The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-07-13


 Bowles will have lot of time to ruminate on the Connecticut poli- tical situation and what place he can find to fit into it. Of course, that's taking a lot for granted. MT. BowleS may not find himself fitting into any part of the Dem- ocratic set-up, come September and convention dates. Incident ally, are the Democrats going to try and woo the fortunes that went with Dr. Wilbur L. Cross and Eastern point by returning to Groton for their state convention this fall? It became legend for Democrats to associate the Gris- wold with Uncle Toby and sue cessful campaign, but they have nit got the venerable pr. Cross any more and the Griswold may have lost it's good luck charm for the party.
 Returning to MT. BoWles, however. no one knows exactly how well he fits into the Democratic picture in Connecticut. Is he a political asset or detriment? Who knows? Astute political leaders wonder if it's go- ing to be worth while finding out the answer to this question and as a re- suit may fight shy of him when it comes time to name a candidate for the Senate or the governorship. Meantime Lieutenant Governor Wilbert Snow continues hopeful that his two years at Hartford and his missionary work throughout the state will reward him with a chance on trip to Washington. starting in January, 1947. If Democrats do settle on Prof, Snow and count BoWles out of the race completely, It might mean that they would have to go back two years and pick where they left of at that Hartford convention when Atty. Leo V. Gaff- ney of New Britain was left in the 1ureh and eX-Governor Bob Hur- ley given another chance to prove that he couldn't beat Gov. Raymond E. Baldwin even with the magic name of Roosevelt on the ticket.
 Mayor Jasper McLevy never misses a chance to have the fed eraI government participate in any public works program which his municipality may be consid- ering. Bridgeport was recently one of three Connecticut com munities receiving grants from the Federal Works Agency. The Bridgeport grant was $50, 0,000 which is supposed to cover the plans for a new S1,510,0G0 City Hall. Bridgeport has long want ed and waited for such struc- ture and it may well be that it will be McLevy who will event. ually build it and bring all the various city departments under one roof. AS it now exists only a few are housed in the City Hall, while others are scattered through out the city in different buildings.
 The Public Expenditures Council this week announced the issuance of its annual report which indicates that the fact-fnding and govern mental survey unit has been busy With Connecticut towns and cities. As a matter of fact the Council did quite a jog of surveying in adjacent Watertown. The report submitted to the town fathers was most complete one and indicated differ ent ways in which Watertown might improve its lot in the way of local government. Whether or not the suggestions will be acted upon in toto remains to be seen. Doubtless when town elections and meeting are held in October there may be something said and done about eliminating duplication of govern mental services, which is apt to be common in many of our Connecti- cut towns where there isn't the one tax unit. It has even been rumored that, stemming from this Council report and as a result of other events that have piled up through the years, the section of Watertown known as OakVille might try to be Joined to the City of Waterbury. This woulc be a compensation to Waterbury citizens if the Bristol Terrace area on the south side of the city seeded and joined Naug- atuck.
 Waterbury got rid of most of it's separate tax districts some years back with the end of inde- pendent school districts. However. it wasn't until this month that all connection with the past of school, fire, water and tax dis trictS was removed. That was July 1 when the city redeemed Sl0,O00 worth of Center School District Refunding Bonds. the last of a series of S200,OOO dating back to 1897 when there was a Center School District and it required funds for maintenance of build ings, as we'll as operating ex- penses. Oddly enough this series contained a "call" feature, which was never utilized. The wording Of the bond was that they could be redeemed after 1881 and at one time city officials considered seri- Ously calling them, but refrained when the magnitude of the job of notifying all registered bond holders of this series became ap- parent.
 This attempt to exercise a eallable feature also precipitated one of the most interesting aldermanie battles that Waterbury ever witnessed. It came at the time that Patrick Per- riello was President of the Board of Aldermen, thus giving the Re- publican side the to ' advantage. It was needed, too, when the plan 10 call the Center School honds