Richard Brown
Firefighter of Year
Lodi Kysor
Cause of controversy
As U.S. forces began attacking Iraq and Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm 25 years ago, churches in town were holding services to pray for those involved in the war, the Jan. 17, 1991, Press reported.
“We’ve all been praying this would not happen,” said Jim Conway of the Ridgefield Desert Shield Support Group, whose son Michael was on the front line in the Middle East. “I can’t see any other way of approaching this guy (Saddam Hussein). It’s a terrible thing to happen.”
Meanwhile, First Selectman Sue Manning responded to concerns about a terrorist attack in Ridgefield. “We do have a Civil Defense Emergency Response Plan, which can be activated immediately, and we had a dry run of it just a few months ago,” she said. That plan included a shelter at the East Ridge Middle School, similar to what would be used if a major storm hit town.
The school administration announced it would request a budget of $28.3 million, a 5.6% increase over the current year. “We’re not asking for the moon or stars,” said Superintendent Jerry Marcus.
Lt. Richard Brown received the Firefighter of the Year Award from the town. Two other firefighters — Marty Marinelli and Lou Yarrish — received Superman awards for not taking a single day of sick leave in five years.
Something was awry at the post office, and people were receiving letters with cancellation dates like “Jan. 7, 1661.”
While the boys basketball team was only 4-6 on the season, the girls were 10-1 behind the hot shooting of Suzanne Mumby, Flo Stueck, and Keri O’Loughlin, and the coaching of Jim Muraski.
Rumors were circulating that IBM planned to develop a PGA golf course on its 600 acres on Bennetts Farm Road. “I don’t know where that came from,” said an IBM spokesman, adding that the company had no plans to build a golf course.
50 years ago
The Ridgefield Teachers’ Association charged the Board of Education and its subcommittee on salary negotiations with a “complete breach of good faith” by attempting to “stall or forestall negotiations” over 1966-67 salaries, the Jan. 20, 1966, Press reported.
Chairman Joseph M. Dunworth held a private meeting of eight school board members at his home to discuss his plan to increase the board’s efficiency, cut down on the length of meetings, and involve townspeople in school affairs. Superintendent Thayer D. Wade was not invited.
A group of anonymous Republicans took out a half-page ad, deploring GOP school board members Enzo Bartolucci, Allen Shafer, Rudolph Sykora, and Thomas Nelson for picking a Democrat — Lodi Kysor — to fill a vacancy on the school board. The ad resented their “illogical and discourteous rejection of a qualified Republican [Eleanor London] in favor of a Democrat who received the fewest votes in the last election.”
The state was suing the estate of the late Anne S. Richardson to prevent it from tearing down her house at what is now Richardson Park (the building was appraised at $45,000, about $333,000 today). Miss Richardson had asked that the house “which my beloved friend, the late Edna Schoyer, and I occupied together for many years, be not occupied by others after my death.”
Led by Alan Wallace, the Tiger basketball squad downed both Bethel and Wilton to improve its record to 8-1.—J.S.
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