Council Approves 'Model Cities' Pact

Cambridge's Model Cities program is getting ready to swing into action.

The City Council last night voted to approve the City's contract with the Federal government for the program. Justin Gray, assistant to the city manager for Community Development, said that Cambridge was the first of the 63 Model Cities to have such a contract approved.

Under the contract, Cambridge will receive $91,000 to plan its program. The City had requested $180,000 when it submitted its application last spring, and a later addition brought the total requested for planning to $235,000.

Government Funds

Gray said that the City is now negotiating with the federal government for an increase in the funds given for planning. He was optimistic that they would receive enough additional money to bring the total alloted for planning close to the original $180,000 request.

The next step in the Cambridge Model Cities program will be the elections to the Model Cities Agency which will control the program. Last spring, the City Council guaranteed that residents of the Model Cities area--a 268-acre region just northeast of Central Square--would have a majority on the agency. The elections may be held before the first of the year.

Earlier last night, Cambridge City Councillors Thomas Coates and Cornelia B. Wheeler urged members of the Cambridge Election Commission to revise their voting registration procedure.

Coates said "it seemed that potential voters had no notification of the type of proof" needed to establish voting residence in Cambridge. He said that the commission had questioned one man's evidence of rent receipts and a bursar's card.

Election Commissioner Thomas Hartnett replied that the commission "didn't ask enough questions." He said they had found that one registered voter had actually spent only several days in the City during the past two or three years and was now in Greece. According to Hartnett, approximately 150 suspected cases of invalid registration are now being investigated.