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/74 A further advantage of locating the new school on the Aldrich ` ' property would be to increase use of a large park area which has been in Town ownership for nearly eight years , and yet has had only slight improvement and occasional use as a picnic ground and as individually- operated victory gardens. This Committee cannot concede that the Town would lose _valuable or essential recreation land inasmuch as: 1) plans prepared by nationally known recreation experts for development of the entire tract call for no use of the site selected except for incidental landscape treatment; 2) the Town owns nearly seventy acres of land in the Parker Field development, or enough acreage for three playgrounds plus three athletic fields of the sizes recommended by the National Recreation Association. The site was donated to the Town in 1938 by J. Willard Hayden, with the provision that "with the written consent of the donor. , . portions of said playground may be devoted to structures to be used by the youth of Lexington for educational purposes apart from strictly playground usage if such structures and the necessary area about them will not, in the opinion, . ,of the donor. . . seriously encroach upon the area reasonably required for the realization of the purposes of this grant that it be devoted primarily to recreational playground activities" . There is no record in the Town Meeting's vote of accept- ance or elsewhere that we can discover, of why that clause was inserted intthe deed. But in the memory of some Town Officials and Town Meeting members, there was discussion at that tine of the possibility of locat- ing a school there, and the presumption is certainly very strong that the clause was inserted with that possibility in mind. Whether or not that be the case, Mr. Hayden indicated to rep- resentatives of this Committee some time ago that he does not intend to permit any school building to be erected on this site. Efforts to show him that a school would increase recreational use of the remainder of the tract were countered by his explanation that locating a school there would not be in accord with his plans. Since the only way of obtaining the site seemed to be through the taking of legal steps to remove the restriction, we were prepared to recommend to the Town that such steps be taken. However, we have been assured by the Board of Selectmen and the Town Counsel that such steps would not be to the best interests of the Town, even though we are lure it is the best site for school purposes. We can not agree with their point of view, but at the specific request of the Board of Sel- ectmen and Town Counsel, we reluctantly move that action under Articles 19 and 20 be indefinitely postponed. Respectfully submitted, Committee on School Sites Moved by Roland B. Greeley Indefinite Postponement. Carried Unanimously 9:23 P. M. All articles being dispensed with, the meeting was dissolved 9:24 P.M. I Tow- C erk