Dumps, Dublin Are Issues At Council

Dumps, Dublin and an honorary Harvard degree were among the topics discussed last night, as the nine members of the Cambridge City Council stayed away from any controversial issues at their weekly Monday night meeting.

The conservative Independent and the liberal Cambridge--Civic Association (CCA) councilors alike were troubled for the second straight meeting by a recent methane fire at the city dump, and called City Manager Robert W. Healy and Acting Public Works Commissioner Everett Kennedy before the council to give a report on the gas.

Healy explained that the methane is released during natural processes of decomposition, and is not dangerous as long as it can dissipate into the atmosphere.

The fires, he added, took place because caps were missing on several gas vent pipes. The caps have now been replaced, Healy said.

In other action, Council Walter J. Sullivan introduced an order that would make Dublin, Ireland a sister city with Cambridge. The sister city program is a nation-wide organization that links American cities with those abroad to exchange cultures and to promote world peace.

Cambridge's current sister cities include Cambridge. England: Coimbra, Portugal: and Gaeta, Italy.

Sullivan said he suggested Dublin because it is a university city similar to Cambridge. He added that many Cantabridgians, including himself, are of Irish descent.

Mayor Alfred E. Vellucci came closer to a controversy by bringing up civil rights. But he tempered the issue by adding Harvard, a traditional target.

Vellucci introduced a motion requesting that the University consider bestowing an honorary degree on Rosa Parks, the Black woman whose refusal to yield her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery. Ala., brought national recognition to the 1959 civil rights movement and its young leader, Dr. Martin Luther King.

The city dedicated a school Saturday to Parks and Councilor Saundra Graham, another civil rights activist.