Top Of The MountainNewtown news and notes as told from the point of view of a cat named Mountain.The work of Newtown artists Linda Parsloe, fused glass; Roberta Ahuja, pottery; and Neil Bittner, silkscreen, is on exhibit at Gallery 25 on Railroad Street in New Milford through April 12. Thank you to the little birdie who made sure I knew about this so that I could share it in this space.We’ve talked about House of Harrison a few times within our pages and online. Founded in January 2024 and operating under the nonprofit umbrella of Newtown Parent Connection, the “new beginnings boutique” became its own 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in October 2025. Its mission continues to restore dignity and provide essential clothing to individuals experiencing homelessness, transitioning from treatment, or facing other difficult times. Just last month, House of Harrison benefitted from a collection done during the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra Candlelight Quartet concert performed at Edmond Town Hall (a full house event, WSO’s publicist gleefully told me after the concert). Attendees of that event — and anyone who would be in the area during the late afternoon and evening of February 14, in fact — were asked to consider donating undergarments, hats, gloves, and/or toiletry items.I remind you of all this (or educate you, if that’s the case) because the next Hearts of Hope-Newtown Paint With A Purpose event will have attendees creating hearts for House of Harrison. The event will also serve as another opportunity to offer new socks to the organization. If you’d like to participate in Hearts of Hope, the event is planned for Wednesday, April 15, 6-8 pm, at Newtown Community Center. There is no fee this month, although financial donations to support that equally important nonprofit will also be welcomed. If you’d like to offer new socks of any size, the collection box will be available during that time frame as well. See our calendars, in print and/or online, for additional information. I suppose it would also be nice of me to mention Newtown-Strong Therapy Dogs will also be in attendance at the community center event. If you want to see them, that’s your prerogative. Me, I’ll wait for some pretty kitties to be the special guests. Newtown-Strong Therapy Cats has a nice ring, doesn’t it?In this week’s paper we have a press release about one of Newtown Lions Club’s most recent donations, this time to Women Involved in Newtown. As readers were reminded in that release, the local Lions have a few annual events that raise a lot of money. They then share those funds with many others locally, regionally, and even around the world.WIN is another group that has been doing good deeds for decades. The group of Newtown women is currently working on its Easter Basket Outreach, collecting and filling baskets with treats and toys. Working with Newtown Human Services, Newtown Community Center, and The Children’s Adventure Center, WIN expects to help more than 175 local families this season. The assembly of this year’s baskets was planned for March 26, which will allow the 503(c)(3) organization to get them out for distribution well ahead of Easter. We’ll have a few photos of that event in next week’s paper.I recently asked readers to please refrain from giving rabbits as Easter gifts. I still feel that way, and understand it’s getting more expensive to fill an Easter basket with anything. A recent analysis by InvestorsObserver says five popular Easter candies sold at a major national retailer are now 67% more expensive than they were in 2020. Meanwhile, average household Easter candy budgets have grown by just 15% during the same period, the survey also notes. This means a family of four spending $93 on Easter candy in 2020 now walks away with about 40% less candy by weight.Shrinkflation is not helping, the report further notes. One popular brand of mini eggs shrank from ten ounce packages to nine ounces in 2022, with no price change. Another popular brand is wrapped in one of the most extreme cases of inflation. A 1.55-ounce chocolate bar by one of the best known names in the world went from an average $3.99 in 2020 to $6.39 by 2020. It dropped to $5.49 in 2024 before jumping to $8.29 last year. Ouch!You know what you can look forward to ahead of Easter? The 2026 Newtown Bee Peeps Diorama Contest! I know I’m looking forward to seeing what my friends at 5 Church Hill Road have been working on in recent weeks, and I hope you are too. Entries will be in the office by Thursday morning and voting will open — in house and online by way of our Facebook page — at noon April 2. Voting will remain open for 24 hours, until noon Good Friday, April 3, and winners will be announced shortly thereafter.Lynn Remson is defending her title after easily picking up the in-house and online voting last year with her Sesame Peeps creation. Lynn has now won the in-house trophy for four straight years, making her the winning-est Bee Peeps Diorama Contest title holder in our tradition’s history. She has also picked up Peep-le’s Choice honors for the past three years.Will someone new win this year? Will a previous winner gain possession of the trophy at the end of next week? There’s only one way to find out, my friends. Join us for the online voting next Thursday and Friday. We’ll have photos of each diorama on our Facebook page, and we ask those viewing the photos to Like the photo of their choice. It’s that easy. I hope it’s equally easy to remember that I enjoy collecting and sharing good news each week in this space. I’ll be right here seven days from now. I hope you will too, when it will be time to come back and … read me again.
I look forward to hearing about RTD's to be scheduled protests over the following public hearing controversies during the most recent legislative session. Or does it only matter if the person has an (R) next to their name?
(1) Emergency Certifications: The Democratic supermajority for used "emergency certification" for bills—such as those on election security or worker protections—which allows them to bring legislation directly to the floor without a public hearing.
(2) Midnight Cutoffs: During a March 2026 Public Health Committee hearing on vaccine mandates, Democratic leaders voted to end the hearing at approximately 12:15 a.m., which resulted in hundreds of residents who waited all day to speak losing their opportunity to testify in person.
(3) Limiting Testimony: Democrat-led committees, such as the Education and Public Health committees, imposed time limits or capped public testimony on highly contentious bills related to vaccines, parental rights, and homeschooling.
I thank you for the tone of your reply. I appreciate it. I too stand by my statement that, not the candidates, but the process and those pushing it, has become divisive. I also continue to take offense to some of the labels, such as "surrogate" and "camp". I do not find them to be proper references for groups of people. I confidently add that the lack of primary in the Kamala Harris defeat was not due to the lack of a primary. I campaigned for Kamala and we can have a private discussion, if you like, at another time the defeat. I also completely disagree with the statement that primaries improve voter turnout. In Connecticut, primaries are met with low voter turnout and they are expensive to administer. This will not be any different but I respect your opinion and am open to discussion.
Hi Yolanda, you clearly are a supporter of Michelle Ku. I see that our letters about the recent decision by the Democratic Town Committee regarding how they/we will choose a nominee have been published on the same day.
Last week the DTC voted to have a Caucus (where all Newtown registered Dems in the 106 get to vote instead of a DTC meeting where only 55 dems get to vote) to help determine which Dem will run for the 106 seat against Mitch Bolinsky. Your letter indicates you prefer the DTC meeting (55 votes) while I prefer the Caucus where it is open to thousands of democrats in town. I prefer a Caucus vote for either Ku or Moore (by the way you’re limited to 300 words in a LTE so first names take up words so I don’t use them) for the reasons I stated in my letter above - more people get to vote, more people are engaged, more turnout in November.
About the divisiveness, there are many comments on social media before and since this decision by DTC that claim there should be no such contest these have been made by Ku supporters on her pages and they have in fact written what I mentioned above.
In politics “Surrogates” and “Camp”are commonly used shorthand for supporters of a particular candidate - I’ve never heard it used offensively so I never thought anyone would interpret using such terms as an attack.
I have seen nothing from the other campaign neither posts from the Candidate or his supporters, “surrogates”, or camp that make such negative comments and that’s the truth.
People can have their beliefs about the process - I believe primaries are good , you may not - but to try to say one candidate is “divisive” because they choose to run and provide us a choice and a chance to promote the party at the same time is not good for any of us - citizens should not just be allowed but should be encouraged to step up and run. I stand by what I said- for one candidate’s team to say that they are or their people are so mad that they’ll vote for the opposing party is divisive.
All is going well! Thank you for advancing critical initiatives and making such quick progress where it matters for our community. We are honored to have you as our First Selectman!
