Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-04-07
PUBLIC WORKS.
Recommendations TO be Acted
Tn-uaAwrOwR. ORNA-

Recommem dattOnS 10 be Acted
Tomorrow.
The Board of Public Works -. vos.
terday morning and took ..,;or as fol.
lows: ~ -
rhsSles n ct;Ilsoy It the petition OF
o.ar tor ono We Z and others be held
RecommepS ek: ,,.s1o.ho,,,
R;~hv and .ded that the deed OF Jotham
land tot' others, giving certain strips OF
Eno;r de city, be referred to the CITY
racs .eer to see if the description is cor
Recommended that the petition of J.
ID. Eagan and others, protesting against
:. a certain excavation made by the Los
Angeles Gable Railroad Company on
Grand View avenue and Ninth street, be
received and fled as no such excavation
is being made.
r. Brown and others, complaining of
pond on the corner Of Olive and First
streets. be referred to the Street Super
intendent to abate the nuisance.
Recommended that the petition of S.
w. Darby, complaining of the lack OF
storm water drain on the corner OF Hotf
and Water streets be received and
filed, as the matter has been attended to.
1t was recommended that all action in
relation to the paving of Second street be
rescinded, and the City Attorney be in
structed to draw resolution Of intention
a. rave that street from Fort street to
Grand avenue.
In the mattel Of the Pico-street electric
railroad, on petition of the property
owners to have the road condemned as a
nuisance, the Board agreed to listen to
parties on either sioe. Mayor Thom
made a strong argument against the road
and laid especial stress on the ugly ap-
pearance of the poles, and stated that
property along the streets where the poles
had been erected had greatly deprecated
in value. He cited the large number OF
petitions that had been presented to the
previous boards, and showed that though
instructions had been issued to take
down the poles, no action had been
taken, and the people are still suffering.
Judge Hutton spoke on behalf OF the
Electric Railroad Company, and stated
that an Injunction had been gotten out
to prevent the erection of the poles, but
it had been dissolved by Judge O'Mel-
veny. He said the matter was one that
should go before the courts and could
not be settled by the Board of Public
Works. He stated that Colonel How
land had now made arrangements tc
dispense with the poles and propel the
cars by means of storage batteries, an6
all he asked was reasonable time, say
thirty days, in which to make these i'm
Provements.
Colonel Rowland then made state
ment to the effect that he had unfortu
nately found himself in the position o
many persons of enterprise, and ha(
perhape started out few year
too soon. When he first applied
for a franchise, there had beer
but one electric railroad in operation il
the country, and that one was run by
means of third rail, which acted as
conductor for the current. When ht
put up his poles the City Engineer, Mr.
Eaton, was not able to define for hin
the lines of Pico street, so he had beer
compelled to put the poles along the
side of the track. He had then removed
the poles to the side of the street wher
the lines had been given to him, and al
this time it was all he could do. Their
the company had become financially en-
bavrassed and had been thrown into the
hands of an assignee, who had been com
PEELED by law not to incur a debt. Col
Rowland had. therefore, in order to keeI
bis franchise, been compelled to advance
5000 to keep it going, and it had beer
money thrown away. He had now made
arrangements to put in the Thompson
system, and inside of thirty days the
poles would be removed and nothing
more unsightly than telegraph poles LEFT
to mar the beauty of the street. He ther
exhibited pictures of the Thompson
Houston system in operation and showed
how unobjectionable they would be wher
established. Under this system, he IS
sured the Board, the service would b,
the equal of any cable road, and superio
In many respects.
The discussion on this question occa
pied the whole of the morning session
and it was finally decided not to max,
any recommendation at present.