Full Text:

WAY WE WERE

FEBRUARY 9, 1973

The rains last Friday swelled the brook through Dickinson Town Park to the

point of overflow, leaving ditches, gaps in the road and undermining of the

pavilion blacktop surface. The water swept with it many pieces of debris,

including telephone poles, and left the pipes under the road to the ball field

exposed. A considerable amount of work will be needed to correct the

situation. Newtown's five volunteer fire companies also were busy over the

weekend, pumping the water out of basements in many homes.

Newtown's Grand List, reported this week by Assessor Robert Ryan, increased

$6.8 million over the past year. As of October 1, 1972, the Grand List stood

at $154.3 million. Increases were recorded in all three categories: real

estate, personal property, and motor vehicles. A large part of the 4.6 percent

increase was due to the construction of 125 new homes.

Public work sessions were held this week on the town and school budgets which

will go to the voters in May. The tentative $5,495,707 school budget as

recommended by Superintendent James Boyd is up $565,949, or 11.5 percent

higher than the 1972-73 budget as approved by the voters last year. Much of

the increase is due to salary increases, and additional staff requested,

including teachers, special education personnel and $15,000 for a maintenance

supervisor for the school district.

More than 50 people joined the Board of Selectmen for its regular meeting

Tuesday evening in the hot and smoky meeting room which once served the town

as the bowling alley. Most of those who were on hand had come to present their

proposed departmental budgets for the next fiscal year. Dr Thomas Draper,

health officer, said the town needs a sanitarian, $11,000-$13,000, and a

social worker, $10,000-$12,000. The Board of Fire Commissioners requested

$90,000 for a new aerial ladder truck. Assessor Robert Ryan said it will cost

the town about $80,000 for a townwide assessment in 1975 and proposed that the

amount be spread over the next three budgets. The Police Commission is

requesting five additional police officers. Public Works said it needs

$120,000 in new and replacement equipment.

On Monday evening two high school students, Steve Pelletier and Joe Dauplaise,

began practical training aspects of a new course initiated at the high school:

firefighting. The course is being conducted through the high school's Work

Experience Program with the cooperation of the chiefs of the five volunteer

fire companies. A semester's credit goes with the successful completion of the

program. Steve Pelletier is a cadet with Newtown Hook & Ladder No 1; Joe

Dauplaise is with the United Fire Company of Botsford.

3-D Car Wash on White Street in Danbury is offering a car wash for $1.29 with

any gas purchase. Gasoline prices are 34.9 for regular; 38.9 for premium.

The new Route 25 will stop in Trumbull. Completion of the expressway from

Bridgeport to Route 111 in Trumbull has been given top priority by the state

Department of Transportation in a report issued this week. But the section

from Trumbull through Newtown to I-84 has been put off for at least a decade.

Douglas Biesel of Boy Scout Troop 470 was awarded the rank of Eagle Scout,

highest rank achievable, at a court of honor at St Rose Church. Douglas is a

sophomore at Newtown High School and the second scout to achieve Eagle rank in

the troop. He is the son of Mr and Mrs William Biesel of Shut Road in the

Dodgingtown section.

FEBRUARY 6, 1948

Residents of Cedarhurst Road, Zoar district, will not forget the present

winter. Nearly all rural roads in Newtown were blocked by a series of storms

and some, like Cedarhurst, required the services of a steam shovel to clear

before being opened to traffic. The storms have depleted the town's $20,000

road fund. A special meeting will be held this week to approve an additional

appropriation.

More than 2 million members of the Boy Scouts of America throughout the nation

are expected to observe the 38th anniversary of the organization during Boy

Scout Week which opens this Friday. The scouts are engaged in the program of

saving and producing food to alleviate the world food shortages. As part of

their service program this year, each scout is expected to "save a bushel,

grow a bushel, share a bushel" of food.

The Board of Assessors, with George Tower as chairman, has completed the 1947

Grand List for the town of Newtown. The list shows a total of $8,178,970, an

increase of $1,140,976 from the previous year. The increase is largely due to

an increase in the assessments made on the properties of some 450 taxpayers,

out of a total of 3,000 taxpayers. Mr Tower said he has come to the

conclusion, after close study of the town's assessment problems, that

professional help is needed to obtain an entirely equitable set of assessment

figures for the taxpayers of Newtown.

People of Newtown will join with thousands of other communities in this

country and around the world in a service of prayer on Friday, February 13.

The theme, universally used, is "The World at Prayer," with the Lord's Prayer

as the central thought. The service will be held in the Newtown Congregational

Church at half past three in the afternoon, a convenient hour for most women,

for young people from school, and for many men as well. The offering which is

given at this time helps to support eight interdenominational colleges for

women in India, China and Japan, and provides magazines for women and children

in many lands. In the United States, it provides comfort and service for

migrant workers and it supports religious workers among American Indians.

Plans are underway, headed by W.A. Upham of Hawleyville, to revive and enlarge

the Newtown Republican Club, which was active a number of years ago. Mr Upham

obtain a charter from the state last November and plans to send out membership

cards to prospective members next week. The dues are only $1 per year. A

meeting will soon be held to name officers and committees, plan meetings and

future activities. The motivating purpose is to strengthen the party and

promote the cause of clean politics and efficient administration in public

affairs.

Despite another snowstorm, the benefit basketball games between the Newtown

High School, the St Rose Newtowners and the Social Athletic Club turned in

over $76 to the March of Dimes. Virginia Laborde was on hand to toss out the

ball to Paul Cavanaugh at the beginning of each game. The thriller of the

evening was the St Rose win over the high school in the last minute of play by

a 48-46 score.

A meeting of the architects with the board of the planned new regional high

school is scheduled for this Friday evening. The architects, O'Connor and

Kilham of New York City, have been working for weeks on various arrangements

of school facilities and departments. The architects had been directed to draw

up the preliminary plans for the regional junior and senior high school before

Newtown and Bethlehem voted in town meetings last fall to withdraw from the

district. A decision is pending in the State Supreme Court on the legality of

the withdrawal.