The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-11-01
Italian American
 Club Gives Warm Welcome To AtWater
Democratic Candidate Pointed Out That Improvements Made During Wilson Regime Mean Nothing As They
 Not Paid For.

past ten years, there would not today of our school children on part time and housed, in great many instances, in a wooden building christened port able schools"
 stand that name. presume portable" means something that can be carried from place to place, and the only reason I can ascribe for the introduc- ton of this kind of school building in to Bridgeport, seems to be that what the Mayor had in mind was that in stead of putting up 8 permanent building in a given location he would placed there and taken away again in case the population had decreased. so that some other place where there was an excess of able school building, and thus avoid the necessity of tying up money in school houses which he could other wise use for the purchase of such Plaza, which at the time it was brought into being, arrived with great mystery and has since continued to be the greatest puzzle in recent mu- nicipa1 affairs.
 have not yet heard why hundreds of thousands of dollars in buildings were torn down to supply an open space in the heart of the business section, and I presume this is another of the secrets which. like the mayors Burns Detective Agency, must re- main locked up In the mayor s breast.
 believe it was something like one million dollars which was expended to supply this ''impr to the many other bonded Improvements which the past administration have furnished. If I remember rightly, %I. H. R,1 etr cf bridge total s366,o0O. and a judg- ment of about S230,000 was obtained against the city in a law suit connect ed with it. for which the mayor was responsible, making a total of about S596, ,000 to- supply a bridge which is probably less used than any bridge in the city of Bridgeport. I believe more traffic travels the little Glen brook avenue bridge than does the Grand street bridge.
 At the time this bridge was erect ed, at the time the Plaza became a Plaza Cor was supposed to sometime become Plaza) it was apparent that we did not have sufficient school l were alolwed to wait and the school children welcomed to palatial porta- bles and allowed to inhaibit these portables for half the time they are | these two projects alone, approxi- mate1y a million and a half dollars | were invested.
 If it costs two hundred thousand dollars to buy the land, build the building, furnish the furniture. and | the fixtures and properly equip a school building (and I believe this is high estimate) provided the work l is economically done and the con. tract not on a cost plus basis) then | it is easy to see that if the money | which was wasted on the Plaza and the money which was mdsused ir l bridge had been invested in schoo,
 houses, we would have no need fol these portable structures, but on the contrary We could have had In thell | place seven. at least, new and up tc date, thoroughly equipped, sanitary school houses and there would not be | one single child in a portable schoo l today, and not one who would not bt
 on full time. Such number O | schools, built from the money whicf
 has been wasted and misused, woult have cleared the mayor of all criti
 cism in this respect. If we even talk, the sum of approximately one million
 dallars, which has been absolutel. i wasted on the Plaza. we still wouls
 have had five new schools whicl 1 would relieve our present conditions I have allowed. as I believe, a 1arg
 figure for the cost of building a mod
 ern, up-to-date school house. I d.
 know, however, that there has hardi
 been an improvement undertakes
 during the last reW years Of the Will
 son adminis.rataon where the appro
 priations have not ibeen exceeded an the improvement found to cost great deal more than it should have This is in striking contrast vii wha was accomplished under administra
 tions prior to Mayor Wilson's we
 recollect that the time Mayor Mulvf
 hill set about the remodelling Of tih
 Bridgeport City Hall, my fathe
 (Henry Atwater) was a member c
 the committee which had the wor
 in charge. They were allotted a cer
 tain sum of money with which to ac
 complsh 1t. Not only did they com
 plete the work even to the point c furnishing inkwells for the desks i the Common Council Chamber, bu were able to save, think. somewher
 between eight and ten thousand dol ) lars which they turned back to tn City Treasurer.
 Judging the conduct of things dur : ing the pas. few years. I suppose an member of the committee who woul Il do any work within the apprcpria1e
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