The Little Pantry is a stand-alone structure in the parking lot of Trinity Episcopal Church, 36 Main Street.
It is a pantry for the community to donate food and for those in need to receive donated fo...
Newtown Ecumenical Workcamp Servants (NEWS) has safely returned from its 2024 service trip, having spent a week in the Gulf Coast city of Biloxi, Mississippi.
NEWS this year had 31 campers and nine ch...
Love Has A Home at Sticks and Stones Farm will host Sheikha Maryam Kabeer and Ahamad Muhaiyaddeen (Jonathon Granoff) for two days as they demonstrate how to find peace within oneself.
The Newtown Interfaith Council (NIC) built off of discussions from its previous meeting and set their sights on future endeavors during its latest meeting at Trinity Episcopal Church.
Father Peter Cipriani arrived at St Rose of Lima Parish on February 1 to lead the large and vibrant Catholic community that had not had a new Pastor in more than 20 years.
He arrived in Newtown from O...
Bruce’s letter paints a picture of runaway development, but the real story is the collapse of local cooperation — not the rise of §8-30g. That law has been on the books since 1990. For decades, towns and developers worked together to shape projects that made sense: added sidewalks, deeper setbacks, fewer units — genuine compromise.
What’s changed isn’t the law, it’s the politics. A loud social media mob has made any compromise politically toxic. The “no growth” crowd demands nothing be built anywhere, ever, and bullies anyone who suggests otherwise. Planning and zoning boards no longer negotiate; they hunker down, hoping to appease the Facebook comment section.
But here’s the irony — when compromise dies, developers stop compromising too. Once a project triggers §8-30g, the town can fight it, but state law ensures the developer will eventually win. So instead of working out a reasonable design, everyone heads to court. The developer doubles the unit count to pay for the lawyers, and the town burns taxpayer money trying to lose more slowly.
That’s how we end up with the very projects the NIMBY mob fears — because they made reasonable development impossible.
If people truly care about Newtown’s character, they need to stop the performative outrage and start engaging in real planning again. Screaming “no” to everything isn’t preservation — it’s self-sabotage.
I’m honestly surprised Bruce had to look up what an “agreement in principle” means. After years of business experience and managing 200 people, I would have expected that term to be familiar by now. Hard to believe it’s a new concept at this stage in his career. Although rest assured Newtown, vote row A and when times get tough, we have Google to help the selectman.
I asked AI what does agreement in principle mean
An "agreement in principle" is a preliminary, non-binding understanding reached between two or more parties that outlines the fundamental terms of a future contract. It is considered a stepping stone toward a formal, legally enforceable agreement.
This type of agreement is used to establish mutual intent and a basic framework for negotiations before the parties commit to a detailed, final contract.
