Los Angeles-Based Consultant To Aid in JFK Library Study

The consulting firm conducting the environmental impact study on the proposed John F. Kennedy Memorial Library yesterday appointed Economics Research Associates (ERA) to prepare visitor estimates for the $27-million complex.

ERA, a national firm with headquarters in Los Angeles and an office in Boston, has completed 400 visitor projections, including work for the Boston Bicentennial.

Distinguished Record

John L. Slocum, a vice president for C. E. Maguire, Inc., the firm preparing the impact report, yesterday called ERA a "nationally-recognized firm with a long and distinguished record in the field of visitor forecasting and analysis."

Maguire subcontracted the visitor projections because of the crucial but subjective nature of this aspect of the study, George Grant, Maguire's project director, said yesterday. "You can't prove an estimate right or wrong," Grant said, "so we went with the firm with the best track record in the country."

The number of visitors the library is expected to draw to Cambridge has been a focal point in the dispute over placing the complex in Cambridge. Previous estimates by the Kennedy Corporation and civic groups have ranged from 700,000 to over 2.9 million annually.

The Kennedy Corporation announced yesterday that it has conducted a private survey of community attitudes about the library and is tabulating the results.

The Rev. Richard J. Schmaruk, a member of the Harvard Square Development Task Force, yesterday criticized the corporation's study as biased towards the viewpoint that opposition to the project centers among a few "Brattle Square liberals."

Schmaruk said he has received complaints that the respondents were asked to make personal comments on opponents of the library. Questions about Councilor Saundra Graham and Neighborhood Ten were included in the survey, he said.

Officials of the Kennedy Corporation were unavailable for comment last night.

In a news release, the Kennedy Cor- poration said it had commissioned Decision Research Corporation of Wellesley to interview 500 randomly-selected Cambridge residents.

The corporation's poll comes on the heels of several other surveys on the Kennedy Library. Neighborhood Nine, a local civic organization, reported last week that its survey of 225 residents shows that 69 per cent of the respondents disapprove of the Kennedy Library. William B. McAuliffe, professor of Social Psychology, is coordinating a study of attitudes about the library at the Graduate School of Design.

The results of both surveys are expected within the month.

The General Services Administration, Maguire's employer, said yesterday it has opened for public view its report on the integrity of the Maguire firm.

In response to community allegations, the GSA last month reviewed Maguire's contract and concluded that charges that the firm had bowed to political pressure from its clients were "unfounded." At that time, however, the GSA kept the report confidential.

A spokesman for the GSA said a copy of the report, which he described as "quite length," is at the GSA's office in Government Center