THE FIRST COMMISSION 



began to ask tliemselYes if the entire connty was not 

 "parkable."- 



While the friends of the parks were providing sugges- 

 tions and recommendations, the board was looking also to 

 broader fields of information and to the guidance of expe- 

 rience. At the meeting July 19, 1894, the secretary was 

 requested to obtain the best available maps of the county; 

 with the reports, together with such other data as might be 

 of value to the commission, from the leading park depart- 

 ments of the country and from the larger cities abroad. 

 The information thus obtained was later of great value for 

 comparison, and in the preparation of the charter for the 

 permanent commission. 



EXECUTIVE SESSIOXS OF PAEK BOAED. 



A resolution was also adopted at the July 19 meeting 

 which has since remained a factor in the proceedings of the 

 Park Board, although it long ago outlived its usefulness 

 and therefore by sufferance remains as a relic of the past. 

 I believe it would have been better had it never been adopted 

 than to have encroached, as it has thus far, into a field 

 where its purpose and workings were never intended. I 

 may, perhaps, be pardoned for the reference to this subject 

 here, for I drew the resolution in question and on my mo- 

 tion it was adopted. It provided that ^'the meetings of the 

 commission be in executive session, and that the secretary 

 furnish a report of the proceedings to the press after each 

 meeting.'^ 



When this motion was agreed upon, every member of the 

 commission realized that the moment our decision to locate 

 park lands anwhere in the county was made public, there 

 would naturally be a speculative movement attempted to 

 forestall the future Park Board in securing the required 

 lands at the then current prices. The matter was carefully 

 considered, and the resolution promptly adopted for the sole 

 and only purpose of giving any future commission the op- 

 portunity of acquiring such locations as might be needed 

 for the parks without starting the real estate adventurers 



