September 8, 2000

HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER of Marty Maciag

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EDITORIAL INK DROPS — HANGING UP ON TELEMARKETERS: We all have long days where all you want to do is go home, wrap your family around you, and luxuriate in the privacy of your own home. Then the phone rings. You interrupt your conversation with your family, get up from the dinner table, answer the phone, and spend the next 60 seconds trying to disentangle yourself from a telemarketing sales call. If yours is an average household, you can get two or three, or even as many as five or six calls from telemarketers every day. ... That is why a law recently passed by the General Assembly that becomes effective January 1, 2001, is already proving to be one of the most popular new consumer laws ever to be enacted in this state.

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In a legal brief supporting the Police Commission’s decision to fire James E. Lysaght, Jr, as police chief, the town argues that the grounds for his dismissal are “compelling” and urges that Mr Lysaght’s court appeal of the firing, which seeks his reinstatement, be dismissed.

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The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Near the reviewing stand at Monday’s Labor Day Parade, the Connecticut Senior Alumni Drum and Bugle Corps was performing “Battle Hymn of the Republic” when all eyes suddenly turned to an overcast sky. Rumbling overhead was a vintage World War II B-17 flying at a very low altitude. “People were waving flags — tears streaming down their faces,” noted parade organizer Lynda McDow. “It was like a Hollywood director had set the scene.”

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Newtown student enrollment is pretty close to what the district estimated for the 2000-2001 school year that kicked off August 30, and schools began totaling their tentative enrollment totals. Superintendent John R. Reed reported to the school board Tuesday night at their workshop meeting that there are currently 4,939 students in the district, but an official total will not be given until October 1 since that is what the state requires.

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INTERNET INFO FOR REAL PEOPLE — CYBERCAF: Surf the net with a double mint mocha decaf skim latte. That is the basic idea behind cybercafes. According to the cybercafe database, 5,204 verified cybercafes, public Internet access points, and kiosks populate 153 countries. Do not be fooled. Behind the seemingly popular cyber-business lurks high ownership turnover. This is a tough business. Competition from Starbucks and upscale bookstores selling java coupled with free Internet access, commonly found in the public library, challenge urban cybercafe owners. In the face of rigorous alternatives, new cybercafes pop up around the world. Several months ago in Danbury (pop. 64,000) Cybercaf (196 Main Street) joined the fray.

September 5, 1975

EDITORIAL INK DROPS — A LOCK-UP, AND NO PLACE TO GO: We are not trying to be funny with the heading we give to these comments, but are merely pointing out two of the grievances which came before the Board of Police Commissioners on Tuesday evening during the meeting at the Edmond Town Hall. The men of the force have filed requesting two things, the first a lock-up for prisoners and the second, rest room facilities within the confines of the Police Department. … The two grievances, while signaling needs for the Police Department, at the same time stress the strained limitations of the Edmond Town Hall. We have suggested that the burden be lessened by removing the police from the hall and locating them in a new building with the Highway Department.

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On Thursday, August 28, the recently organized Newtown Indian Boosters elected a full slate of officers. Frank Kennedy was elected president of the group, Joe Paoletti, vice president; Chris Nanavity, treasurer; Lee Hiteshew, secretary. Several sub-committees were formed and a general discussion of business was conducted.

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The three youngest children of the Hendrickson family on Rock Ridge Road in Newtown put on a backyard fair to benefit the Leukemia Society Saturday, August 30. … The fair had to be moved indoors at the last minute but with the help of neighborhood children the Hendricksons raised $14.

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Stephen Gold, son of Mr and Mrs Ray Gold of Main Street, has just received his real estate salesman’s license after successfully completing a three-month real estate course at Southern Connecticut State College. Stephen, at age 18, may possibly be the youngest licensed real estate salesman in the state of Connecticut. The 1975 graduate of Newtown High School, and one of the school’s star swimmers, will be attending Southern this fall.

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The Newtown Summer Festival Committee is in need of $300 to meet its 1975 expenses. The Summer Festival Committee is a non-profit organization which sponsors the Annual Labor Day Parade, the Fourth of July fireworks, the Block Party and the Summer Festival Ball. The cost of this year’s parade block party and fireworks display totaled $3,400. All of this money is raised through contributions from local businesses and citizens.

September 1, 1950

First Selectman A. Fenn Dickinson, who was nominated at the Democratic caucus on August 22, as the candidate for representative from the First District, has withdrawn as a candidate. A meeting of the Democratic Town Committee is called for Tuesday evening, September 5, at the Edmond Town Hall at 8 o’clock to fill the vacancy.

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Because of the problem of pollution and the desirability of clean waters for Lake Zoar and also because of the algae problem which exists there, the Health Officer of Newtown has had several conferences during the year with the Water Commission ... as well as with Engineers of the Bureau of Sanitary Engineering of the State Department of Health. As a result of this, surveys have been completed around Lake Zoar and especially this Spring a survey of the Pohtatuck River, as it flows through Sandy Hook and also all other streams in Newtown that enter the Pohtatuck, for the purpose of discovering any pollution that may exist. Thirty-one cases of river pollution were discovered and in August the Water Commission wrote letters to all property owners involved, and a good many have already started eliminating this source of pollution.

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Town Players presented the old Kaufman-Ferber play, “Stage Door,” last Thursday evening in the Edmond Town Hall Theater before an almost capacity audience, an audience which demonstrated its enthusiasm by interrupting several scenes with applause and by demanding many final curtain calls. The play itself is hardly a profound one, its characterizations often bordering on caricature and its dramatic situations rather forced, but these authors know how to whip up all the old tricks and dodges into an evening of theatrical satisfaction.

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Because of the intervention of the Labor Day holiday, The Bee staff will again be grateful to advertisers, correspondents and contributors, for their cooperation in getting copy to The Bee office as early as possible. It’s this sort of team play that gets the paper into the mails promptly on Thursday afternoon.

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Mortimer Smith of Gray’s Plain District is the author of an article in the September issue of The American Mercury called “W. G. Sumner: The Forgotten Man,” in which he traces the career of the ex-cleric who, for 37 years, became “Yale’s greatest teacher.” Sumner died in 1909, after having left his mark on the intellectual thought of the day with a stack of essays on such subjects as the state, property, liberty, democracy, tariffs, strikes, depressions.

September 4, 1925

The Newtown Forestry Association has at present a small tract of woodland in the Taunton district with a recently acquired frontage 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. Cut over woodland unsuitable for agriculture, or which forest planting rightly done, would be very acceptable.

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Sunday afternoon, members of the Bridgeport, Norwalk and Stamford and New York journeyed to Currituck Farm to view the Baby Beef steers that have been fatted by the members of the Newtown Baby Beef Club during the past year. After a very interesting and instructive steer show in which the art of showing beef cattle, the good and bad points of fat steers was thoroughly demonstrated and discussed, one of the club members yoked and drove two of his steers around the lot to the delight of the very appreciative audience. This was followed by a lariat throwing demonstration and picnic supper.

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Mortimer Rundle’s Danbury fair Newtown representatives, Dr A. J. Crowe and A. P. Smith, held their annual Danbury banner raising at Sandy Hook, Wednesday afternoon. The signs were finally spiked to the sides of the store in good style. If Mr Rundle doesn’t make Dr Crowe a director now, then something is wrong with his judgment. Such devotion is unusual.

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Mrs Stanley Blackman underwent an operation, Monday, at the Danbury hospital. Dr Charles H. Peck was the operating surgeon. Mrs Blackman is getting along nicely.

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Miss Viola Kutcher of Stratford, formerly of Newtown, was the guest of honor at a dinner party recently given by Miss Frances Griffin of Hawleyville. The color scheme of pink and white was carried out in the table decorations, the place cards and in the flowers used about the house. The favors were silver baskets tied with pink ribbon and filled with nuts and candy. The surprise of the occasion was the presentation of a large basket decorated in pink by little Jean Marie Flynn, daughter of Mr and Mrs Francis Flynn of Watertown. Before her marriage, Mrs Flynn was Miss Helen Kilbride of Sandy Hook. The basket was found to contain numerous gifts of silver, cut glass and linen.

September 7, 1900

Hon Samuel Curtis Trubee of Bridgeport, who for some weeks has been enjoying life at the Newtown Inn, was very happily surprised, last week Thursday, on the day of the 90th anniversary of his birth. He was invited to go to Bridgeport to meet a few of his business associates and was surprised by the presentation of a beautiful silver loving cup, suitably engraved, from his associates in the Bridgeport Savings and Connecticut National banks.

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William H. Sanford of New York was a guest of his parents, Mr and Mrs Aaron Sanford over Labor Day.

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The Newtown Savings Bank has sold, through Aaron Sanford, the Nathan G. Shepard place in Sandy Hook to a party in Darien.

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Letters addressed to the following parties remained uncalled for in the Newtown post office, September 1: Mrs Henry Jamison, Miss Edith Gertrude Marshall, Moses H. Reynolds, Mrs Wilbur Smith, Mrs J. Cuyler Shaw. —[George F. Duncombe, postmaster.

Do you have photographs of people or places in town from a bygone era? The Way We Were is the perfect landing spot so that your photographs can be enjoyed by readers of The Newtown Bee. Images can be e-mailed as attachments to shannon@thebee.com, subject line: Way We Were photo. When submitting photographs, please identify as many people as possible, the location, and the approximate date. If you live locally and would like to loan a photo/photos, please give us a call (203-426-3141) to let us know when you will be visiting.