- Fred A. West read the petition to the committee, and the petition requested that:
- The grading of the park be improved;
- Attention be paid to the fact that the “high ground near the center of the plot” would lead to drainage into “depressions” near Ashley Street;
- That the park not be fenced but instead be improved with new trees and shrubbery; and
- That sidewalks, curbs and gutters be installed on May and Sargeant Streets.
He added that there was a “general dissatisfaction with the way the park had been graded and the people did not think it was finished.”
- Francis Goodwin spoke next, and he said that
- “there was an opportunity to do a nice thing without great expense” although it would take “men with skill” and “competent advice” to accomplish it;
- “the park should be made so that people would go out to see it and take there visitors to the city” and
- “any outlay that the committee would make for the purpose would be amply indorsed by the whole community.”
Goodwin also described small parks in London and Boston, and the proposed improvements to this park “would be a great help to property nearby.”
- George Ulrich noted that the park would ultimately belong to the City, and he asked Goodwin if the matter should be referred to the City Parks Commission.
- Goodwin responded that the City would likely appropriate funds only for the maintenance of an existing park and not for the development of the proposed park.
- H. Hippel spoke in favor of a “curb and gutter stone” on May Street.
- The committee assured Hippel that the curb and gutter would be installed “if the council ordered such an improvement.”
- W. Parsons said that the “high ground had been used as a burial place many years ago” for “paupers” and “those persons who died from small-pox.”
- George Fowler said that the victims of small pox had been “buried six feet under ground” and that George Goyt had told him that “children had been buried over the others.”
- E. Burr said that if the proposed improvements cost $1,500, and if the town meeting opposed that amount, then “he would agree to pay the money himself.”
- After further discussion, George Ulrich moved that the chair of the committee be authorized to obtain “the opinions of experts on the proper manner of improving the park and the approximate expense.”
- The motion passed.
