The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-06-10
Superintendent Halsey De- scribes Intolerable Condi- tions that Will Exist When Eleven Acres Given to Railroad Company Are Taken Out of ROadstead.


 to Railroad Company Are
 Taken Out of Roadstead. 1.-The Radel' Company is Cap
 italized at $1,OOO,OOO, Is
 the Second Largest Oys-
 ter Company in the Uni
 ted States, Maintains a
 Numerous Fleet and Has
 a Pay Roll of $500 a
 Week.
 The announcement was made this morning that the Radel Oyster Com
 pany, which is almost the largest busi- lness of it's kind in the United States, I will be forced to move to Norwalk to 1 get harbor room for the transaction | of it's business, as soon as the eleven
 acres Of flats on the west side of the tPeQuonnock river are occupied by the
 freight yards which the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad pro poses to construct upon the flats pre- sented to it by the Common Council at its last meeting.
 | Indignation over the double grab has l increased, today rather than dimin- isheok The brazen declarations of
 most of those who were concerned in
 bringing 1t to pass had increased the
 feeling Of public hostility to the sacri- flee of the city's interest. It is prob able that the clubs and other organi fxations who fought the grabs will take appropriate action to denounce it l at their meetings which will be held f6rom time to time within a few days. sajd, to call attention to Aldermen who changed front during the agitation against the grab.
 ] Capt. A. w. Halsey, superintendent of the Radel Oyster Co. said to-day 'sI am very sorry that the city has seen fit to establish the city harbor line co-incident with the Federal line for we would like to remain in Bridge port and have our business grow with the city. Now that the city line is established it means that the railroad win buIkhead along the line: As soon tas it does we will be obliged to move part of our business from this city, and eventually it means that we will move all of our business either to Oys- ter Bay. or to South Norwalk. It
 would not do to have part of our bus mess in one place and part in anoth- CT. The sailing vessels to whom we sell our seed will not have any place to
 anchor here after the bulkheads are
 built.
 This year we have had anywhere from six to 20 sailing vessels in the harbor all of the time. In three months time our receipts from the buyers have l been over $200. 900.
 esWe have been able to lay the buy 1 ing vessels up on the flats when they were light and when the time came for them to load they lay in deep wa ! ter. Now that the bulkhead of the lrailroad is going in we will not have any place to lay the boats up. These buyers came from Long 1sl- andS Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island. We gath CT the seed from all along the sound and make Bridgeport the headquar- ters for our fleet of twelve steamers. Bridgeport is a natural center for our business We started here and have grown. When we locate in South | Norwalk, or Oyster Bay we will have a longer haul. We had hopes that the city line could be maintained and that later on an arrangement could be kmade whereby it could be dredged out land we would not have to shove the vessels of the buyers onto the flats, but the flats were better than nothing. With the line moved out to the Fed eral lines the buyers will simply have to stay out of the harbor and we will \ nave to go to some port where the lsailing vessels can get in. We are also Increasing the size of the fleet and each new vessel we build is larger than the other. An oyster steamer to- day is twice the size of the steamers of ten years ago. Of course if they are going to make the harbor smaller the increase in the size of our boats will also be a factor in our leaving"
 supt- Halsey.wRe making the state talked like a business man who saw the requirements of his business at present and foresaw those of the fu- ture- He made it plain that the com because Bridgeport was about to al- , low eleven acres of its harbor to be nIied fn- He looked upon the matter phiIosophically and stated that the company would have to go where it
 Andrew RAdel and the Radel Oyster Co.,, pay taxes in this city $45, 900 this year and it was the first year that the company had listed any of It's boats in Bridgeport, having be- fore paid taxes on them in South Nor walk A few of the boats were listed here this year and it was the inten- -tion of the concern to list few more
 here each year until they were all on the tax books in this city. Now that the company will be obliged to move its business away from Bridgeport, it | is not likely that any more of the boats will be brought here to pay taxes on.
 Capt Halsey is not making any statement after the line is established that he did not make before. He in formed Mayor Lee and the members of the Board of Aldermen that his company would be obliged to move from Bridgeport if the city line was changed, when he appeared at the hearing on the discontinuance of the city line.
 The RadeI Oyster Co.,, is capitalized for more than $1,000,O00 and it's prop erty could not be purchased for s. GOO, 900. 1t is concern that any water front city would be glad to have.
 Each of it's twelve boats has a crew of from to 10 men and all are paid good wages. Its payroll of not less than $1 800 a week is mostly to men who live in this city. The Company's provisions and coal are bought here. The company has been instrumental in having a new marine boiler factory established at the foot of Pembroke street and has kept it busy with the