'Second Hearing' Proposal To Spell More Belt Delay

The Cambridge City Council may soon receive a powerful legal boost in its fight to delay the proposed Cambridge Inner Belt.

A new federal regulation requiring two public hearings before any action can be taken on a proposed highway has been published in the Federal Register, the first step toward its enactment, Presently only one public hearing is required.

While the proposal is in the Register, a weekly legal notice, interested persons are free to make comments or suggestions. After two months in the Register, the proposal will come up before Federal Highway Administrator Lowell K. Bridwell who must then weigh the comments and act on the proposal.

On Friday, the two-hearing proposal will stop running in the Register and come up before Bridwell.

Another Hearing

"After the second hearing the highway department would have to go and reconsider the proposed road, make adjustments in its design plans and come up with a new design. With all the legal points which could come up for appeal, opponents of the road could delay it for a long, long time," said Francis C. Turner, director of Public Roads.

Turner also said that he anticipated that Bridwell will act soon on the proposal. The new Federal administration taking office in January will include a replacement for Bridwell.

The Cambridge City Council passed a resolution last night in favour of the twohearing proposal. The Council has been waging a fight to delay the Inner Belt ever since it was first suggested in 1948.

In other action last night the Council passed two resolutions supporting the Harvard varsity football team in Saturday's game with Yale. One, by Councillor Edward A. Crane '35, congratulated "the coaching staffs and players of both teams BUT wishes that the sons of Eli will return to New Haven with the knowledge that 'second best to Harvard is still very good.'"

The other football resolution, by Councillor Alfred E. Vellucci, said that "the Cambridge City Council would look favourably on Harvard achieving a smashing victory over Yale."

Vellucci said that he has had a feud with Yale ever since the Elis said that Lief Erikson, not Christopher Columbus, discovered America first. "I personally am trying to beat Yale even if I have to use Harvard to do it," Vellucci said.