The Planning & Zoning Commission has approved the application of Newtown Housing for the Elderly Inc. for a special exception to construct a 40-unit complex of housing for the elderly on a 20-acre tract of land off Nunnawauk Road.

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The unsuccessful Republican primary candidate for first selectman, Philip Kopp, has remained silent since the results of the voting came into his headquarters on Tuesday evening. The Bee talked with Mr Kopp at headquarters shortly after he learned of the vote tally and that time he said he had no comment on the results of the primary but that he would have a statement on Wednesday. However, Mr Kopp, early on Wednesday, although The Bee was told again there would be a statement, did not issue one. The Bee managed to reach Mr Kopp on Thursday morning at press time and was told that a statement had been prepared but that “we are checking on one item in it before releasing it.” Mr Kopp stated that he did not know exactly when the statement would be issued since “we think it may not be fair to do so until the results of the Democratic primary are in.”

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A petition carrying more than 100 signatures requested the Park and Recreation Department to keep the swimming pool in Dickinson Town Park open “at least weekends” in September, but by the time the Park and Recreation Commission met to discuss the petition, Park Superintendent Arthur Bennett had already pulled the plug.

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Fashions from Honore Ltd, Union Square, Southbury, will be modeled by Mrs William Meyer, Mrs Sherman Woodward, Mrs Vincent Gaffney, Mrs Lyman Rogers, Mrs Timothy Loughlin, Mrs George Mattegat, and Mrs Roger Bjornberg at the show on Wednesday, September 17, sponsored by the Newtown Republican Women’s Club at the Alexandria Room of the Edmond Town Hall, starting at 8 pm.

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The Department of Transportation will tentatively hold a public meeting to consider alternate corridors for the proposed Route 25 in the Edmond Town Hall gym, at 8 pm, October 6. The meeting is not a public hearing, but rather a public information session, set up at the request of DOT, for the state to gather information about which of the two proposed corridors for the route in Newtown would be most advisable. The Board of Selectmen, the Planning and Zoning Commission, the Conservation Commission, and members of the Selectmen’s Route 25 Impact Study Committee have been invited to give their comments. The Route 25 Committee has already recommended corridor B1 for the new highway in its report.

***

The perils of postmen and politicians. Among items filed in the campaign finances statement of Democratic contender for first selectman Gerald J. Frawley was this item among expenses: “Dr Evans, Newtown, tetanus shot, dog bite, $4.” Who among the Frawley camp met up with an unfriendly non-voter in the quest for support in the September 11 Democratic primary? The candidate himself, it turns out. When asked Tuesday where he’d received the bite, the normally candid candidate replied, “I can’t tell you.”

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Remembering last time, the Planning & Zoning Commission has reserved two nights for a public hearing on “Eagle Hill,” a proposed treatment facility for alcoholics. An earlier proposal for Eagle Hill was the subject of a nine-hour public hearing in August, 1974, which finally ended at 5 am.

SEPTEMBER 15, 1950

Wednesday evening’s special town meeting, held in the gymnasium of the Edmond Town Hall at 8 o’clock, voted by a ballot count of 82-42 to reject a resolution presented by James Brunot, chairman of the Town Development Committee, for the reorganization of the Newtown Fire Department. Representative George M. Stuart was elected chairman of the meeting, following which Mr Brunnot took the floor to read his resolution and give a full explanation of it. He stated that a detailed study of the equipment and organization of the Newtown Fire Department had been made at the request of the Board of Finance and that the resolution before the meeting was an outcome of that study. The proposed changes in the resolution from that adopted in 1942 would increase the number of members of the Board of Fire Commissioners from five to seven and would define more clearly the duties and responsibilities of the fire commissioners.

***

Four former schoolmates in Newtown High School took off from Newtown early Sunday morning for a five-day vacation motor and camping trip to Montreal and Quebec. They are Herman Wachsmuth, Harry E. Lake, Jr, Gordon T. Williams, and Jack Cochran. Mr Cochran is a senior in the University of Bridgeport, majoring in political science, where Mr Williams is specializing in mechanical engineering. Mr Lake is a junior in business administration at the University of Connecticut.

***

Blue ribbons and cash awards attested to the successful efforts of Newtown youngsters who participated in the agricultural fair held Tuesday evening in Hawley School and arranged by Vincent P. Gaffney, vocational agriculture teacher, with the assistance of Mrs Katherine Schneider, home economics teacher.

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The second semi-formal dance of the season for Newtown’s younger set was held at the Newtown Country Club last Friday evening, with 30 couples enjoying the music of Paul Gillotti’s orchestra, a group from the Danbury Teachers College. Mr and Mrs Edmund E. Neary and Mr and Mrs Donald R. McCain, Jr, were chaperons. Refreshments were served during the evening. Miss Mary Pat Carroll was general chairman of the dance and, in addition to her reservation committee composed of Sheila Steck, Marietta Reif, and Joan Weeks, she was assisted by the following: Caroline Paulis, chairman of refreshments, assisted by Shirley Weeks, Mike Trimpert, and Judy Brewer; Vicki Boyle, orchestra; George McLachlan, Peter Honegger, and Curtis Brewer, decorations; and Henry Taylor, publicity.

***

The Board of Finance held a public hearing in the Alexandria Room of the Edmond Town Hall on Tuesday evening at 8 o’clock, with H.H. Cutler, chairman of the board, presiding. The purpose of the hearing was to review the requests submitted by the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Education for appropriations to cover estimated expenditures for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 1950. There was an attendance of almost 50 persons, and considerable time was spent discussing the individual items in both budgets. The selectmen’s requested appropriations total $189,476.30, which compares with the current year’s appropriations plus transfers of $160,512.44. The school budget totals $182,054 compared with the current budget of $203,185.09.

***

With the passing of Labor Day, summer officially ends for most young people. Topics of conversation gradually change from swimming and tennis to football and soccer. The straw hat circuit is replaced by countless country and 4-H fairs. Store windows are filled with fall clothes, notebooks, pencils, and paper supplies. And schools all over the country open their doors to new and old students. Locally, Hawley School welcomed 729 students, including kindergarten youngsters, the largest number in its history. High school classes alone registered 286 of this total. Beginning last week, the annual exodus also got under way. This year it’s bigger than ever with parochial, trades, private, and prep schools, as well as colleges and universities, drawing more than 100 young people from Newtown homes.

***

While John Stefanko, Sr, of Sandy Hook, is temporarily incapacitated at his home, neighbors came in last Sunday with trucks and other apparatus and helped the sons in filling the silo. Fourteen loads of corn were blown into the capacious structure to help feed his 60 head of cattle next winter. Mr Stefanko, usually very active, was most appreciative, but chagrined not to be able to join the boys in the fall harvesting.

 

SEPTEMBER 11, 1925

The Hawley school opened on Tuesday with the following enrollment: Grades 1 to 6, 150 pupils; Grades 7 to 8, 47 pupils; Grades 9 to 12, 76 pupils. Total, 273 pupils.

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All public spirited members of the community will be pleased to know that as the result of the co-operation of Friends of the Library in the recent White Elephant sale, 22 books have been given to the library and a fund of $200 has been deposited in the Newtown Savings Bank for the purchase of the best new books as they are published during the winter.

***

The Newtown contingent at the Washington fair on Saturday included A.E. Brinton, Mr and Mrs David C. Peck, Charles N. Harang, Mr and Mrs Eugene Peck, Mr and Mrs Archibald McArthur, George W. Northrop, Harlow Benedict, Mr and Mrs C.F. Cavanaugh, Allison P. Smith, Martin K. Donahue, Charles D. Ferris, the Ferris brothers, John C. Beers.

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Ambrose Conger has taken the contract for carrying the mail from Sandy Hook to Stevenson, making two round trips daily for a four-year term.

SEPTEMBER 14, 1900

Miss H. Sherman has been engaged to teach the Gray’s Plain School.

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Edward Egan has raised some beans that are a curiosity, the pod being more than three feet long.

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Andrew Bailey has recently traded his horse, Milo, with Frank Conger for a heavy work horse.

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Lawrence Taylor, the station agent at Botsford, has a fine new road horse, which he bought of Bridgeport parties.

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The citizens of Sandy Hook and Newtown were treated to most unwelcome news on Friday, when it became generally known that the industrial blow in the closing of the local Rubber shops, which had long been feared, was about to become a fact. Naturally the news created a powerful sensation about town, and in the homes; on the street and in the stores and saloons, it was the one exciting theme of conversation.