Parents to Vote on Child Center Move

Members of the Oxford Street Day Care Cooperative will decide tomorrow night whether to accept a new home the University has offered them.

"Right now, it's 50-50 whether we go with Harvard or fight them," Gail T. Wooten, administrator of the co-op, said yesterday.

The building Harvard is offering the center, at 48 Trowbridge St., formerly housed some offices of the Kennedy School of Government and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism. The day care center is now in Palfrey House at 46 Oxford St.

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The University and co-op members agree the day care center must move because it currently receives small amounts of radiation from a medical device used for treatment in conjunction with the Harvard School of Medicine.

"We were looking for a space which would meet the needs of the center--one that is big enough, with no lead paint and proper fire safety measures," Michael F. Brewer, assistant vice-president of community and government affairs, said yesterday.

"Harvard promised us a fairly reasonable amount of money to renovate the building. The parents will be deciding whether the amount is reasonable, given the place they offered us," Wooten said.

If the parents vote against the Trowbridge location, they will request that the University continue looking for a more acceptable site, Wooten added.

Harvard is responsible for providing space and utilities for the five day care centers under its authority. The centers were established about eight years ago at the insistence of local parents, who said Harvard has a responsibility to recognize the local comnity's needs.

Tests show that the radiation level in the old building is harmless, but co-op members and University officials said they do not want to take chances with small children.

Rocks and Stones Themselves

"A person standing in University Hall would receive more radiation from the granite than the children do at Palfrey. Even though there is no danger, it is just as well to move them because we're dealing with children," Brewer said.

The University has been looking for a new building to house the day care center for more than a year. Last spring the search touched off a controversy when workers measured the dimensions of rooms in the building at 58 Garfield St. without notifying tenants.

Residents of the building and the surrounding area protested Harvard's intentions to house a day care center there, and the University had to rule out the site.

"Somebody who was given a technical assignment got too enthusiastic," Brewer said. The University usually talks with community members before acting, Brewer added.

"We have an amiable relation with Harvard, but child care is not one of the University's priorities," Wooten said