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THE WAY WE WERE

JANUARY 12, 1973

A power blackout lasting up to seven hours in parts of Sandy Hook turned off

lights and automatic heating systems on the evening of January 9, the coldest

of the winter to date, when the thermometer outside Ben McCready's house on

High Rock Road stood at exactly zero. Connecticut Light & Power said the

outage occurred when a step-down transformer failed at 5:55 pm at Bennett's

Bridge Road and Berkshire Road, blacking out 385 customers in the area south

along Route 34 and High Rock Road to the town line.

The Board of Managers of the Edmond Town Hall took a long look at the

building's future at their meeting January 10 and decided it was time to start

a public dialogue about it. Should the town hall become solely an office

building for the town government, or solely a community center for meetings

and recreational use? Demands for both uses are increasing so much that they

cannot all be met, the board said.

First Selectman Frank DeLucia met with the Borough Board of Burgesses on

January 8 to discuss revenue sharing with a view to teaming some of the town

revenue sharing money with that of the borough for specific projects. However,

it developed that the consensus of the borough board was one of opposition to

the whole concept of revenue sharing to the extent that several members urged

that the money be returned to the government. The board has a year to decide

what to do with the money.

The Board of Education this week said it will not sponsor student trips abroad

because of the potential liability in the event of any mishaps. In making its

decision, the board refused to sponsor a trip to Spain by middle school

students and a similar trip by students at the high school. The school board

members said they do not oppose such trips but would not sponsor them because

the school's insurance policy does not cover trips abroad.

Protests against the Vietnam War continued to mount in Newtown and surrounding

towns this week. More than 100 people, members of Concerned Citizens of

Newtown, met in Edmond Town Hall on January 4 to form seven committees of

volunteers to organize a demonstration in Newtown on Inauguration Day, January

20. Plans for the demonstration are to be discussed at an open meeting in

Edmond Town Hall on Tuesday, January 16.

State Rep Sarah Frances Curtis was in Newtown January 6 to talk with

constituents. She said the racetrack bill she co-sponsored with Senators

Joseph T. Gormley and Romeo Petroni now has 12 other sponsors in the Senate

and the Assembly and will soon have more. The bill would provide that the

action of any zoning commission authorizing the establishment of a racetrack

could be submitted to a local referendum upon the petition of 200 voters.

JANUARY 9, 1948

The Permanent School Building Committee signed a contract at its meeting

Monday night for the construction of a ten-classroom addition to Hawley

School. Bids from four contractors were opened at the meeting and the DeFonce

Construction Company of Bridgeport was awarded the contract for a contract

price of $192,912, which covers the general construction only. Ground will be

broken at the school on Sunday for the new addition, the first major school

construction in Newtown since the gift of Hawley School to the town by the

late Miss Mary Hawley in 1922. A bulldozer is at work on the site clearing

away the snow so that construction can be undertaken in earnest for the

foundation.

The Newtown Congregational Church was the site on December 31 of the wedding

of Miss Mary Ann (Pat) Bowen, daughter of Mr and Mrs William A. Bowen of the

Hawley Manor, and Donald W. Moxley, son of W. Royden Moxley of Greenwich and

the late Mrs Moxley. After a reception at the Hawley Manor, a New Year's Eve

party was given by Mr and Mrs Duncan Stephens in their home at Fairfield State

Hospital for the immediate family of the bride and groom and their close

friends. Mr and Mrs Moxley then left for their wedding trip in a house trailer

which later will serve as their home until both have completed their courses

at the University of Connecticut at Storrs, where Mrs Moxley is majoring in

home economics and Mr Moxley is studying for the diplomatic service. Mr Moxley

was a member of the Army and served for three years in the European theater of

operations.

James N. Greene, president of the Newtown Rotary Club, is sailing on the Queen

Elizabeth this Friday for Southampton, England, on the first leg of a six-week

business trip through England, Ireland, Belgium, France, Switzerland and

Italy. He will return on the Queen Mary in mid-February. Mr Greene is vice

president of the Frank H. Lee Company, hat manufacturers in Danbury.

In an advertisement, the Hartford County Mutual Fire Insurance Company

reminded readers that one out of every four fires in the home is caused by a

cigarette. Residents should use these precautions: Keep plenty of ash trays

handy; don't smoke in bed; put cigarettes out carefully; never put lighted

cigarettes down on window sills, tables or shelves, or on the edge of an ash

tray.

Suggestions for improvements in the town's taxing system will be included in

an address to be given by Howell Wright free to the public in the Alexandria

Room of Edmond Town Hall next Wednesday evening. Mr Wright, who lives on Main

Street, will talk about "Politics and Town Taxes." His address will include

consideration of the newest opportunities for equalizing and simplifying town

taxes procedures through legislation passed by the State General Assembly.

Forty-seven members were sworn into the Holy Name Society at St Rose Church

last Sunday evening at 7:30 o'clock with the Rev James B. Heary, OP, of the

Dominican order, conducting the service. During the ceremony, the society's

officers were seated within the sanctuary. They included William Kayfus,

president; Thomas Cunningham, marshall; J. William Hayes, secretary; Leo

Carbonneau, treasurer. The solemn ceremony was concluded with the Benediction

of the Most Blessed Sacrament, celebrated by the Rev John F. Culliton,

assisted by the Rev Walter R. Conroy as deacon and Father Heary as sub-deacon.

Albert Roda, who has made his home in Newtown with his daughter and

son-in-law, Mr and Mrs Austin E. Dinkler, died in Florida last week while

spending the Christmas holiday with his youngest daughter. Mr Roda, who was

75, is believed to have been one of the first men to own and operate a

roadside stand in the United States, opening in Long Hill in the horse and

buggy days of 1916. He later retired from the refreshment business and toured

the country from coast to coast and border to border demonstrating gyroscopes

and microscopes at all the World Fairs, expositions and indoor shows.