March 9, 2001

HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER of Joe Rahtelli.

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EDITORIAL INK DROPS — THE ROAD CREW: Talk about road trips! The plow truck drivers for Newtown’s Highway Department hit the road at 3 pm last Sunday as the sleet and snow began to fly in Newtown, and they didn’t pull their plows up off the road and shut down the sanders until Wednesday. Together they added over 6,000 miles to the odometers of town trucks. Staring into swirling snow hour after hour in white-knuckle driving conditions, they kept Newtown’s 300-plus miles of roads clear through the worst of it, stopping only to keep the coffee and carbohydrates moving through their systems and for the rare, exhausted cat-nap.

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The US Post Office pledges that “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night” shall stop it from its appointed rounds. That pledge took a day off Tuesday as the US Postal Service suspended mail service throughout the state, including Newtown. It was the first time the mail had been halted ... since the Blizzard of ‘78. The emergency ban on tractor-trailer trucks on all interstate highways in Connecticut kept the mail from getting through.

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The Charter Revision Commission last week finally gained consensus on the balance of power between the Legislative Council and the newly proposed Board of Finance. And the winner is… the council. Following a lengthy discussion on the town’s annual budget process, the panel agreed that the Legislative Council should have the final authority prior to sending the annual town budget on to the voters.

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The town has received additional state loan money to complete conceptual planning for a cleanup of the contaminated Batchelder industrial site, in preparation for the eventual reuse of the Swamp Road “brownfield” property. First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal said the town has received an additional $15,000 in state loan money for planning on how best to dispose of metallic dross piles on the 31-acre site near the intersection of Swamp Road and Botsford Hill Road.

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The Markettes are always on a pretty big stage when they perform during halftime of a Newtown High School basketball or football game, but for the second year in a row they performed on the biggest stage of ‘em all — Madison Square Garden in New York City. The Markettes traveled to the Big Apple on Sunday, February 25 to perform in front of 19,763 people during halftime of the National Basketball Association game between the New York Knicks and Sacramento Kings. … The 11 Markettes and five performers from Dance Etc of Newtown joined the Knick City Dancers and a dance group from New Jersey on the world-famous Garden floor. They danced to Run DMC’s version of the Aerosmith song “Walk This Way.”

March 5, 1976

The proposed 1976-77 Board of Selectmen’s budget has been reviewed, revised and approved by the Selectmen; now it is up to the Legislative Council to do the same. The Selectmen’s budget along with the Board of Education budget, still in the working stage, will be presented to the council on March 15. The Selectmen’s budget grand total amounts to $3,911,285.87 for next year, up $603,891.73 or 18.2 per cent from the $3,307,494.14 budget for 1975-76.

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A move on the part of the Board of Police Commissioners, represented by Dr Harvey Wachsman and Robert Hays, to have the Legislative Council grant $786.90 in emergency funds to keep extra police officer Ronald Trench on the payroll for a month failed on Wednesday evening when the council decided the matter was not an emergency. The police board’s effort was to buy time for the commissioners to go through normal procedures in having a full-time permanent salary granted to Officer Trench, who has just returned from the police academy in Meriden to find, because the police board had to reinstate Det Raymond Paccadolmi to the force after a six-month leave of absence, that he is an “extra” man.

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Pitney Bowes employees in Danbury and Newtown contributed $19,988 for 1976 to the United Way of Northern Fairfield County drive, an increase of over $7,000 from last year, reflecting larger employment at the company’s Copier Systems Division in Danbury. George Pavlich, keyman-coordinator of the Pitney Bowes employee drive, said 304 employees at the Copier Systems Division, and 76 employees at the Newtown Distribution Center contributed to the drive that distributes funds to 19 member agencies. The company’s corporate gift was $6,000.

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Fire gutted and totally destroyed the Williams home in Pootatuck Park, Sandy Hook, late Tuesday afternoon. The fire fighting operation, under the direction of Sandy Hook Chief Michael Lucas, involved forty men from three companies who responded to the alarm. Water was brought in by several tankers, including assistance from both Botsford and Hawleyville. The aerial ladder truck reported to the scene, but was returned as the roads are very narrow in the park. The fire, believed to have started in a closet, is under investigation.

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A dinner honoring retiring employee Albert Knapp of the Heise-Dresser Industries on Route 25 took place at the Yankee Drover recently. Mr Knapp, who retired after 20 years with the company, was head man in the final assembly department. The company presented Mr Knapp with a metal-mineral detector as a token of esteem. Mr Knapp is an avid rockhound. The Knapps live on South Main Street near the Heise plant. Mr Knapp is a member of an old Newtown family.

March 2, 1951

EDITORIAL INK DROPS — WE SALUTE 4-H: As its part in the observance of National 4-H Week, March 3-11, The Bee is pleased to devote considerable space in this issue to the activities and accomplishments of 4-H members within this paper’s particular territory. It is hoped that readers will pay special attention to the articles, pictures and feature stories which start on this page and are continued onto page fourteen which is devoted entirely to them. It seems most unnecessary to remind the public of the value of 4-H work among the boys and girls in rural areas. Yet once a year it becomes a privilege to make that reminder, at the same time congratulating the boys and girls on their accomplishments in their various agricultural and homemaking activities.

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Dr Waldo F. Desmond attended February 22 an all-day meeting of Yale alumni held at the Yale Medical School, New Haven, with a number of conferences on latest developments in the medical field. Of particular interest were a symposium on arthritis and hormones, and another on radio-active isotopes and atomic energy as applied to the treatment of disease. In the evening he met Mrs Desmond and daughter, Susan, and the three enjoyed witnessing Yale’s 9-1 victory in the hockey match with Princeton University.

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Sunday night’s epic, played on the basketball court at the Edmond gymnasium, brought victory to the SAC Mighty Midgets and exhaustion to the Popsicles. The final score found the Midgets holding a scant two-point lead, with the score board reading 31-29. The Midgets displayed their usual team work, which offset considerably their inability to control the backboards. It was understandable that their size worked against them in that respect, but they stole the ball many times in spite of it.

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The Newtown Board of Tax Review has completed its work for the year and as a result of its hearings, the last of which was held on Saturday, has added $105,130 to the town’s Grand List. The total Grand List, upon which this year’s tax rate will be levied, stands at $12,744,600. Seventy-nine cases were heard by the Board of Tax Review, which includes H.R. Geiger, chairman, H. Gould Curtis and William H. Knox.

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Some fifty people, many of them residents along Lake Zoar, attended the open meeting held last Friday evening in the Alexandria Room of the Edmond Town Hall, when the subject of pollution in Lake Zoar was fully discussed. The meeting had been called by Representative Robert C. Mitchell of Southbury, who presided. In opening the meeting, Mr Mitchell explained that the water condition in the lake grows progressively worse and that he, like many others, is interested in any efforts to improve the situation.

March 5, 1926

Through the kindness of Miss Anne Anderson there was placed in the Editor’s hands a lot of old account books found in the ell of her house in Newtown street, which was formerly the store of Edward Starr and stood between her house and the rectory. Among these books was a small ledger giving list of deaths in Newtown up to 1863. Who it was compiled by is not stated. It is in excellent state of preservation.

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Mr and Mrs Walter Reynolds gave a very delightful evening at Bridge, to a few of their friends, last Saturday night. Mrs Frank H. Johnston, Mrs Rodney Shepard, Paul Cavanaugh and G. Herbert Beers were the prize winners. Light refreshments were served during the evening and dancing was indulged in after the bridge.

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HAWLEY SCHOOL NOTES: Prof C.B. Gentry of Storrs College, in charge of the agricultural work in the High schools, called on Principal Phelen and Mr Baxter, the agricultural instructor at the Hawley school, on Wednesday. | The boys’ basketball team of the Hawley High school will journey to Woodbury, Friday night, to play the basketball team of the Woodbury High. | On March 15 at 1.50 p.m., there will be a debate at the Hawley High school, between teams from the Hawley High and the Woodbury High schools.

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The six engineers who are drilling for the foundations for the proposed dam on the Housatonic River for the Connecticut Light & Power Co., are boarding at Mrs Thomas Maguire’s on Washington avenue.

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Miss Catharine McNamarra of New York City is visiting her mother, Mrs Mary McNamarra.

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Two meetings of the Jolly Sewers were held during the month of February, one February 20 and one February 27. The first meeting, the darns and patches, which are brought in monthly, were judged. A demonstration, “Gatherings in a Slip,” was given by Ernestine Visny, and the usual social period took place. At the second meeting the laundry bags were judged, and the discussion of how to make the traveling case was made.

March 8, 1901

There will be general and genuine regret over the announcement that Deputy Sheriff M.C. Rodgers and wife are shortly to leave town. A few years ago Mr Rodgers bought the Lynch farm in Head of the Meadow district and made substantial improvements on the buildings. His reason for leaving town is purely personal. His wife’s mother lives at McIndoes Falls, Vt., and is in rather poor health. It therefore becomes a duty for Mr and Mrs Rodgers to go there and care for her.

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THOSE GAME PRESERVES: As to the bill introduced by Representative Taylor in regard to state game preserves, another section should be added, stringently protecting the surrounding farmers, fixing, say a penalty of $5 for a man detected trespassing with a gun. Their gates would be left open, their fences broken down and crops destroyed in the mad rush for game during the open season, to the inconvenience and damage, not to say disgust, of said farmers. … I for one do not think there could possibly be any increase in game, as there would probably be a cordon of legislators and lawyers about the preserves constantly during the open season, so there would be no more escape for the poor birds than for the farmer himself who, of course, is taxed for this indulgence for the professional hunter.—[***

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Bank Commissioner G.F. Kendall of Suffield paid his first official visit to the Newtown Savings bank, last week Thursday. He was very highly pleased with the condition of affairs and offered no suggestions or criticisms. Mr Kendall was first appointed for an unexpired term by Gov Lounsbury and has since been reappointed for a full term by Gov McLean. While in town he stopped at the Grand Central hotel.

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A petition has been circulated through the main street in Taunton district, and extensively signed, we understand, asking that the Taunton residents be placed on the Hawleyville rural delivery route, as this territory is naturally contiguous to Hawleyville and a majority of the residents secured their mail at that place before rural mail service was introduced, with the delivery from the Newtown office.

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W.A. Leonard, the popular proprietor of the Newtown Inn, has decided on some substantial improvements on his model house. He will have a piazza erected on the rear of the house. It will be 56 feet long and 10 feet wide and will add greatly to the attractiveness of the building. He also contemplates putting in a bowling alley in the basement.

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.