The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-06-03
mud WILL HAVE TO GO.
The Council Orders Main Street
Paved From Cutler TO Hell
ena Avenue.
A New System OF Keeping the
Financial Accounts OF
the City.

-
Financial Accounts Of
the City.
On by the Aldermen ut Last
Nights Meeting.
The city council last night decided that
Main street, from Cutler street to Helena
avenue, should be paved with whatever ma
tsrial the property owners along the line of
the improvement decided on a. best. The
petition of property holders asking for the
paving contained the signatures Of the
owners OF 1858 front fest on Main street
between the points named. The entire
frontage is 6, 1898 feet, of which the city has
to pay for 796 feet as street crossings, leav-
ing 6,2O2 feet for the property to pay. The
half Of this is 8, 1Ol feet, and 3,53s Ia much
more than a majority. As soon as the pc
tition was read Alderman Fuller presented
the following resolution on behalf Of the
committee which had charge of securing
the signatures to the petition:
Whereas, A petition has been presented
by persons owning a majority of the front
feet of the real estate on Main street, be-
tween Cutler street and Helena avenue, re-
questing that said Main street be paved and
cause a continuous granite curbing to be
placed along said street. Therefore be it
Resolved, That the city council grant the
request Of said petitioners. Be it also
Resolved, That We advertise for propos
ais for contracts for paving, curbing and
gathering of Main street as requested, and
that the city council appoint a committee
OF five of it's members to s%uperintend said
work, who, with the city engineer, shall
have full charge; also that this work be
done under chapter KILL, article 2; chapt-
ers !, 2, 8, etc., of the city ordinance.
The chapter referred to provides for the
method of assessing the cost to the prop
erty owners along the street and collecting
the money.
The resolutions were adopted unanimous
~. as were Others asking the property
owners ON Main street to meet in the coun-
Gil chamber tomorrow night with the al
dermen to talk over the material to be used
in the paving; also directing the CITY engi-
Philadelphia and New York for such statis-
tics as can be had bearing on the subject Of
paving material.
The report OF accountant Chas. F. Wood
man on the accounts of Ex-City Treasurer
Folk showed that errors had been com
receipts twice to the different funds and in
Other ways, and that this amount had been
overpaid to his successor. The account
ants report also said: mo records were
found belonging to the Office of the city
clerk which showed the amount of taxes
other account kept by the clerk that
would In any Way be a chack
upon the city treasurer's office. 1t would
seem proper to follow the system, az in
county affairs, Of having the clerk keep an
account with the treasurer. In the matter
SCISSOR, could make up his assessment roll
and then turn it over to the city clerk, who
would be tho proper person to make the
calculations Of the tax due each fund on
each item of property, and after adding
each page and column, finn the total
amount OF taxes to be collected, and then
charge the treasurer with the amount to be
collected. All this work was done by the
treasurer last year, and the book shows it
was done in lead pencil, and amounts could
have been raised or lowered at will and no
record of the same would over appear. If,
therefore, the treasurer did not collect the
full amount of taxes he was charged with,
a list of the d%eisnquents would show what
was uncollected, with his reasons
for not collecting the same, and
this delinquent list, together with
the amount collected, would balance the
amount charged against him on the clerks
books. Tax receipts should be furnished
the treasurer by the clerk and a record
kept of the numbers of tho receipts, and
after the. collection of taxes the stubs
should be returned to the clerk and credit
given the treasurer. and all unused re-
ceipts accounted for. The custom of hay
ing the treasurer pay out large sums of
money, in the aggregate $4,000, on time
checks and pay rolls does not seem to be a
good business policy. If such pay rolls
and time checks passed through the Office
Of the city clerk and he had a proper atii-
rendered by him to the city had been cor
rectly stated. then the clerk could issue
his warrant on the treasurer"
Mayor kleinschmidt said this admins
tration had already undertaken this system
of keeping the city's accounts. It would
ordinance in order to authorize the change.
The ordinance committee was instructed to
prepare an ordinance covering the matter.
1 he overpayment of ex-Treasurer Folk was
ordered refunded. 1t was also decided to
pay the accountant 800 extra for his work.
The mayor suggested several amend
ments to CITY ordinances. One was to de-
signate which particular Tuesday nights
should be the regular meeting times of the
city council. Another was to make some
provision 1of Weighing coal and measuring
wood, duties formerly belonging to the in
spector of weights Rnd measures. He fav-
ored making everybody owning a scale a
public weigher. A light fee should be pro-
vided for, to be paid by the purchaser, and
a penalty should be provided for selling
without weighing or measuring. Another
change in city laws suggested by the mayor
was to have some ! eriod of redemption pro-
yided for estrays. The ordinance commit
tee was directed to prepare ordinances
covering the matters.
Mayor kleinsohmidt stated that w. H.
Chessman desired to clean his fume, and
for that purpose requested the city to divert
tho water from the central sewerage system
which now flowed into the fiums by the
owners consent. The mayor said it would
be necessary for the city to build LOO feet
OF Tuning at an expense of about ST. 600.
Alderman Lissner said he would not spend
n cent to divert the water. The owner of
the hune had given his verbal consent to
the city using the fiume and he believed in
holding up to the bargain. The matter
was referred to the Judiciary committee to
report on next Tuesday.
City Attorney Craven announced that the
city was threatened with a suit for ST 900
on account of dumping garbage in Sausw
gulch. Aldermen Wilmer and Lissner de-
nounced the affair as a blackmailinp
and declared the parties claiming
the dumping grounds had no title to the
property. Alderman Llssner said the prop
erty had been offered to him for $500. with
a suggestion that he might go in n make
the city pay him s., COO for it. He had re-