Business name: Boost Bowls
Address: 6 Queen Street, Newtown
Owners: Valdrin & Tatiana Mehmeti
What is your business background? We opened our first location in Bethel almost five years...
Governor Ned Lamont came to Newtown Friday, October 23, to hold a misty midday press conference touting Connecticut’s booming housing market, and promoting the state and Newtown as ideal places to live.
Business name: Pip’s Curiosity Shoppe
Address: 117C Church Hill Road, Sandy Hook
Owners: Sheri Legeret and Pippy Marie Legeret (dog)
What is your business background? 2020 has been a y...
Newtown State Rep Mitch Bolinsky (R-106) is reminding Newtown residents that Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) will be holding a public hearing on Eversource response to Tropical Storm Isaias on October 21 and 23.
Business Name: Fruits And Roots Cafe, LLC
Address: 123 South Main Street, Newtown
Owners: Tony Carroll and Jenna LoRusso
Business Background: Tony: Fruits And Roots Cafe opened in Dece...
Con artists are posing as Amazon employees, calling people, and claiming to need information about their account. Scammers are spoofing BBB’s phone number to do it.
Like other local businesses, Newtown’s dance studios struggled with whether to close, host online options, or reopen under permitted guidelines since the virus began hitting the state hard last March.
The latest in a number of pandemic-era collaborations between the Newtown Chamber of Commerce and the municipality’s Office of Economic & Community Development (ECD) is aimed at keeping all local businesses alive and thriving.
Governor Ned Lamont has pegged October 8 as the date when Phase 3 openings will begin, eventually returning the state to 99 percent of its pre-pandemic economic operations.
A photographer who relocated to Newtown from Detroit has become the first Newtown business to seek greater exposure by putting a listing on ShopBlackCT.com, a newly launched statewide business directory.
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.
