By Steve Bigham

By STEVE BIGHAM

Published: Oct 10, 2001 12:00 am

By Steve Bigham

STRATFORD â Practically running in the dark late Tuesday afternoon, the Newtown High girlsâ cross-country team dominated the competition on its way to three easy wins at Roosevelt Park in Stratford.

The Nighthawks took the first eight spots overall as they ran away from Weston (15-50), Stratford (15-50) and Jonathan Law (15-50). The three wins raised Newtownâs record to 10-2 heading into the final week of the regular season.

The Nighthawks head to Eisenhower Park in Milford next Monday to meet Lauralton Hall, Bunnell and Notre Dame. That will be followed by next Fridayâs South-West Conference meet at Bethel.

Tuesdayâs impressive performance went a long way toward burying Newtownâs sub-par performance last week against Bethel and Joel Barlow. In that event, the Nighthawks seemed sluggish in their final times showed.

This week, however, Newtown appeared to return to its former self and coach Marsha Caine is hopeful that will carry over to the SWC meet.

Can Newtown win the SWCs?

âItâs hard to say. It depends on the day,â Caine said. âWeâll certainly be in the running for it.â

The Nighthawks finished fourth a year ago.

Tuesdayâs race was considered a âfun runâ as the team got a chance to relax, knowing it would win the meet easily.

Newtownâs Laura Reid was the overall winner Tuesday, completing the course in 16 minutes, 19 seconds. It was after 6 pm by the time the event kicked off. The Weston bus reportedly got lost on the way to the event, pushing back both the boysâ and girlsâ meets.

The darkness could not hide the fact that Newtown took the top eight spots, however. Melanie Murphy finished six seconds behind Reid in 16:25. Third-place finisher Angela Shannon followed in 16:39, while Christine Manfredonia (16:40), Jen Russell (16:50), Sarah MacKnight (16:53), Caitlyn Weber (16:58) and Carolyn Brennan (17:14) rounded out the top eight.

Megan Ignatius was 10th overall in 17:50, followed by Jayme Crane (12th, 18:22), Jessica Snow (14th, 18:38), Monica Zigman (17th, 19:15), Erin Dennen 20th, 20:08), Quincy Blanchard (27th, 21:11) and Theresa Villafano (28th, 21:20).

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Unfortunately, I think this is likely to get worse, not better... Based on both public comments and private conversations, I’m increasingly concerned that our newly elected First Selectman intends not just to install these cameras, but to expand their use for full-blown enforcement and fines. Try getting a straight answer out of him about the long-term plan and you quickly realize how vague the responses become. Tyler is absolutely right to raise the privacy issue. These systems don’t just “catch speeders” — they quietly build a database of where we drive, when we drive, and who is in our vehicles. Once that infrastructure is in place, it becomes very easy to justify expanding its scope: more cameras, more locations, more uses, and eventually more automated enforcement. If Newtown is going down this road, residents deserve clear, written answers to some basic questions before anything is expanded: What limits will be placed on how and where cameras are used? Will footage and plate data be used only for speed enforcement, or for other investigations too? How long will data be stored, and who can access it? What safeguards will prevent vendors and individuals from abusing this information? Without firm, enforceable rules in place, “just a few cameras to slow traffic” can turn into something very different over time. I support safe roads — but not at the cost of unchecked surveillance and vague promises from our leaders. You try getting straight answers out of our First Selectman, myself and others have not been able to...

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I had to hold back a laugh at the idea that 7:30 pm is apparently such a late-night hardship that we’re already talking about moving meetings earlier. For a lot of residents, 7:30 is the earliest they can realistically get to Town Hall after work, family obligations, and the rest of real life. Shifting BOS meetings to 7:00 might make the calendar look tidier for those in the building, but it makes participation harder for the people who pay for the building. If the new First Selectman’s week is already booked solid and evening meetings feel like a strain, that’s not a reason to move the goalposts on public access—it's a reminder that the job is supposed to be demanding. Public service means accommodating the public, even when it’s inconvenient.

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Real people were just in a frightening car accident. To immediately frame their misfortune as rhetorical ammunition against new housing — affordable housing included — feels less like concern for “health and safety” and more like opportunistically using a scary moment to support a pre-existing position. If we’re going to debate this proposal, we should do it honestly: with data on traffic volume, accident history, engineering recommendations, and the town’s housing needs, not by seizing on a single crash as proof that 300 apartments are inherently unsafe. Newtown deserves a thoughtful, fact-based conversation about growth, safety, and affordability — one that doesn’t turn other people’s bad day into a political talking point.

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To add context that did not occur at the meeting would not be an accurate representation of the meeting and would, in fact, be editorializing to shape public opinion. The editorial staff here do not consider ourselves to be final arbiters of what the truth is (and if we did, it would make us partisan and biased), and we would need to provide a source for any dissenting information (sourcing all information in an article is literally Journalism 101). There were no such sources present at the meeting in question, and so it would not be appropriate to include such information in an article about the meeting. Dissenting voices appear in meeting stories when there were active participants with dissenting opinions, such as during public participation or the words of a council member who disagreed. It should be noted that the Interfaith Council, like many local boards and commissions, conduct meetings that are open to the public. This was not an article on the actions of the Greater Danbury Area Unites for Immigrants, or on immigrants, or on ICE's actions in the community, where including other voices or perspectives would be appropriate. We appreciate your opinion, but we stand by our meeting coverage and consider this discussion closed.

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Propaganda is the systematic dissemination of information, often biased or misleading, to shape public perception and behavior toward a specific political cause or point of view. I'm not asking for Newtown Bee to editorialize, but providing context, where appropriate, to provide the reader with a more holistic view of the facts seems like a reasonable practice, particularly when encouraging the reader to decide what to believe/not to believe. Absent that context, this feels biased and misleading and intended to shape public perception.

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