New Britain herald., 1927-04-28
FREE PARKING AT CENTER DISCUSSED Railroad and Highway Officials
 Confer With Henry Trumbull FINAL SCHOOL DEBATE
Broad Street Pupils Argue on Trans. portAtion-Local Boy Pitches No- Hit Game-I,amb Asks Flood Re lief Contributions-Bricf

| Railroad. highway. and town ot- f1cials conferred this morning with President Henry Trumbull of the Plainville Chamber of Commerce In regard to the chambers plan for a free parking space on the railroad property near Central square. This idea. designed 10 relieve the ever growing congestion about the center. has met with the approval of the townspeople and was approved by | the New Haven road and state rep resontatives who went over the ter 1 ritory this morning, The only ob- staclas which appear to be encouh- 1 tered are the determination o. the i exact layout of the public parking ground and the cost; no difficulty is expected in overcoming them.
 The plan sponsored by the cham Der calls for the opening up Of the land west Of the canal line" tracks for use as q public parking space The Sequassen corporation whose new building adjoins this tract, has offered to grade it and fill 1t in to- ward the river. A fence would be erected along the tracks as a safe guard against autos or persons get | ting on the rails.
 The principal difficulty lies in the narrow entrance to the property. for ! the gate-tender's shanty at the West Main street crossing nearly blocks the way, It was suggested to the railroad men today that they move this shanty across the tracks; this would involve moving the operating gate, while both gateposts on this | side of the street would be set back and longer gates set on them. This would settle two other problems, that Of the bottle-n -necked entrance to West Main street and that of the irregular sidewalk on the north side. X new walk and highway line could be drawn across from the theater building to monoument square and the awkward angles eliminated. The moving Of the gateposts would be the principal ex- pensc, and as no railroad engineer was present today an estimate of the cost was not available
 | MT. Trumbull Is enthusiastic about the plan and says that in this strip of land Plainville has an ideal and almost unique place for parking. as very few towns have unusued land 1 so close to the center which can be 1 turned to this use. Real estate values today are so high that park i ing places are uneconomical on land good for other purposes. and this tract is otherwise useless. Its met morphosis into a place for cars would greatly improve the appear | ance of the center.
 Those who were in the party Of examiners this morning were Mr Burrell of the real estate depart ment of the New Haven road. Mir lioyt of the traffic department. Mir. l Taylor of the state highway depart ment: Chairman John F. Lamb and Secretary Frank T. Wheeler Of the town plan commission, First Select lnan John J. kimmel, President Robert J, Coe and Treasurer Allen M. Raymond Of the Sequassen cor poration. and Mir. Trumbull.
 IL was decided 10 have sketch of the layout desired hy fhe chamber drawn up and submitted to the rail- road, which could then act on it's feasibility and cost, This will be done as soon as is possible, as the heavy summer traffic conditions are growing rapidly nearer.
 Last of School Debates
 The last debate Of the year was held at the Broad street school yes-