The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1869-08-12
Proceedings or the village Board.


the preceding meeting to confer with
the Board of Harbor Commissioners re-
ported as follows:
Your committee appointed to confer
with the Harbor Commissioners IN regard
to purchasing the dredge and scows now
in the hands of saidCommissioners would
respectively report thai tihey have re-
celved proposition from said commits
sioners copy of which is hereby submit
ted. can r Il
And your committee would further re-
port. that they believe it to be for the
interest of the Village of Manitowoc to
accept of said proposition. All of which
is respectfully submitted.
CHAs. W. WHITE, Chm.
NJ. Fellows
The proposition accompanying reads as
follows.
Resolved by the Board of Harbor
Commissioners, that they will sell to the
Village of Manitowoc. the Steam Dredge,
two dump scows and all appurtenances
belonging thereto and all other property
and assets belonging to the Manitowoc
Harhor Fund under control of the Har-
Dor Board for the sum of six thousand
dollars. Payable in manner as follows,
to wit:
In Village Orders drawn on the Treas
urer of the Village of Manitowoc for said
sum of six thousand dollars, one half of
said orders payable and maturing on the
first day of January A. D. 1870, and the
balance of said orders payable and matur
ing on the first day of January A. D.
1871. Said orders to bear interest at the
rate OF SEVEN per cent per annum from
the date of their issue until raid, said
orders to be issued and paid over to the
Board of Harbor Commissioners on de-
livery of the aforementioned property.
Sale and transfer to be made subject to
the conditions of certain contract now
existing between the Board of Harbor
Commissioners and John Scbuette.
The within is full and true CODY of
the original, adopted by The Board of
Harbor Commissioners Aug. 9th 1869.
T. G. SHOVE, Secretary.
Manitowoc Wis. Aug 9th 1869
On motion the report of the special
committee was adopted and the PROPOSE
ton accepted eight trustees voting for and
three against the said motion.
And thus it seems determined, that
this Village pay six thousand dollars more
for property for the building of which
the village and town have already been
taxed once to the tune of twenty thousand
dollars.
This transaction appears to us to
amount to about as much as the first
resolution in that line of the Village
Board last year, that this Village should
assume the payment of the exl enses in
CURED for dredging tie middle of the
Manitowoc river according to certain
specifications, which amounted to just
nothing, because the village beard very
soon ascertained, that they had no author
ity under the charter, to lave the river
dredged at the expense Of the village
Still we believe the Village liable for its
agreement, because it appears that the
Harbor Commissioners have entered into
contract and said contract is partly COM
piled with under full faith in the promise
Of our Village
We are perfectly willing that the con-
tractor, Mr.. Schuette, should be paid,
whenever the work contracted for has
been completed by him and accepted as
such by the proper authority, but we can
not for the life of us see how tie HarGor
Commissioners became the owners OF the
dredge or how the title of the village to
the ,dredge can be improved BY the
further payment of six thousand dollars.
At the time the Harbor tax was raised,
the town Of Manitowoc intended to con-
struct its own harbor, and our humble
opinion is that the functions of the Harbor
Commissioners ceased as soon as the
United States took charge of the con
struction of that work all their authority
was after that limited to superintend the
work Of the dredge and to give semi-an-
nually an account of their stewardship to
their employers, the citizens Of the village
and Of the town of Manitowoc, which lat
ter duty they seem to have wofully me-.
elected. 1t is also our humble opinion.
that the Harbor Commissioners had a
little authority to enter into any contract
for work to be done inside OF the river, as
the village had to assume the payment
of the same Section l cf the act auth
orizing the levying of the Harbor tax
prescribes that the money is to be ex
pended in and about the construction or
improvement of the harbor a: the mouth
of the Manitowoc river.
We close with the remark that the vii
&c should dredge the middle of I he
river from its mouth to the bridge and
further up as necessity may require, al
though such action is unauthorized by
any law of this State or the United
States, but let it be done in an open,
straiaht forward manner, let our next
Legislature legalize the former proceed
ings of the Board of Village Trustees and
of the Habor Commissioners too for
dredging the middle of the river, and all
trouble and illegality and presumed at