Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-04-14
THE CITY WILL APPEAL.
Another Delay in the Construction of th'
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 The board of road commissioners last evening recommended to the board of aldermen that the city attorney be in structed to appeal from the order of the railroad commissioners concerning the construction of bridges of the Meriden and Waterbury railroad of this city, and the board of aldermen at meeting shortly after so instructed the city attorney. The order was the result of petition from the railroad company that it should construct the Liberty street bridge B feet wide, that the height of the bottom beams of the bridge over Dublin, Silver aud Liberty streets be 15 feet from the rails and that the bottom beams of the bridge over South Main street be B feet from the present grade of the street, and that the company be allowed to erect on a line with the curb iron supports for the bridge. To all these requests the railroad commis sioners assented, except that the bridge at width of the street and that the South Main street bridge should be IA feet The bridge at Dublin street should be the width of the highway according to the order. But at the hearing at Hartford Engineer Craw- ford wanted to throw the east end of the bridge around and to construct the abut- ments nearly parallel with the line of the railroad as possible creating 8 pocket in the sidewalk on each side.
 The road commissioners did not get together until considerably after 7:30 o'clock and it took them over an hour to solve what to some of them seemed to be Chinese puzzle. City Attorney Terry was present on behalf of the city and General Kellogg looked after the interests of the railroad company. City Engineer Weld was present with maps and explained the situation. There seemed to be considerable doubt as to the official width of Dublin street, owing to @ recent deal with the Scovill Manufacturing company but it was the impression of the engineer that at the bridge it was not quite fifty feet wide. It was explained that the railroad engineers had failed to comply with the request of the board to present plans of the bridges they intended building and it was an open question as to what the company intended to build. Concerning the iron supports at South Main street Commissioner Stevens was at first outspoken and emphatically stated that he was in favor of an appeal This, however, was before the attorneys and some of the stockholders came in. Subse- quently he said he had viewed the grounds personally and was of the opinion that pillars if put on the outside of the street lines would forever preclude the possibility of widening the sidewalk on one side and would cause more inconvenience than sup ports placed partly in the curb and partly in the gutter. Commissioner Coughlan was all at sea about the matter. He said he wanted to understand the question be- fore he voted but explanations by the mayor, city attorney and city engineer did no clear the question in his mind. Com missioner Goodwin was mute and had nothing to say, while Commissioner Chip man was firm ip his demand for ali appeal, and he said that as the city attorney con- sidered that to appeal from the South Main street matter the board must appeal from the entire order he saw no alternative ex- cept to recommend an appeal.
 Finally the mayor put the question of recommending an appeal to the board. There was an audible aye from Commis- sioner Chipman when the ayes were called for, but when the mayor called for the nays there was no response from the other members of the board and he declared the recommendation adopted The discussion was continued, the majority of the board still calling for light on the subject, but when the mayor suggested that the recom- mendation could be rescinded there was no attempt to do so, and while the majority were cudgeling their brains the matter of sidewalks on the Liberty street bridge was brought mp, and the city engineer was in structed to give the railroad company the width as six and half feet. The board then adjourned.
 When the mayor called the special meet ing of the board of aldermen to order at S:55 o'clock to consider the action of the railroad commissioners, Aldermen Rametti, Webster, Chipman, Munson, Kelly and l O'Rourke answered to the roll call, and | Alderman Plume came in few minutes late, having retired from the chamber dur ing the session of the road board. The mayor immediately called Alderman Ra- metti to the chair, which meant that he was going to make it lively for any oppo- sition to the recommendation of the road commissioners.
 Alderman Kelly sent up two votes drawn up by the city attorney. The first in structed the city attorney to take an ap- | peal from the railroad commissioners con corning the construction of bridges by the Meriden and Waterbury Railroad com pany over streets in this city, and the sec ond vote instructed him to proceed against the railroad company by injunction if it
 became necessary to prevent the erection of supports within the street line at the South Main street bridge.
 | The mayor, speaking to the question, said that if the bridge at Dublin street was | to be built as desired by the city there was no need of an appeal, but he did not un- derstand it to be the intention of the com pany to so construct the bridge. They wanted to throw the bridge around on the east end so as to create a pocket in the sidewalk. If, however, the company were going to build a bridge whose abutments shall be parallel with the street lines then the appeal could be vacated. The same course could be followed with Silver and Liberty streets, but the South Main bridge was another matter. On this street there was serious obstruction. The road board had by unanimous vote declared that there should be no iron supports in the street lines. He criticised the road commission CTS, except Commissioner Chipman, who, he said, had the courage to assert his con victions The city was laying out it's streets wider than previously, and it should not let private corporation come in and pursue different plan
 Gen. Kellogg argued that with the streets obstructed with telegraph poles he did not see what objection there could be
 to putting up 14-inch pillars. If the city
 appealed, he said, the railroad company