between the contractor and the

couple over the large subdivision which has included public hearings on the

subdivision's first two sections, a court appeal of the approval by the

Hammanns and a question of boundaries. The subdivision, which is to be located

off Osborne Hill and Kale Davis Roads in Sandy Hook, is new for the Planning &

Zoning Commission; because of its size, it is being submitted in sections. The

already approved sections include 7,084 acres divided into six lots and 52

acres in six lots. The Hammanns appealed P&Z's approval on sections one and

two because they feel drainage from the subdivision will turn parts of their

land into a swamp. Their objections on sections three and four are essentially

the same.

Jerry Frawley, the Democratic candidate for first selectman, has announced

that he and his running mate, Selectman Diana Swhwerdtle, have opened their

campaign. This week they are starting a door-to-door "meet the voter" drive.

Mr Frawley said he intends to make the point that the tax rate in Newtown has

doubled in the past six years because of poor planning of capital

improvements. He also said that while neighboring Fairfield has received

millions of dollars in open space funds from the state and federal government,

Newtown has not even submitted an application. Newtown does not even have a

basic open space plan, he said.

The third year of the Newtown Arts Festival series ended on Saturday evening

with a performance by the Vienna Choir Boys, 23 young singers with magical

voices. Their three-part program was made up of sacred songs, a comic opera

and folk songs.

A move to revitalize TAN (Teenage Action Newtown) and recruit a new adult

advisory council to help organize its programs and activities got underway

last week as a result of the initiative of two TAN members, Nan Swart and

Andrea Sachs. The two young women asked last week for the help of the

Interclub Association, of which TAN is a member, in reviving the organization,

which once was a vital part of the Newtown scene, providing dances, theater

and community activities.

MARCH 26, 1948

Newtown schools will close all day this March 26, Good Friday, to permit

teachers and students to be with their families for the day's observance. Two

days before his sudden and untimely death on March 7, the late Honorable James

L. McConaughy, governor of Connecticut, issued a proclamation making March 26

a day of fasting and prayer to mark the anniversary of the crucifixion of

Jesus Christ. The proclamation was reprinted on the front page of this week's

Bee .

More than 100 townspeople gathered last Friday evening at 6 pm in the

Alexandria Room of the Edmond Town Hall to honor the boys' and girls'

basketball teams of Hawley School for their most successful seasons. A

delicious dinner was served by the Newtown Parent Teacher Association under

the capable direction of Mr and Mrs William Hunter. Trophies were given to the

two captains, Emmy Farrell and Marie Cavanaugh, and tribute was paid to their

coaches, Harold S. DeGroat and Ann Anderson. Since Ms Anderson came to town,

the girls have had an exceptional record. They won all games in the 1944-45

season except one tie game and the championship, which they lost to

Washington. They won all games, including the championship, in 1945-46, a

performance they repeated in 1946-47. This past season they won nine, tied

one, and lost the championship to Thomaston by a two-point margin. In all, the

four-year record shows no defeats except for the two championship games. The

boys had a 9-6 record in 1944-45, 7-9 in 1945-46, 6-6 in 1946-47, and 12-0 in

1947-48 but were disqualified because of a technicality from playing against

Thomaston in the finals for the league title.

Following the lead of other towns and cities throughout the country, members

of the Newtown chapter of the United World Federalists staged a petition drive

on Saturday, March 20. The campaign was an effort to get signatures on a

petition asking for strengthening of the United Nations charter. The

individual signer, by affixing his name to the petition, identified himself

with an ever-increasing group which feels that a world federal government with

limited powers adequate to maintain peace is the one solution to the present

world crisis. At day's end, the collective petitions added up to a total of

860 names. It is safe to assume that at least 1,000 signatures will be secured

before the petition, with appropriate ceremonies, is handed over to

Connecticut's legislators in Washington.

Friends of Henry L. McCarthy will be interested to learn that he has graduated

from a special six-weeks course conducted by the Aetna Casualty & Surety

Company of Hartford as a preliminary step in entering the insurance field. Mr

McCarthy, who is a lifelong resident of Newtown and a graduate of Mount St

Mary's College, served for a number of years as chief clerk in the Newtown

Post Office. He served for three years in World War II on the various battle

fronts of North Africa and Italy, and was discharged in 1945 with five battle

stars to his credit. He will soon open a full-fledged insurance agency in

Newtown, where his host of friends offer him the best of success.

Daniel Honan, who has a been a patient at Danbury Hospital for several months

recovering from a leg fracture, has returned to his home on Church Street and

is now able to be about the house again.

The parents of Lloyd J. Riemersma, 22, of Holland, Mich., arrived in town last

Saturday to visit their son who continues to improve at the Danbury Hospital

where he has been confined since the near-fatal truck-school bus accident of

March 9. While here, the Riemersmas were the guests of Mr and Mrs Harold

Bassett. Mr Riemersma was the driver of the heavily-laden truck and trailer

which avoided a loaded school bus at the foot of Sandy Hook hill and crashed

into a tree instead. He continues to show improvement.

At the Board of Education meeting on March 19 at Hawley School, William Jones,

music teacher, discussed important phases of the music program in the schools.

Music instruction now is given to all elementary students. At the high school,

participation is entirely voluntary but 65 percent of the students take part.

At present there is a chorus of 70 voices and 17 people are being given

instrumental music instruction. Mr Jones said he would like to begin

instrumental music instruction in the fourth and fifth grades.