The Indianapolis journal., 1891-03-17
WORK OF THE soAnp:.


WORK OF THE BOARDS.
Sewerage Drainage and Street Improve
ments Under Consideration.
The Board of Public Works will not have
to spend any time hunting for work to do;
the greatest plenty will be brought to it,
When its session be gan yesterday morning
its chamber was packed to the doors with
people, most of whom were su bstant tial busi-
ness men of the city. The facility with
which busin ess can be handled by small
body was demonstrated by the fact that
the room was cleared in an hour and half.
The most important matter that came up
was the question of drainage and sewerage
for the northeastern section of the city in
the vicinity of the Atlas engine. orks.
Property-owners in that vicinity are crying
for some sort of relief from the constant
overflow of the State ditch. The two
streams that empty into the ditch at it's be-
ginning drain large section of the
country TO the north. and In wet wealth
er the ditch is unable to hold the
volume of water brought into it. Al over
flow ensues. and, at times, the lowlands
along the ditch are converted into a lake
three or four feet deep. For some time
Councilman Martindale and the city en-
gineer have been figuring upon making au
outlet for this surplus water by connecting
the State ditch and Fall creek with an open
ditch along Rowland street. In times of
high water this would relieve the State
ditch. and it could perform its function
of draining the land below. This new
ditch would be twenty feet wide the
bottom, about seventy-tve feet at the
top and thirty feet deep at the heaviest cut.
1t would cost any " here from thirty to fifty
thousand dollars. possibly more. and there
is about two square miles of land upon
which benefits could be assessed to pay
for it.
Another party of property owners in this
section want. instead of an open-drainage
ditch, closed sewer for both drainage
ana ths hseweTage PURPOSES nsSd Qnsed party
quire into the matter. Pertle Herod ex-
planned to the board rhe cryi ing need OF re-
lief from the overflow and asked If the
board was likely to take action in the mat
sented were not favorable to tho ditch
scheme, desiring something of a moro per-
manent nature. He understood that the
board was likely to soon take MP the ques-
tion Of a general system of sewerage.
That is true" said MIR. Defrees "The
city engineer is doing preliminary work 10
that end now. However. it is possible for
drainage and sewerage to be considered as
entirely separate questions. Your surface
drainage may be hsndled in an entirely
different manner from your sewerage and
carried of through different channels."
Elisha Rowland entered q protest against
the construction of an open ditch.
UIons wnsh hs Ho bsa dn ossan saa ruin clss as
drain or sewer Councilman Myers spoke
in favor OF closed sewer to Fall creek.
He had an idea that intercepting sewers
could be constructed to carry oft the filth
in times of low water, while it could go in
70 Fall creek when the water was high.
on this subject. The filth in a sewer, for
the most part. floats on top of the water.
and intercepting sewers are not so good In
practice as they are in theory, Moreover,
it was just as bad to have filth floating
down Fall creek in high water as at any
other time. A little later in the session,
Councilman Martindale came in and asked
the board to set a time when he might take
tion that they might gain the nee,
observation. The board decided up
on Wednesday afternoon for the
trip: By the. end of the week the city
topography of the section. 1t was evident
from the gist of Mr.. Defreess remarks that
he is likely TO favor q closed dram for sur
face drainage only. the sewerage of the
section to be made q part of the general
boWcI6ko ryotcIu Va tuO Clt1e
MERIDIAN STREET IMPROVEMENTS.
Questions relating to North Meridian
street occupied good deal of the time of
the board yesterday, and Q large number of
interested property were on hand.
j. w. Fox brought in petition from prop
erty-owners on Meridian street, between
Seventh and Twelfth, asking that the work
of paving that part of the street with
asphalt be postponed until autumn. They
hope to have sewer constructed In the
street this summer, and want it put in be-
pany. Mr.. Fox. said. had plenty
of work on hand to keep il
busy until that time. There is
another party of property owners on this
street who want the proposed new sewer
constructed in the alley between Meridian
and Pennsylvania streets. The board took
no action upon the subject. The sewer is
not likely to be located in either the street
or the alley until the new sewerage system
is devised, and the sewer can be construct
cd in accordance with it.
Hon. J. +. Mccullough and q large num-
ber OF property-owners on North Meridian
street. in the vicinity of Herbert. were be-
fore the board trying to find out how much
q proposed change of grade at that point
They got the profile and other data, and
will figure on the matter Il is proposed
to lower the grade fixed in the paving con-
tract from Twelfth street back to Herbert.
The paving company is willing to submit
to the grade. provided it will not invalI-
date their contract. or the bonds issued.
City Attorney Bailey rendered an off-hand
opinion to the effect that to leRalize such q
change of grade the board would have to
60 through very much the same long and
cumbersome process required under the
old law. The petitiOn for the extonelon of
the Meridian-street asphalt from Twelfth
to -Four seenth street was also presented
yesterday. 1t was taken back to be
amended 30 as to extend to Fifteenth street.
Its true we're out n little piece for so
costly pavement as asphalt" said John s.
Lazarus, who presented the petition for
the extension. in conversation with a re-
porter, but the people evidently do not
think it too expensive. for over two-thirds
of the property-owners signed for it, and
probably all would If we could have seen
them. We consider the best to be the
chaanaaf In the long run and I'm my a nj nion