With 110,000 outages, and roughly 1,200 of them here in Newtown, Eversource, as well as Newtown's own public safety personnel, worked around the clock to restore power, reopen roads, and clean up downed trees after a powerful storm came through the state on July 4.

Credit where it is due — as much as Eversource is an unpopular figure due to charging ever-escalating prices for power, they managed to restore power to about half the downed homes within 24 hours, and most of the town by Tuesday.

That work of course could not be accomplished without the help of Newtown's own Police Department, Public Works Department, Emergency Communications, and other first responders here in town. The Newtown Bee, as well as the town, extends its gratitude and appreciation for everyone that worked tirelessly to clean up following the storm.

The DPW specifically was out in their vehicles for well over their normal hours, putting in time to make Newtown roads safe for all to travel, from emergency vehicles to commuters to those needing to pick up a few things at the grocery store.

But it is the DPW’s job to alleviate those dangerous conditions and make the roads passable again, which they always do with efficiency and professionalism. Those of us who work in town but live elsewhere often breathe a sigh of relief when we leave roads in other towns and cross onto the well-maintained roads of Newtown.

Public Works Director Fred Hurley, a veteran of over 20 years with the town, should be commended for leading such a stellar department, and he often is. All our DPW employees should be commended, and thanked for their hard work, both over the past weekend and the other 24/7/365.

Equally, the volunteers from the five fire companies spent all Saturday night into Sunday morning dealing with emergency calls, with "tree/wires down" and "wires burning" being common reasons for the calls, and a tree on a house to deal with on Sunday morning. Hand in hand with them are the officers in our police department and the volunteers with Newtown Ambulance. At a time when volunteerism is down, the volunteers with the fire companies and Newtown Ambulance are important backbones to public safety in Newtown. Thank you to all Newtown's volunteers — and as a heads up, Bee Reporter Sam Cross is finishing up a story on volunteerism and the five Newtown fire companies, which can be expected to be seen next week or the following week.

While we're thanking people, we should also take a moment to thank Legislative Councilman Ben Ruben, who, upon noticing a dearth of day-of celebrations for the 250th Semiquincentennial on July 4, decided to go to Edmond Town Hall to read the Declaration of Independence, a nice event that had good attendance, so The Bee hears. Thank you, Ben, for adding a little extra patriotism into the day.