Committee to See Two Bills Urging Arena Purchase

Two bills authorizing the Metropolitan District Commission to buy the Boston Arena, and Massachusetts Governor Christian A. Herter's message urging the purchase, will come before a committee of state legislators this morning.

"It's an important issue, because there is a lot of interest in the city of Boston that the Arena be kept for schoolboy hockey and other sports," State Senator Philip G. Bowker said last night. Bowker is chairman of the Committee on Metropolitan Affairs, which will consider the bills at 10 a.m. today in Room 207 of the State House.

As an alternative to the purchase of the rink, the MDC is considering a new method of freezing ice with low-cost, portable apparatus, Bowker revealed. Benjamin Fink, chief engineer of the MDC's division of parks, is consulting with Canadian engineers on this project.