Norwich bulletin., 1911-08-16
CONDEMNATION HEARING
 ON PALMER FARM.
Price of Property Where Stony Brook Reservoir is Being Constructed the Bone of Contention.

The continued hearing in chambers before Judge Shumway of the condem nation proceedings of the board Nof water commissioners against J. Ray mond Palmer of Montville was begun in the superior court room here on Tuesday morning and will be continu ed this morning. The witnesses for the water board have been heard, and those for MT. Palmer are now being heard by Judge Shumway. Corpora tion Counsel Tanning represents the water board, and Attorneys Comstock and King appear for MT Palmer.
 The land owned by MT. Palmer forms the basin of the reservoir which is building on what is known as Cherry lane in Montville. Attorney Tanning to the property may have to be de- cided by the courts. By the will of Elisha Palmer, who died 30 years ago, life interest was left to his wife. There were but two witnesses to the will. Land had been bought from Lucy Palmer Giddings daughter, and a claim to a right in the estate is ma de by w. H. Palmer of New Britain. If the will is void the title of MT. and Mrs. J. Raymond Palmer and the oth- CTS will be affected. Attorney Com stock said he could see no trouble died in 1897 and the property was di- vided satisfactory to all according to the will. Judge Shumway decided that the title question could come up after the testimony as to the value, and witnesses were called regarding that
 $. B. Palmer. engineer of the water board, showed a plan of the farm and explained the location of the 11S 1-2 acres which make up the farm. The Giddings property includes 49 1-2 acres.
 J. l.. Case when called said he con SiHarad tho f<1 I-r,1 nd ba value fixed on it by w. O. Rogers was S2,250. J. R. May of New London said the property is rough and hilly and the house old. He valued it at s2.400. A value Of SIS an acre was fixed by E. A. Prentice, which made the farm worth in his opinion $2,12S.50. Nicholas Tar rant said he had sold real estate for 35 years and in his opinion the farm is worth $2,2G0. There was a discus sion between he and Attorney Com stock about the 200 cords of hickory timber on the land.
 A. L. Potter testified that the farm is worth no more than s2,50O and that the wood on it is not worth over $500 or 50 cents a cord.
 Engineer Palmer again made an ex- planation of the map and told of the water rights. After explaining that later with other papers, Attorney Fan ming stated that his side rested.
 J. Raymond Palmer was the first witness called by Attorney Comstock, and he said he has 40 acres of land He said he did not understand the plan when asked to explain his boun- . daries. He did not fix a value on the property.
 William Richards. superintendent of the New London Water department, was called and testified he fixed a value of $25 an acre on the wood land and $50 an acre on the other land. The house he valued at $250 and the barn at $500, the total according to his figuring is S7,2S0.
 He said if he had been buying it he would have tried to get it as low as possible. He should consider his figure a fair. market value considering the city had decided to- take it for a reserv oir. He would consider ita fair price if he knew the city had not de- cided to take it. He made up his mind on these figures because the city of Norwich had decided to take it for res ervoir purposes and took in consider atiCn it's value for a reservoir.
 He was on tlIe staI when court dd- journcd at 430 until this morning at 9.30 to continue the matter.
 It is understood that MT. Palmer wanted s9,500 for the farm but was willing to compromise for $6,000. The city, it is understood, had offered S3 300 to avoid litigation although ten years ago it had an option on it for S1 95O