The Board of Selectmen Tuesday night voted to turn down a request presented by John C. Barker, chairman of the Town Employees group of the Servicemen’s Fund Committee, for a carnival permit on the Guild School lot. Dates for the carnival had been set as September 5, 6, 7 and 8.
Objection to the Guild School Lot as the scene of the Servicemen s Fund Carnival was offered by Mr. John Conley, a resident of that area, Robert Brown, administrator of the Norwood Hospital, who sent a representative to appear before the Board, and Mrs. Marion Sanborn, owner of a large apartment block in that vicinity housing more than 30 families.
It was pointed out by all those opposing the granting of a permit for the carnival on this particular site, that they were not ordinarily opposed to this type of entertainment, and were fully in sympathy with the cause for which the Servicemen’s Fund was working, but due to the close proximity of the School Lot to the Hospital and the residential area, they felt that it might inconvenience and disturb a large number of people . . people who through illness and their work required that their rest be undisturbed It was stated that all the neighbors in that vicinity had urged a spokesman to appear before the Board and request that if any permit were granted, that it contain a proviso for another site Residents of the Talbot Block, containing 25 apartments, were stated as opposed to a carnival in that neighborhood.
Mr. Conley, representing a large group of residents who staled that a carnival on the School Lot would bring it virtually into his front yard, suggested that the Elk’s Park was an excellent place to hold the carnival. He wondered why this fact was not suggested to the committee.
The question of granting the permit for the long-sought carnival was again brought around to the matter of conducting it on the town parking lot in the rear of the Norwood Theatre. Selectman Harry Butters presented a request on behalf of the Fund Committee that the Board reconsider their recent refusal to grant a permit for this site.
Chairman of the Board Charles Holman accepted the request for reconsideration, but when the matter came to a vote Selccemen H. William Anderson and Sture Nelson voted with the chairman to stand by their original decision to refuse carnival permits for that lot.
“It would inconvenience too many people,” said Holman, “the parkway situation would be thrown out of gear for four days. Many business people also have objected that it would not be agreeable to them.”
Selectman Butters said that the matter of discommoding people was unfortunate . . . too bad. He was sorry for them . . . and for the business men who also would suffer inconvenience. He had in mind the hundreds pf servicemen who also found it inconvenient to sleep in fox holes in Germany and at Okinawa, and who were now living at all ends of the earth under conditions which were not convenient or commodious. He had in mind, he said, that the small profit which might be realized by the carnival was to be used as a testimonial to their men of the town.
He insisted, however, that he would hestitate to discommode anyone here at home. “Send it down to my part of the town,” he said.
He sharply criticized Selectman Anderson’s stand in voting against a carnival permit for any section of the town.
As the matter now stands the town employees are no nearer the obtaining of a permit for their carnival than they were one month ago. other than a suggestion offered by Selectman Sture Nelson that the Town Employees Committee chairman get in touch with the Board with a view to deciding on a carnival site which would meet with the approval of both parties.
Selectman Butters, who has favored the town parking lot since it was first suggested a month ago by Clement Riley and has shown his dissatisfaction at the refusal of his fellow Selectmen to go along with this plan, indicated that he might have a change of mind regarding any location selected in South Norwood.
“Don’t make any definite commitments about sending it down my way without taking me into consideration,” he said.
His attitude was that if the carnival could not be held in the center of the town. South’Norwood was not to be used as a dumping ground, even though he personally does not consider carnivals objectionable.
(All articles originally appeared in the Norwood Messenger unless otherwise noted)