Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-09-20
AN UNEXPECTED SESSION.
OF the City Council TO Pass Ordinance that
Could not be Delayed

|
and Aldermen Healy, Carson, Coffin, Down
ing Glaze, Herrig, Schnitzler and Wight
present on call as follows:
To the members of the city council Of
| the city of Wichita You are hereby mott
| o'clock o. N. Tor special session to take
action "a regard to the payment OF the
| street force and TO consider commuuica-
| ton from county clerk and also TO take
| action on new side walk construction oCdi-
| nance dated September -. Signed,
q. W. CLEMENT, Mayor.
| The clerk first read a communication
| from the county clerk in regard to errors
| existing in the list Of side walk repair as
| follows:
| W. ?. NcNair City Clerk:
| | hereby return to you list Of sidwalk re-
pairs having found SO many errors that /
| think it best for the list to be corrected
! before entering any of the amounts in tax
rolls. There are no such lots as SO Central
avenue Stevens addition; lot Douglas
avenue; lots IS. 40, II, A and 60 Douglas
avenue Matthewson addition; lots So 10l,
| les and Go Douglas avenue. Abbotts addi-
| tion and many others are wrong. It IS
necessary that this list be corrected and
returned to this office at once as or work
! is being DELAYED and the time for complet-
| lug tax rolls IS very short. Signed,
5. DUNKIN, Co. Clerk
On motion of Mr. Glaze the city clerk
was instructed to send list of sidewalks to
county clerk of those correctly stated and
to send balance as soon as they could be
rectifed
The city treasurer reporting that he
would be able to get some funds from the
county treasurer, prepared ordinance APP
propriating 81, O. for street labor, was
read ana passed.
An ordinance providing for the tax levy
on account OF new sidewalk construction
| was read and passed. 1t provides for a
levy So, 906.62, distributed in accordance
with the ordinance. No further business
coming within the call the meeting adj
journed. After adjournment the members
of the council informally discussed the
subject of Joint" fees, many of them ex-
pressing themselves 10 the effect that a
new ordinance should be passed whereby
the city might derive some little benefit
from their existence.
COUNCILMAN JOHNsON'S EXPLANATION
To the Editor of the Eagle.
In your paper of few days ago you in
vited each member of the council who
voted for sandstone TO yindicate himself, |
Will try it. If | tread on anyone's toes
please excuse for the motives which COM
pei me to in exOnerauion of myself as one
of the councilmen who voted for that con-
tract | do so over my own name. l have
no fears of anything / do or say in my Of
fetal capacity being known by all men
concerned.
In regard to the structures on other
councilmen who voted to award the con-
tract for paving Main street with Fort
Collins sandstone as set forth in an even
ing paper of the 18th, | will let each one
speak for himself AS for myself, little as
| care for the usual caviling OF the careless
public regarding the actions of the council,
| will not let these defamations go unan-
swered.
Regarding the mayors threatened veto of
this contract | ask why did he SO hurried
~ sign the asphaltum pavement contract
for Market street. If he is so very solicit
Gus of the interests of property owners on
Main, why not on Market? Especially
since majority of the property owners on
Market do not want asphaltum at all.
| voted as conscientiously for the award
ing of that contract as q man could and
deny the vile aSperSlOnS cast upon the
council in that paper. If Mr.. c. A. Walker
thinks that it looks like Doodle in this
case, why did he not as quickly come to
the same conclusion when the recent
street car ordinance was passed, in which
he was interested as a stakeholder.
If Mr.. Healy believed that the Keppler
s. Mulvane contract involved a clean steal
of over $4,000 dollars he had right to vote
no" and it was his duty to oppose
in more slrenuously than he did. But
why show such scrupies about matter
that he, to put it mildly, could only be-
- Al 70 har, bp1
quite as theoretically an owner OF an in
terest in the sewer contract which owes so
much to his legislation?
Colonel Smith is much easier disposed
of. He said that one councilman only
owned foot of ground on Main street.
Well, that is just eleven inches more than
he owns, at any rate. So why make such
a fuss over such a frontage.
As Mr.. w. j. Brown has had the candor
to say that he has evidence to convict
several councilmcn of felony, if he does
not now go aheaG and so
break the cOnum required for
doing business in that body
a much cheaper way. By the way, than ex-
pending his thousand dollars-all the good
people will think that some Of those
wrecked counciImen have boodleized him
into compromising a felony.
Mr.. Reed does not appear to have it as
bad as some of the others. So ] VIII say
that the executive session which appears
to have given him the nightmare, was
open to all the reporters. Besides there
were SO many leading citizens in the audi
ence filled with gas, who wished 20 talk
upon the subject of his favoTite pavement
that the council deemed it best in the in
teresU OF sleep and health aud even life
itself, to shut them out. And declare
that if there was any other motive for
such proceeding that know nothing of it.
Mr.. Al Thomas has, that is he says he
has. SIC, 0G0 to fight this Doodle business
II he has entered the lists with that sum,
either in dead mortgage notes or cash, to
fight in the cause of the people, there are
many in this city who will believe that he
has had better opportunities of serving the
people in another organization affecting
these people on q far greater scale than
this contract.
At first | favored home made brick, but
in order to start the work early, | gave
way in favor of asphaltum and sandstone
for Market and Main streets, with the eX-
pectation that an interest would be awak-
ened in manufacturing a good article of
paving brick in this city for the remaining
work and so | voted, and have no apollo
gies to make to any one for so doing. SJill
I wish to have the good win Of the charit-
able and discriminating public in all my
public acts. Very Truly.
W. l.. JOHNSON,
Third Ward Councilman.
HIGH SCHOOL NOTES.
The High school now has an enrolment