Index Pages in this issue: 1 2 3 4 5 6
The Amity Star
A Weekly Newspaper Published at The Bethany Press
Litchfield Turnpike, Bethany, Connecticut
Telephone - New Haven 3-1682
George D. Vaill
Editor & Publisher
Alice M. Vaill
Business Manager
Subscriptioni Rates
One Year 52 issues $4.75
Six Months 26 issues 2.40
Three Months 13 issues 1.20
Vol. I, No. 14 Thursday, March 1, 1951
Editorial Comment
Gas Pipeline
Last spring the Legislature passed a bill which placed in the hands of a private, out-of-State corporation wide powers affecting the property rights of certain Connecticut residents. One of these powers is that of eminent domain -- a power which, traditionally, is graanted with the understanding that it will be exercised in accordance with certian basic principles: that property seized wil be taken only for a necessary public use, and that reasonable compensation will be given for property so appropriated.
There is a wide field for argument on the subject of necessary public use. The officials of the Hartford Metropolitan Water District consider it necessary to flood the Hartland and Barkhamsted valleys to insure Hartford's water supply, and now Birdgeport has its eye on Oxford's Quaker Farms District. Opponents of these diluvian outrages, pointing to the swollen rivers lapping the very streets of these cities, maintain that it is not necessary for their lands to be taken when other possible water sources remain untapped. Copponents of the gas pipeline likewise wonder how the public interest is being served (in this area, at least) by an invasion which benefits (a) the stockholders of acorporation in the State of Delaware and (b) the inhabitants of some city far removed from here. No service of a public nature is to be rendered to any citizen of these towns -- unless it be in the remote future, after the gas has been piped from here to New Haven and back out here again. The municipalities to be served are, according to press releases, only those which already have facilities for the distribution of manufactured gas. Is there something so beneficial, so life-giving about natural gas that these cities cannot get along without it? Is their welfare threatened if they don't get natural gas from deep in the ehart of Texas? If not, what, then, is the necessary public use to which these lands are to be devoted?
What may be reasonable compensation is for the courts, or other qualified authorities, to decide. Reports have been circulated, however, to the effect that large landowners have been offered tactfully liberal compensation -- and that small ones have been treated with shocking arrogance and sharp dealing. If a man is asked to dedicate a portion of his land as the final resting place for a metal serpent which may depreciate the present and future fair market value of his land, destroy his crops, and perhaps eventually blow him from here to Hackensack, the question of reasonable compensation is not one to be passed off as a mere incidental detail.
At a heaering in Oxford on Sunday it was brought out that the right of eminent domain should be exercised only "when the properety owner and the company are unable to agree about selling the land." Herein may lie much of the trouble which has developed between the pipeline interests and local landowners. Exercising a right of eminent domain should be a last-resort move. Reports indicate that it has, instead, been mentioned at the very start of negotiations as though it were a natural and normal detail of the proceedings. The use of a little tact in such matters might have given the whole business a slightly happier sendoff.
Unnecessary Fires
Granted -- that living in the country presents certain problems regarding the disposal of waste papers and trash; and granted -- that a few days of rain or high winds can set us back in our incineration programs and permit these articles to accumulate so rapidly as to create fears that they will push us out of house and home (where their presence constitutes, in addition, a fire hazard); and granted -- that when a fine weekend comes along, we are strongly tempted, in spite of wind and dry surroundings, to get the burning out of the way --
Nevertheless -- there are interests other than our own which must be considered, and to take the risk of starting a dangerous fire constitutes an offense against the public welfare.
The fire departments of all our towns spent a busy weekend fighting grass and brush fires -- there were at least ten alarms, and some of the fires were of serious proportions. Not a single one of these fires was necessary, and the man-hours of labor, the expense, and the inconvenience to nearly one hundred firemen were considerable. Although ready and willing to respond to any alarm which comes in, the fireman nevertheless resents having his weekend (or his night's sleep_ interrupted by a fire which needn't have occurred except for someono's carelessness or thoughtlessness. A fireman who is accidentally killed while going to or fighting an unnecessary fire will be just as dead as he would have been had the blaze been unavoidable.
State law provides for control in these matters, but we need a little private conscience in addition.
Bethany Notes --
The Sunday School Classes of the First Church of Christ wil see a movie entitled "Teh master TEacher" on Sunday, March 4. On that day, the Reverend Iverson Graham will talk on the "Lenten Parables".
George McKiernan, son of Mr. and Mrs. George P. McKiernan of Wooding Hill Road, has joined the Air Corps and is stationed at Lackland Air Base in San Antonio, Texas.
The Star Reporter
In response to a letter from a "Local Residnet" which we printed last week, Gilbert Whitlock has sent us this picture of the soft-drink emporium which stood near the corner of the Litchfield Turnpike and Bethway Road. Called "Wheelman's Rest," the place was popular with bicyclists in the late 'eighties, when this picture was taken. If any reader can identify any of these faces, or can furnish further information about the picture or the place, we shall be grateful.
Crusher Relocated
Nelson Peck says we located one of the stone-crushers in the wrong place, in stating that they were both on Peck Road. One of them was on land now occupied by part of the Bethany Airport, near the site of the Airport Diner. Although a stone-crusher is not an easy article of furniture to move, we are happy to carry it over and put it where it belongs.
Mail Deliveries
We regret that the mail delivery of this paper seems to run into snags soemwhere along the line. One week this subscriber gets no paper, another week that one is deprived of the privilege of improving his mind. This is especially common among out-of-town subscribers, who report from Albany and Baltimore and other places that the papers don't get through to them. We have checked with local postal authorities, and they claim that the papers move out of their hands expeditiously -- and that the fault is somewhere farther along the line. Even a local subscribe ris missed now and then. In addition to expressing our regrets, we offer to replace any issue which fails to reach its goal. Let us know which numbers you lack. We have a few of each issue on file and available.
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New Haven
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Orange Notes --
The Catholic Clubs of Orange are sponsoring the Johnson Junior Symphony concert conducted by the well-known conductor, Harry Berkman, of New Haven. The concert will take place on Sunday, March 11, at 3:30 P.M., in the Auditorium of the Orange Center School. Violin and trombone solos will be featured, together with a group of songs by Miss Joan Buckholz of Orange.
Tickets for the concert are available at the Loomis Temple of Music, 837 Chapel Street, New Haven, and from the ticket committee, of which the Chairman is Mrs. William N. Lindsay, Jr. (SY9-2740).
At the D.A.R. Dress Review last Thursday, four of the Orange 4-H group took prizes for their exhibits. Ann Koch won first prize and Helen Tooman won second prize in the senior class: Carol Tallberg won first prize and Barbara Seeley won second prize in the junior class. The girls will model the prize-winning dresses at the D.A.R. meeting on April 5 at the Freelove Baldwin Stowe Chapter House.
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cor Central Ave
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March 3
adults .50
children .25
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85-89 Church Street
New Haven