City Council Grants University Pipeline

Councilor Al Vellucci was forced to retreat yesterday, as the Cambridge City Council outvoted him, 7 to 1, to grant Harvard's petition for a steampipe across Prescott St.

Robert H. Wescott, engineering manager of the University, testified before the Council that the building of the new steam tunnel would save the University money by connecting the three Prescott St. dorms with the existing central heating plant.

In answer to Vellucci's questions, Wescott said he had no knowledge of the eviction of 28 families by the University or its recent property acquisitions around Cambridge.

The petition was reported favorably from Velucci's Committee on Roads and Bridges, although he had earlier vowed to keep the petition in committee "for the next nine months."