The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1883-02-06
CITY SURVEYING.

bic citizen, himself civil engineer, in which
the necessity of greater care in surveying
within the city is made SO apparent that COM
ment by the LIGHT is unnecessary:
At the meeting of the City Council on IAN
uary 10 the City Engineer was ordered to sur
yey and establish the street lines in that part
of the city which is lying east of the Alamo
ditch. Complaint had been made that the
lines of Nolan and Pecan streets had been in
correctly surveyed. The question now is
Will the City Engineer establish the correct
street lines, and when will he do it? All who
ever employed the City Engineer know that he
seldom adopts line which is established by
another surveyor; that he even seldom recog-
nizes division lines which are established and
agreed on by the adjoining owners and that
he never admits of having made mistake.
The city ordinance instructing the City Sur
veyor not to change a street line which has
been established by his predecessor except by
a special permission of the City Council does
not exist for him. Last November, when
Mayor French and Aldermen Schreiner
and Degener examined the wrong sur
vey of eight lots on Nolan street, the
City Engineer acknowledged his mistake and
stated as an excuse, in presence OF Mr.. Rum
Hncil anu hdJOi uidt lhS WtohS
lines had been pointed out to him by Ditch
Commissioner Deussen and by Mr.. Charles
Dullnig. Now, it is said, he denies the mis-
take and some aldermen believe him. The
present owners of these eight lots know that
their upper fences are four varas on the adjoin-
ing lots of Adams and Wickes and are waiting
since November tor a re-survey. Will they
ever get the correct lines? In August, 1880,
the city Council ordered The re-survey Of the
land between Alameda street and the govern
ment depot, which re-survey was never made.
In May last said order was renewed, but not
obeyed. Will the last order, 'to establish the
correct street lines" ever be obeyed?
The new fences on the east side of Hack
berry street are 7 u varas in the street; eight
lots on Nolan street are four varas, too far
north; the fence on the upper side Of North
First street, east of Valley ditch, Is eight
varas in the street; the fence on the east side
of Pecan street, south of Nolan street, is two
varas in the street, and the lots at the north
east corner of North Fourth and Pecan, now
Burnet and Live Oak streets, sold by Adams
and Wickes to Louis Beuss, are eight varas
too far north. Mr.. Reuss has built his
upper fence and large stable eight varas on
the adjoining lots of Adams and Wickes.
This mistake is indirectly acknowledged by
the City Engineer, who stated that he sur
veyed North Fourth street 20 varas wide, and
the records in his office show that the street
was laid out by the city only IL varas wide,
and never was widened except at the intersec-
ton with Austin street, in 1877, when the city
bought small piece of land from Justus
Proll.
The latest complaint against the City En-
gineer is about the most careless survey on
the Government hill. A number of lots are
surveyed II varas too far west. rhe lot No.
81, at the southwest corner of Henderson and
Depot streets, sold by Thomas Fl. James to
Jacob Winckler, who erected large buildings
on it, is surveyed II varas on the adjoining
lot No. 60. And four lots at the southeast
corner Of said streets, belonging also to said
Winckler, are surveyed II varas in Hender-
son street. The correctness in this statement
is shown by the plat of subdivisions made for
the heirs of Joseph H. Policy by Louis
Giraud in September 1876, and recorded in
the County Clerks Office, in volume E page
ISL. 1t is shown by this plat that the centre
line of Henderson street is II varaS east of
the centre Of the main glte in the Quarter
masters depot. In the survey of the City
Engineer both centre lines are corresponding.
No excuse for this mistake is possible, as all
the surplus of land is included in Davis street,
on the division line of the Dignowity and
Policy lots