ANNUAL MEETING ON OCTOBER 27
The Center Square Association will hold its annual meeting and
election of officers at 8 p.m. Monday, October 27, in the Club
Room of Trinity Methodist Church, Lancaster and Lark Streets.
This year's nominating committee is Mrs. John D. Skeer, chair—
man, Mrs. Anne White and Alfred F. Dascher Jr.
Now is the time for the paying of dues: regular membership,
$2 a year; contributing, $5; and sustaining, $10. Anyone who
lives in Center Square, as owner or renter, and non—resident
owners of homes or businesses in the area are invited to join.
The meeting will include a discussion of the association's
purposes, accomplishments and possible future projects.
One subject for discussion is the possibility of extending
the association's boundaries to include the south side of
Washington Avenue to the north side of Madison Avenue. Exten-
sion to the north was one recommendation in last year's Bernd
Foerster report sponsored by the State Council on the Arts.
(Copies of this report will be available at the meeting,)

"PURPOSES OP THE ORGANIZATION"
The Center Square Association, a neighborhood improvement group,
is now going on 13 years old. But the goals listed in its con-
stitution still hold today:
—- promotion of the aesthetic and physical improvement
of properties;
-— zoning enforcement and improvement;
·- abatement of public nuisances;
—— representation at meetings which may affect the area.

THE END OF THE SCOPES HOUSE
A parking lot will soon replace the mansion of the late Frank J.
Scopes and its small companion house at 89 Chestnut Street. Both
are in the "historic sites" area.
Mr. Scopes, nationally known dealer in rare books, left the
property to Westminster Presbyterian Church, its neighbor. The
church plans to extend its paved parking lot, for the present,
with the possibility eventually of erecting a parking—church of-
fice building.
Last July, a Center Square committee received assurance from
Mayor Corning that demolition would not be done without a city
permit, which in turn requires review by the Historic Sites
Commission.

The church has agreed to place the chain fence of the parking
lot back from the sidewalk and to screen the lot with shrubbery
now, a brick wall later. It also agreed to present plans for
this and for any future construction to the commission. Such a
building in a residential zone would also require a variance
from the city zoning board.
At the meeting with the mayor, the Center Square members dis-
cussed the possibility of requiring a public hearing on matters
brought before the Historic Sites Commission. They also reported
several zoning violations and health and safety hazards, and op-
posed another parking lot proposal within the area.

RUTH GILBERT MEMORIAL
One of the young trees on Chestnut Street has been dedicated
to the memory of Miss Ruth Gilbert, who died late in l968. The
tree, in front of her home at 162 Chestnut Street, now bears a
memorial plate. .
Miss Gilbert had been an expert on psychiatric nursing and was
the author of leading textbooks in this field. For Center Square,
she did more than any other member to get Albany's new zoning
ordinance passed, to understand its intricacies, to explain
these to other members and to work for its enforcement.
Her house has been purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Nils Enequist.
Mr. Enequist is a retired Swedish army officer and his wife is
a consultant in the State Library Division of Library Development.

ARTERIAL SCLEROSIS
Computers, engineers and planners at the State Transportation De-
partment are studying several routes as alternates to the mid-
crosstown proposal of 1968.
Frank J. Puller, district transportation engineer, says that
"exhaustive studies are under way on alternate routes — a very
deep study, involving future traffic estimates."
Governor Rockefeller has informed the NAACP that a decision is
expected in the early summer of 1970. One alternate being con-
sidered, he wrote, is again a dig—and—cover tunnel through Wash-
ington Park, but without the east—west connection to the Mall.
The governor wrote to Dr. Harry L. Hamilton, NAACP branch
president, about a number of points the organization had raised.
These are to be discussed further with members of the governor's
staff.
Other alternates include depressed streets and pairs of one-
way surface streets for north and south traffic. ’
Any new proposal must pass through two public hearings, a new
requirement of the federal government for highway projects asking
it for money. The first hearing presents the idea of a highway
through a general "corridor." It may present general alternate
routes, but not a specific recommendation. A second hearing is
on highway design -— the type of highway, a more definite route,
interchanges, pedestrian overpasses, etc.

A new Albany route would also require new state legislation
to amend the 1968 law authorizing the mid-crosstown route. That
in turn amended the former Lark-Dove? legislation of 1950.
The cost of the 2.75—mile cut—and—fill segment, estimated at
$112 million last year, would now be over $150 million, according
to current estimates.

PARKING FOR MALL WORKERS
Parking lots on state—owned land at the riverfront and across from
the State Office Building Campus, with bus service downtown, are
planned for the first workers in the new South Mall.
The Office of General Services says it has not been decided
whether to make a parking charge which includes a bus ride, or
to have free parking but charges for bussing. The odds of get-
ting both free parking and free mass transit are not good, al-
though one demand of the Civil Service Employees Association is
free parking for all state employees.
The trial project will help OGS to determine parking needs and
solutions when the Mall is completed. First to move in will be
the Motor Vehicle Department, in the building along Swan Street,
and the Health Department, in the tower building.
Other areas proposed for parking have included the Rensselaer
riverfront, Thruway Exit 23, Sheridan Hollow and North Pearl Street.

MORE TREES, ETC.
The city provided some 30 new locust trees during the summer, mostly
on the lower blocks of Chestnut, Jay and Lancaster Streets. Per-
haps partly as a result, six houses on lower Jay have been im-
proved with exterior painting.
Winter care for the trees includes two don'ts, according to
Paul Steinkamp, tree chairman: no rock salt at their bases, and
no snow piled around them. His committee plans a fertilizing
tour in late fall —- commercial treatment adds up to about $700.
The summer also brought new bricked—in sidewalks to the west
side of Dove Street between Chestnut and Lancaster, and it is
understood that the north side of Lancaster, Dove to Lark, is to
be next year's project.

ZONING AMENDMENT
Center Square members met success in their opposition to a zoning
amendment which would have permitted rooming houses in R-5 dis-
tricts, the classification for most of Center Square.
The city explained that the new ordinance, passed in 1968,
made no provision for rooming hous On the mayor's recommenda-
tion, the amendment was changed to allow them in R-4 and commer-
cial areas only. .
The city is preparing a manual about the parking lot standards
listed in the zoning ordinance, explaining such matters as paving,
screening and maintaining them. Mayor Corning reports that the
booklet is in final stages and will be distributed about the
first of the new year. .

CENTER SQUARE BOARD
OFFICERS
President: Phillip S. Arensberg, 334 State St., 436-8769
Vice-president: Howard L. Malone, 205 Lancaster St., 436-8219
Corresponding secretary: Mrs. Warder Cadbury, 135 Jay St.,
462-3139
Recording secretary: Miss Jane G. Miller, 158 Chestnut St.,
434-2376
Treasurer: Townsend Rich, 166 Chestnut St., 463-3092

COMMITTEE CHAIRMEN
Historic Survey: Miss Catherine Bacon, 183 Lancaster St.,
434-0506
Historic Sites Commission: Mrs. George Hemstead, 209 Lancaster
St., 434-6618
Membership: Harold W. Juhre Jr., 218 Lancaster St., 462-1771
Newsletter: Mrs. David Billmyer, 199 Lancaster St., 465-0737
Planning and Trees: Paul R. Steinkamp, 188 Lancaster St.,
434-0269
Real Estate: Mrs. Howard L. Malone, 205 Lancaster St.,
436-8219
Zoning: Howard M. Daffner, 220 Lancaster St., 436-1140