The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-02-09
THE CITY HALL MATTER,

On Tuesday next the voters of this city
will be called upon TO cast their votes for
or against the proposition to bond the city
of Ottawa in the sum of $4,000 to build a
city hall
This is a matter of more importance, the
FREE TRADER thinks, than most people in
Ottawa have given 1t credit for; and il is
just as well to ask before voting-What
will a vote for the proposition amount to ?
The assessment of Ottawa for the tax OF
, 1888 was about Sl,11S009; say 81, 900.
The constitutional limit of bonded inbebt-
ness Is per cent say 100000. The propo-
sition, then, means to bond the city to an
amount equal to four-ffths the totsl limit
allowed by law.
In return for this expenditure what will
the city have? A fine building-let 1t be
hoped-something to which one can "point
to with pride" There is no pretence on the
part of any one that the building is an ur
gent necessity, The city mas no court to
house; It's public library has home; 1t has
no officers who would occupy II if they had
II today, No; the design is to expend this
money simply "to improve the city" If
any one of the aldermen should spend $50
600 on a building he knew would stand
tenantless, simply to Improve the city," his
colleagues would consider him daft, yet
when he proposes that the city of Ottawa
shall do the same thing, they all look wise
and label him Statesman"
The worst thing about this business Is,
that If the proposition shall be carried
that act will tie the hands of the city in
such way that other city Improvements
which are now as urgent, at least as city
hall and may shortly be more imperative,
will be completely blocked and absolutely
prohibited for want of power to raise the
money for them, no matter how urgent the
necessity may become.
For example: The city OF Ottawa has
granted franchise to an electric street
railway, TO use, among other streets, Main
street running east across the present Fox
river bridge into East Ottawa Suppose
that line is constructed with the materials
now here waiting for spring to come Do
the people of that portion of the city real>
lie the difficulty, not so say danger they
would undergo In getting to and from the
city? With a street and a bridge now so
narrow, with one car track upon Ii, that
two teams cannot pass each other when the
track is in use by clay car how would it
he possible to avoid repeated accidents
with a street car crossing the bridge and
using the narrow end of the street once
every eight minutes! A second bridge
would be an absolute necessity; yet with
the city bonded for $4,000 to be sunk In a
useless pile of architecture" labeled city
hall, the erection of second bridge would
be out of the question for a number of
years; and meantime the wives and chill
dren of East Ottawa taxpayers will be able
to remain at home, or walk, or drive into
town pid the Aqueduct bridge-the extra
mile of travel will be good for their health.
A city system of water works Is much
more urgent than city hall; and $4,000
added to the S500O0 to be fooled away on
a city hall, would create system of water
works that would be of thousand times
more direct value, and indefinitely more
sensible, than city hall, as an Improve
ment to the CITY," Sixty thousand dollars
would lay in Ottawa fully ten miles of