The Plavnicky family of Newtown is in Rome this week to attend ceremonies for Archbishop Edward M. Egan, who was elevated to the status of cardinal. Cardinal Egan is the former leader of the Diocese of Bridgeport, where Richard Plavnicky is head of maintenance. The two men are good friends and Rich and Chris Plavnicky, ages 15 and 12, served as altar boys at his installation ceremony at St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City this past June.

Ken Wilkinson (AKA the Tax Man) was spotted at the Cyrenius H. Booth Library Tuesday afternoon doling out free tax advice. Ken, a longtime Newtown resident, has for the past 15 years been providing tax assistance to residents who are having a difficult time with their tax returns. You can find him on the main floor of the lobby every Tuesday from 1 to 4:30 pm right up until April 15. And no, Ken is not an undercover IRS guy. He never even worked for the IRS. He actually worked in the field of aerospace marketing before retiring a few years back.

Newtown Middle School boys’ basketball coach John Girard narrowly avoided the razor last week when his club lost in the finals of the Jockey Hollow Tournament in Monroe. As part of the deal, Girard agreed to allow his players to shave off the hair on top of his head should they win. But, knowing John, he would have much rather parted with his hair than lose a basketball game. Still, the Lions ended the season with a fine record.

“Some of the guys were more disappointed in not being able to shave my head than in the fact that we lost,” the coach explained.

The bench that sits in front of Newtown Savings Bank on Main Street was flipped over and smashed earlier this week, and unless we had a severe windstorm that I didn’t know about, my guess is a person is responsible for this prank. How sad.

Motorists who were re-routed onto Huntingtown Road due to the motor vehicle accident along Route 25 Tuesday experienced first-hand just how bad that road has become. It is apparently on the town’s schedule of road reconstruction projects and may even be addressed this summer. For now, however, it continues to wreak havoc on cars with its frost heaves, potholes, and overall dilapidation. In my opinion, the road should have been rebuilt two years ago. Good old Huntingtown Road now has the distinction of being the town’s worst road.

If you are wondering why Children’s Librarian Alana Meloni will be missing from the library for a few days, it is because she got that piece of mail that calls you to serve jury duty. Alana made the trip to Waterbury to see if she would be selected. Of course this was after everyone offered advice on how to get out of it. But Alana couldn’t come up with one reason why she could not serve on the case, not even hardship on the job. So she will be missing from story hour and her paperwork might not be completed as quickly while she sits in her reserved seat in the jury box.

Another famous George has a birthday this month along with President Washington. But George Stockwell, math/science teacher at Sandy Hook School, does not like a lot attention as the time nears for the big day, February 23. Mr Stockwell was glad when school vacation was scheduled for the week of his birthday, but word of mouth travels fast to this cat. And even though the schools are closed, the Newtown community will know that Mr Stockwell is celebrating a birthday this week. Happy Birthday Mr Stockwell!

Ed Osterman reports that due to a last-minute cancellation, there is still an opening for the Rotary-sponsored free four-week study trip to Taiwan. Professional and business men and women aged 25 to 40 are eligible for this free trip, which is sponsored by the Rotary as part of its “World Peace Through Understanding” objective. Participants will live with Rotarian families in Taiwan and visit museums, schools, businesses, historical sites, and many other interesting places. Anyone who might be interested in going should contact Ed Osterman at 426-0530.

Approaching the front door of Canaan House at Fairfield Hills, where the town’s land use offices are located, Town Engineer Ronald Bolmer remarked this week that spring is in the air. As he spoke, what had been huge mounds of snow plowed up alongside Fairfield Circle South continued to melt, creating a rather soggy front lawn. With the snowbanks melting and the sand which was spread across town roads this winter settling out from the snow, it won’t be too long before the town’s street sweeper is out sucking up that used road sand.

On a trip up South Main Street, I noticed a new town landmark in the form of a 150-foot-tall steel monopole mast being used as an antenna placement for wireless communications. The Omnipoint Communications tower is located at Georgia-Pacific’s lumberyard, not far from the town dog pound. When towers such as these are proposed for residential areas, they don’t sit well with the neighbors and usually don’t get erected. But when these structures are proposed for industrial areas, they generally go up without a hitch.

Newtown certainly  was a different place this week. With the schools out of session for winter break, there were very few large yellow motor vehicles trundling around on the roads. It’s surprising how much less traffic traverses the roads when school’s out. I guess everybody went to Walt Disney World. Everybody but this cat, anyway. I’ll be here next week too so be sure to …

Read me again.