The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-12-19
OPPOSE A PUBLIC WHARF
IMPORTANT SESSION OF BOIRD OF
 PUBLIC FORKS LAST NIGHT.

Proposed Extension of Wallace Street, Claim Made That Public Wharf is Not
 Necessity and Would Not Prove Paying
 Imvestment-Joel A. Sperry's Statements.
 For nearly two hours last evening the members of the board of public works considered the question of erect ing a public wharf on the proposed extension of Wallace street to the har- Dor across the land of Sargent & Co. The matter came up on an order to the board of public works from the court of common council to make lay- out and report back to the court of common council. The project met with decided opposition last night and many citizens were present to express their objections to the plan.
 Henry B. Sargent stated that such layout through their land would cut off the present sewage system of the factories and as soon as that was done. under a recent decision of the supreme court the city would be obliged to build an expensive sewer. The entire length of the street would have to be filled in.
 He also claimed that a public wharf was not a necessity and that it would cost more to equip the wharf with the necessary steam hoisting machinery than the fees from wharfage would amount to in years.
 Joel A. Sperry of the firm of. Sperry & Barnes also expressed himself as
 on tN fIa sV,1 ion,' said he, "the city doesn't need free wharf as at the present time there is much less merchandise brought to this port than there was fifteen years ago. Now very little merchandise comes here by sail except coal and lumber, which is discharged on to rail- road cars or directly on to the prop- erty of the dealers. Why as mat ter of fact there, would not be enough collected in wharfage fees to begin to pay the salary of wharf master and I defy any one to successful contradict this statement. No private capital would be invested in any such enter prise and the city ought not to risk any"
 Ex-Commodore Holcomb of the New Haven Yacht club also opposed the project on the ground that it would drive the club from it's present quar- ters, which had been fitted up at an outlay of over $90OO. He also claimed that the value of goods carried through the clubs quarters in one year by yachtsmen would amount to more than would be collected from wharfage in ten years.
 The members of the board finally voted to send a communication to the court of common council setting forth the great expenses of the proposed un- dertaking and recommending that al further hearing of the parties in in- terest be given by a committee of the court of common council.
 George W. Curtis and W. w. Farnan1 were present in the interests of the extension of Woodlawn street from Mansfield to Prospect street and be- tween Sachem street and Hillside Place, but the matter was tabled for a fu- ture meeting.
 N w. Kendall of the Quinnipiac Brewing company stated that he had purchased the property at the corner of East Chapel and East Pearl street and would give the city all the land neces- sary to put the corner in suitable cons dition if the city would agree ito set
 the curb and lay the sidewalk. City Engineer Kelly was instructed to pre- pare an estimate of the cost and submit | it at the next meeting.