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THE WAY WE WERE FOR February 14, 1997

FEBRUARY 18, 1972

The conference room at the Middle School was filled to capacity as 40 people

came to listen in on the Board of Education's work session on the budget

Tuesday night. At the close of the session, board members opened the floor for

public comment and most of those speaking asked for items which would increase

the budget, including special education classes within the school system,

another school psychologist and a teacher for the perceptually handicapped in

the middle school. Items which the board seemed inclined to cut included

$10,000 for a television system for the middle school and $4,200 for a

computer for the high school math department.

Only four people attended a meeting of the new Charter Revision Commission at

which the commission hoped to get suggestions and recommendations of

townspeople for revision of the town charter. Before the meeting began,

however, commission member James Smith announced that the composition of the

commission violates the state statutes and therefore cannot vote or do any

official business. The statutes state that the commission may have seven to 15

members, but not more than one-third of the commission members may be elected

to any town position or board. Newtown's commission has seven members, four of

whom hold elected posts. The commission must either be dissolved and

reappointed or have more members, none of whom should hold elected positions.

Attorney Raymond Dole presented the results of his investigation into the

history of Belden House on Main Street, which is now owned by the Newtown

Historical Society. The land itself was originally owned by Benjamin Sherman

of STratford who in 1714 gave his right to the land as granted by the General

Court to his son, Job Sherman of Newtown. Job's daughter, Eunice Marchant and

her husband transferred the land, then over two acres, to the Rev David Judson

in 1774. In 1781 the minister's son transferred nine rods of the property to

Matthew Curtis Jr and his wife, Hannah, and the rest to Hannah. Those nine

rods, including a house that was built between 1781 and 1786, are now the

property of the historical society.

At its first meeting in the new Borough room on the main floor of Edmond Town

Hall, the Board of Burgesses announced that arrangements had been made for two

sprays for insects on borough streets at a cost of $956 for each spray, plus

an additional $500 for state roads in the borough. Town officials, meenwhile,

continued to discuss the defoliation problem at a joint meeting of the

Conservation Commission and the Board of Selectmen. A committee made up of

Sanford Mead, town tree warden; commission members Theodore Whippie and Rita

Lapati; Arthur Christie, state forester, and Howard Kemmerer of the Fairfield

County Conservation District, was formed to work out the details of a possible

spraying program.

The Newtown Chamber of Commerce approved a major reorganization at its annual

meeting , forming division chairmen for the industrial, retail and

professional people and organizations in town. Robert M. Carruth, sales

manager of S. Curtis & Son, Inc, of Sandy Hook, will head the industrial

division. Noris Donlon, retired vice president of Macy's, will head the retail

division and Dr Robert S. Grossman, surgeon, will head the professional

division with George N. Wakelee, partner of Wakelee & Isaac of Newtown, as

vice chairman. The purpose of these divisions is to coordinate improvements

and ideas for the community in each of those areas.

FEBRUARY 14, 1947

The Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire Company, now engaged in raising $6,500 for the

purchse and remodeling of Glover Hall on Glen Road, received more than $400

last week and took another step toward the establishment of community services

by providing a home for the Sandy Hook Free Public Library. The library, which

has been in existence nearly 50 years, is being forced to move because of the

sale of the building in which it is located. The Rev O.O. Wright, who founded

the library, started it as a round robin, each member buying a book and after

reading it, passing the volume on to some other member. The library was

incorporated in 1906 and expanded through bequests of community-minded

residents.

The Hawley School Basketball teams, girls and boys, will both play on the

Washington High School court this Friday to decide very important

championships. The girls are meeting the strong Thomaston Girls' team for the

league championship and the Hawley boys will meat the Regional High School

team in the Housatonic Valley League playoffs.

An unprecedent number of permits have been filed in the past few months to

establish gasoline stations in Newtown. There are already 27 gasoline outlets

in town and garage owners are complaining that the number is increasing so

rapidly that soon few, if any, of them will be a paying business. The problem

goes deeper than that, however, The Bee said in an editorial. The

establishment of these businesses, often in what had been residential areas,

is changing the character of towns. The editorial said the town's new Town

Development Committee should address the need for zoning in Newtown as well as

the need for property revaluation.

Barbara (Bobbie) Thumann, 14, of Bethel defeated 38 contestants from all over

the United States to become the new national junior baton twirling champion at

the competition in St Paul, Minn. She twirls with the Grassy Plain Drum Corps.

Recently Judge Paul V. Cavanaugh of Newtown, county chairman of the National

Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, presented her with a medal for her work in

connection with securing funds for the March of Dimes.

A second fire at the Club 6-25 this week is believed to be arson. The fire,

which occurred three and one-half days after the first blaze, finished the

destruction of the nightclub on the Newtown-Danbury road near the junction of

Routes 6 and 25.