Full Text:

THE WAY WE WERE

APRIL 13, 1973

The large barn on the old H&F Farm property at the corner of Huntingtown and

Meadowbrook Roads was destroyed by a spectacular fire on Sunday night, April

8, and equipment from four of the five volunteer fire companies was sent to

the scene. Mrs Harriet Davis and her sons, who lived in an apartment over the

barn, escaped injury but their clothing and possessions were lost in the

blaze. The barn, owned by Mr and Mrs Aaron Bernstein of Pine Tree Hill Road,

was a total loss. Firemen were at the scene the entire night, back on Monday

and Tuesday to check the ruins, and called out again on Wednesday to put out

the flames which had started up again. The cause of the blaze is still under

investigation.

The annual budget hearing Tuesday evening in the high school auditorium was an

unexpectedly brief and calm affair, with disagreements as great as ever over

some proposed expenditures, but little discussion and none of last year's hue

and cry. Nearly 200 people attended, including town officers and members of

the school board. The main points of conflict were requests for a social

worker, more teachers, an additional psychological examiner and more clerical

help in the schools. These were all supported by Judy Clack, president of the

League of Women Voters, and opposed by George Grosner, president of the

Newtown Taxpayer's Group.

A New York-based corporation will seek to put a shopping center off Church

Hill Road, the Planning & Zoning Commission learned at its meeting on Friday

night, April 6. Representatives of Fairfield County Mall Corporation came to

the meeting with some questions regarding road frontage and parking for the

proposed 300,000-square-foot facility. The shopping center, it was learned,

would contain a two-story department store -- something like a J.C. Penney

store -- with retail stores in a one-story section of the same air-conditioned

building. The corporation owns two separate parcels on Church Hill Road,

separated by property containing a gas station, pizza parlor and a private

home. Plans are expected to be submitted to P&Z within a month.

Prices of all cuts of fresh beef, pork, lamb, and veal have been set a minimum

of ten cents a pound under the allowable ceiling prices of meat through the

month of April in Grand Union supermarkets. Consumers have been protesting the

price of meat nationwide and staged a meat boycott last week.

Sandy Hook Fire Company Chief Herbert Lewis came before the P&Z Commission

this week with plans for the company's new fire station, to be built on six

acres of land on Riverside Road, next to the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Of

particular interest to the commission was outdoor activities, such as dances

or weddings, for which the building would be rented. An open hall of some

5,000 square feet is proposed, which the commissioners pointed out would make

it the largest such facility in Newtown. Decision on the new facility will

eventually go to a town meeting.

Mrs Marianne Corbo of Mile Hill South woke up Wednesday morning to see

something bright and colorful in the woods behind her house. Investigation

turned up nine balloons tied together, five of them burst and the other four

shrunken but still containing a little helium. Attached to each balloon was a

tag reading: "Please return to St John's Lane Elementary School, Endicott

City, Md. Reward for tag returned from the farthest distance." There was no

further explanation, but Mrs Corbo promises to let us know if she wins the

reward.

Men from the Dodgingtown Volunteer Fire Company, under the direction of Chief

John Tremblay, fought a house fire for two hours on Sunday afternoon at the

Halpern residence on Aunt Park Lane. The fire, which began in a fireplace,

spread to the walls and ceiling and part of the upstairs. There was extensive

fire damage to the living room and some of the upstairs, plus extensive fire

damage to the entire house and quite a bit of water damage to many sections of

the house.

APRIL 16, 1948

Nothing like it had been seen before in Newtown. Recruiting the help of

practically everyone who could dig into a trunk and produce a wedding gown or

bridesmaid outfit, the Women's Federation of the Newtown Congregational Church

staged a bridal pageant in the Alexandria Room of Edmond Town Hall last Friday

evening, employing high school girls as models and high school boys as

escorts, with very small members of the cast performing as flower girls and

train bearers. Gowns dated from 1800 to the present day, reflecting most

articulately the change in styles over the years.

A new salary schedule for the teachers of Regional School District No 3 has

been adopted by all towns in the district. Acting separately and autonomously,

the school boards of Southbury, Woodbury, Newtown, and Bethlehem voted to

adopt the schedule at meetings held on April 4, 5, 8 and 9 respectively. The

committee composed of town representatives, including Nelson Curtis of

Newtown, considered many factors when setting the salaries, most importantly

the rising cost of living. It has become increasingly difficult to fill

teaching vacancies with well-qualified applicants at a beginning salary of

$2,100 to $2,200. The salary schedule recommended by the committee provides

$2,300 for beginning teachers with a bachelor's degree and steps up to $2,700

for teachers who have a master's degree plus 32 points educational credit.

Raises of $150 a year are to be given at the beginning of the second and third

years of teaching. After 12 years' experience, a bachelor's calls for a

maximum salary of $3,500. Bethlehem and Newtown still are awaiting the state

Supreme Court opinion on their votes to withdraw from the new regional high

school district.

US Rep John Davis Lodge will be presented with the Newtown Petition by Charles

G. Morris, chairman of the Newtown Chapter, United World Federalists, at 2 pm

Saturday at Edmond Town Hall. The petition includes the signatures of 1,485

residents of Newtown. The petition drive was held on March 20 by the Newtown

chapter to raise support for a world federal government with limited powers

adequate to maintain peace. A luncheon in Mr Lodge's honor will be held at the

Hawley Manor preceding the presentation of the petition.

In a project to provide warmth for the children of other lands, the

Intermediate Girl Scouts have completed work on four kits to send abroad. Each

kit contains a complete outfit for one child. One such kit, a layette for a

new baby, has been completed by Scouts who are working on their clothing badge

under the direction of Mrs Verne Knapp and with the help of Mrs Hoyt Johnson.

The layette is now on display in the window of the Flagpole Fountain.

On Tuesday afternoon, Harold Bassett, Edward Knapp, and Hawley Warner had the

pleasant assignment of delivering to Lloyd Riemersma in Danbury Hospital a

check in the amount of $256. Young Riemersma is the truck driver from Holland,

Mich., whose quick thinking and split-second timing averted what might have

been a major catastrophe at the foot of Sandy Hook Hill. On the morning of

March 9 Mr Riemersma, driving a loaded truck and trailer unit, swerved to

avoid hitting a crowded school bus after his brakes had gone out of control on

the hill and crashed into a tree on the Austin Keane property. He has been

hospitalized since. The $256 was contributed by grateful townspeople the past

month, the fund having been spontaneously started the day after the accident.

The senior class of Hawley High School will present A.A. Milne's famous play

Mr Pim Passes By at the Edmond Town Hall Theater on Thursday evening, April

22. Members of the cast include Ruth Mayer, Rosemarie Kilbride, Mildred Kocet,

Virginia Drew, William Renz, Richard Liska, and David Eaton. The play is under

the direction of Allen Reed, with Marie Cavanaugh as producer. A.A. Milne is

noted for his sparkling wit and his ability to create amusing dramatic

situations. The play was first produced by the Theatre Guild in New York.

J. William James of The Bee staff was released from Danbury Hospital and

returned to his home on Tuesday, after having been confined for a number of

weeks as a result of a coronary attack. John Broadbrook, who was also

hospitalized early in March and spent a number of weeks convalescing at home,

returned to work on Tuesday of this week. Editor Paul S. Smith returns to

Newtown this Thursday afternoon from a week-long stay in St Raphael's

Hospital, New Haven. Mr Smith underwent an operation on his arm last Saturday,

the result of an increasingly painful attack of bursitis.