On Friday, August 29, the entire day shift and a midnight shift supervisor failed to show up for work at Police Headquarters. All called in sick, and as a result a swift statement was issued by the Board of Police Commissioners, who referred to the sick calls as a job action because of discontentment among the men at the way contract negotiations were going. The police have denied that it was a job action, and the denial has been backed up by the president of the local of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers union, Sgt Raymond Tompkins. The contract for the police ran out on June 30 of this year, and negotiations have gone to mediation.

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One of the first duties of the Miss Teenage Newtown is to travel down Main Street in the Labor Day Parade smiling and waving at the townspeople and pleasantly enough for the onlookers one of the most winning things about this year’s Miss Teenage Newtown Shelley Warren is her smile. Sixteen-year-old Shelley is a junior at Newtown High School, the youngest of four children of Mr and Mrs Charles B. Warren of Palestine Road.

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Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors paid a visit to Newtown on Thursday, August 28, and as a result, on Tuesday evening, the Board of Police Commissioners found themselves meeting in the Mary Hawley Room of Edmond Town Hall instead of the squad room at headquarters. The reason – OSHA found that the lockers for the men were blocking a fire entrance, so they all had to be moved into the squad room, causing an over-crowded condition.

***

The scale model of Newtown’s topography has been completed and is on display in the Cyrenius Booth Library. Now interested residents can see the shape of their town as it might look from 20,000 feet up; rivers, valleys, hills, and plains. The project has been more than a year in construction, financed by a non-profit corporation known as Eco-graphics Inc., and executed by Daniel Danahy, under the direction of Erwin Potter, an environmental systems planner with an office on Route 25.

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Following an inspection of local town bridges over railroad tracks this week, First Selectman Frank DeLucia requested Tuesday that school buses avoid using two of them, one on Turkey Hill Road, and another on Schoolhouse Hill Road. He described these as “precautionary measures.”

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Questions about interior traffic circulation occupied the major part of the Planning & Zoning Commission’s public hearing August 28 on the application of Newtown Housing for the Elderly Inc. for a special exception to build 40 units of housing for the elderly on 20 acres off Nunnawauk Road.

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On September 23 Judy Furlotte will be defending women’s honor when she meets S. William Denlinger on the tennis court. Mrs Furlotte, who issued the challenge to Mr Denlinger last May, has been seen daily at the Dickinson Memorial Park tennis courts during the summer working on her serve and backhand. The time and place of the match will be announced at a later date. This match to determine male or female superiority promises to be an event as significant as the recent Bobby Riggs-Billy Jean King match.

SEPTEMBER 8, 1950

A special town meeting has been called for Wednesday evening, September 13, at the Edmond Town Hall at 8 o’clock. The purpose of the meeting is to consider and act upon a report of the Town Development Committee, in which the committee recommends a reorganization of the Newtown Fire Department. It is proposed to change the number of members of the Board of Fire Commissioners to seven, and a new method for selecting the members is suggested. The duties and responsibilities of the Fire Commissioners will be more fully defined under the proposed change than at present.

***

At the annual meeting of the trustees of the Cyrenius H. Booth Library, held Tuesday evening, September 5, Mortimer B. Smith was elected president, succeeding Raymond B. Fosdick, who resigned because of the pressure of out-of-town obligations. Mr Fosdick was elected vice-president, a position which Mr Smith had previously held. The board re-elected Mrs Alice H. Carroll as secretary and H. Carlton Hubbell as treasurer. Mrs Sarah B. Mitchell was reelected as Acting Librarian and Aaron H. Sanford as secretary and H. Carlton Hubbell as treasurer.

***

Student enrollments in Newtown schools are expected to be at an all-time high in the 1950-51 school year, according to figures released by Superintendent Carl A. LeGrow on the first day of school. Newtown schools opened at 8:50 Wednesday morning and 706 students were located in their various classrooms in the 12 grades and the kindergarten. This 706 total compares with the high figure of 653 students enrolled in classes on the first day of school last year.

***

Last Thursday evening’s special town meeting, with an attendance of 200 voters and taxpayers, provided considerable debate on the part of many speakers, but in the end voted to purchase a site for a new high school in Newtown and named a building committee of nine members to proceed with the project.

***

At a meeting of the Democratic Town Committee called by Chairman John F. Holian and held in Edmond Town Hall Tuesday night, the committee named Harry G. Anderson as candidate for state representative. Mr Anderson was named to replace A. Fenn Dickinson, who resigned his candidacy because of the conflict of the duties of the new office with his present obligations as Newtown first selectman.

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A public meeting for general discussion of the curriculum of the proposed new high school for Newtown has been arranged by the Board of Education to be held in the Alexandria Room, Edmond Town Hall, this Friday evening at 8 o’clock.

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The Newtown Parent Teachers Association has organized several committees to conduct the various activities planned for the 1950-51 school year. The first program, to take place on Tuesday, September 12, at Hawley school, will be the usual interesting Agricultural Fair, arranged by Vincent Gaffney, assisted by Mrs Catherine Schneider. In this, the youngsters will exhibit their skills in handicraft, sewing, cooking, and produce growing. Prizes will be awarded for the best entries.

 

SEPTEMBER 4, 1925

Henry Mackenzie, state labor commissioner, is a new member of the Newtown Forestry Association. Mr Mackenzie believes in helping a good work along.

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Charles Milot, who has carried on the Sandy Hook market for two years, closed up business, Monday.

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The Newtown Forestry Association has at present a small tract of woodland in the Taunton district on the upper Taunton road. This is the first town forest to be established in Connecticut, a distinction of which we are justly proud. The officers of the Association are desirous of acquiring additional land situated somewhere in the township and solicit gifts of tracts, however small the acreage or commercial value.

SEPTEMBER 7, 1900

Ralph Benedict’s residence looks very nice in its new coat of paint. The Messrs Canfield are artists at painting.

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G.R. Parmelee is already preparing for next winter’s ice crop by building a dam across a piece of low ground near his house.

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Father Smith may well feel proud of the success of the entertainment at the Town Hall, Monday evening, for the benefit of St Rose Church, as the hall was crowded and the program passed off in a very creditable manner. Much praise is due the talented Miss Telgmann, who had the direction of the entertainment, and also took a prominent part herself.