Ben Mason has come a long way in his football career. And now the former Newtown High School standout and Michigan player has his sights set on advancing to the next level on the gridiron — the National Football League.
It may be that the only thing that prevented Newtown High School’s girls’ golf team from either winning a championship or finishing runner-up in the South-West Conference a year ago was the fact the season was canceled due to the coronavirus.
Shawn Tierney, an All-State golfer at New Milford High School and math teacher at Newtown High, succeeds Bobby Pattison as head coach of the Newtown High boys’ golf team.
With a goal of getting to the finish of the campaign, Newtown High School’s boys’ track and field team is striving to also have some success in meets this spring.
A trio of Nighthawks notched hat tricks to account for nine of the Newtown High School girls’ lacrosse team’s baker’s dozen goals in a season-opening win.
All nine Newtown High School baseball players to record at-bats had at least one run batted in or run scored in the team’s 13-6 season-opening triumph at New Milford on April 10.
Newtown High School’s softball team bounced back from a 4-0 season-opening defeat at New Milford on April 10 to earn a 20-2, five-inning, mercy-rule triumph at Bethel on April 13.
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.
