Senior Burgess James Geis will conduct a brief ceremony Sunday noon, weather permitting, as the Borough of Newtown raises its Bicentennial flag on the flagpole at the monument. Newtown First Selectman Jack Rosenthal will attend the event.

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 First Selectman Jack Rosenthal has requested that the Board of Police Commissioners attempt getting traffic signals at three of the most dangerous intersections in town. Acting on requests he said he’s received from residents, the first selectman asked for signals at the Currituck Road-Main Street intersection; the intersection at the flagpole of Main Street and Church Hill Road; the intersection of The Boulevard and Church Hill.

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In the second show of the Colonial Color Guard Circuit sponsored by the Fairfield Colonades on Saturday, January 31, the Royal Guardsmen of Newtown won the first place trophy in their division. Their captain, Miss Bonnie MacKay, also won a first place medal.

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Quick response and attack time by firefighters saved the School House Hill Road barn owned by Edward and Frank McGlinchy on Saturday afternoon, January 21, according to Hook & Ladder Chief Kenneth Pelletier. Thirty men from Hook & Ladder, plus the ladder truck and engines 1, 11, and 15 responded, as well as Sandy Hook’s tanker 1 and engine 49, at 3:25 pm.

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The Board of Selectmen acted Tuesday night to appoint two Town Counsels for terms of indefinite length following two meetings in January at which the matter was not resolved. Attorney Paul E. Pollock, who was sole Town Counsel from July, 1975, was named attorney for the town’s regulatory agencies, the Planning & Zoning Commission, Zoning Board of Appeals, and Conservation Commission. A resident of Hy-Vue drive, Mr Pollock is with the Bridgeport firm of Bai, Pollock and Dunnigan. Attorney William J. Lavery, of 10 Main Street, was named counsel for the Board of Selectmen and general government, the Legislative Council and the Board of Tax Review. He is with the Bridgeport-Newtown firm of Erhsam and Lavery.

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Newtown’s Study Committee for Municipal Tax Relief for the Elderly is now in business, and they’ve got a lot of work to do in the 60 days they have to come up with a proposal for the Legislative Council. Fulfilling a campaign pledge, Jack Rosenthal got the Board of Selectmen to appoint the committee in January. The members, under Public Act 74-292, are studying the form and content such relief may take, and will deal with the advisability of providing such relief also. An ordinance enacting the program will be suggested to the Legislative Council.

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The February 3 meeting of the Board of Selectmen was to have been the night when the members were to have thrashed out First Selectman Jack Rosenthal’s recent suggestion that a charter revision commission be named to consider eliminating the Board of Selectmen from the town’s government. Democrat Rosenthal and the two Republicans, Frank DeLucia and Thomas Goosman, had previously expressed differing views on the matter, but any discussion was halted by a surprising discovery. The Board of Selectmen does not now have the authority to name a charter revision commission.

FEBRUARY 9, 1951

Favorable action was taken at Friday night’s special town meeting held at the Edmond Town Hall, on a resolution adopting an ordinance providing the exact specifications which must be met before any street or highway can be approved by the Board of Selectmen.

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In spite of rain and the pea-soup fog of last Thursday evening, some 50 members attended the annual meeting of the Newtown Congregational Church, which was held at 8 o’clock in the church house. Departing from the custom of previous years, there was no supper, the meeting confining itself strictly to business, with action taken on several important matters. The most important item of business was the adoption of a resolution presented by S. Wirt Wiley, under the terms of which it was voted that “the church take steps to incorporate by creating a committee to draft a constitution and by-laws to be presented to a legally called meeting of the church at a later date, and that the church elect three members of the committee and invite the Eccleastical Society to appoint two others.

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“Civil defense, like charity, begins at home,” said Comdr W.W. Bayley in an address before the Newtown Parent Teachers Association, Tuesday evening, February 6, at Hawley School. Comdr Bayley, chairman of the meeting, presented a group of speakers representing various branches of the Newtown Civil Defense organization. As former director he is well acquainted with the urgency of local defense preparations and that was his theme, stressing the need for the cooperation and the enrollment of every adult in Newtown.

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Pohtatuck Grange will hold its regular bi-monthly meeting in Grange Hall next Tuesday night, February 13, at 8 o’clock. Mrs Lewis R. Slocum, lecturer, will be in charge of the lecture program, which will feature a paper on the origin of St Valentine’s Day by Mrs Robert K. Mitchell; a skit in charge of Nancy Ameo, Martha Jones, and James Slocum, and a Valentine exchange. Refreshments will be served by Mr and Mrs David Scott and Mr and Mrs Robert K. Mitchell.

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The present exhibit at the Cyrenius H. Booth Library called “As We Were” is unique and should prove to be of interest to all local residents. The staff has done a commendable job of unearthing much of the town’s history, both in picture and printed form. Townspeople have cooperated in looting attics for this visual record of the town’s past, and the result is well worth the perusal.

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An open meeting will be held in the Alexandria Room of the Edmond Town Hall on Friday evening, February 23, at 8 o’clock, to which the public is invited. The purpose of the meeting is to acquaint the public with the action that has already been taken to clear up the pollution in Lake Zoar, and to discuss what further measures are necessary to improve the lake water.

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The Newtown Board of Education at a special meeting Thursday evening, February 1, adopted a new salary schedule for teachers. The new schedule begins with a $2,600 minimum and extends to a $4,000 maximum for teachers with a bachelor’s degree. The master’s degree schedule begins at $2,800 and reaches a maximum of $4,400.

FEBRUARY 5, 1926

J.A. Turner of Hawleyville had a narrow escape with a snake on Wednesday. After a severe tussle, he succeeded in killing the animal, which measured three feet from tip to tip. How is that for the third of February?

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The case of the boys arrested on the charge of stealing overcoats at the Hopkins dance came before Judge McCarthy Wednesday night, and was continued until Saturday, February 13.

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The Upham Food Products at Hawleyville is one of the busiest places in town just now. They are at present time employing about 60 hands and have been unable to keep up with their orders.

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Newtown received a blow industrially Saturday morning when the Crowe-Keane Button factory at Botsford, on the state road, was destroyed by fire. The buildings were old, but the factory was equipped with modern machinery, and had been running steadily for years.

FEBRUARY 8, 1901

Arthur Reynolds, the son of W.M. Reynolds, has been highly honored by receiving an appointment on the floor committee at the inaugural ball at Washington on the evening of March 4, when President McKinley and the other notable guests will be present. Mr Reynolds is a junior at Princeton and a young man of great promise.

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The Congregational Sunday School has purchased a handsome banner, suitably inscribed, which is awarded each month to the class having the largest percentage of attendance. For the month of January there was a tie between the classes of Miss Susie Scudder and Mrs Henry Smith.

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Five carloads of feldspar taken from the quarry on the farm of F.A. Young of Taunton district have been shipped and word comes from the New Jersey experts who bought it that it is of a very superior quality.