St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-02-05
COL. KINGS "G|FT."
New Members Of the Park
Board Chary About Ac-
cepting 1t.
The Patrol Limits and the
Portions Of the City
Affected.
A Laymen's Episcopal Club
Formed Under Pleasant
Auspices.
The Expo Guaranty Fund.-
$4,000 More to Be
Raised.

AT the special meeting or the park
board Yesterday nothing of Importance
came up for discussion except the pro-
posed gift of Col. w. S. King to the
board. Col. Kings proposition was
laid before the board last May. At that
time the conditions attached to it were
of such a nature as to almost preclude
its acceptance because of the then finan-
cial condition of the board. Such was
the information conveyed to the board.
i he result was that the donor modified
the conditions. AS now under cOnSid-
Grafton by the board, the proposition
stands thus:
The gift comprises thirty-slX acres of
land bounded by Dupond avenue, For
ty-Second street, Lakewood cemetery,
and a line parallel to Forty second
street, and strip of land seventy feet
wide, extending along the west side of
Dupont avenue, from Thirty-elghth to
Forty-SiXth StSeet, comprising about SIX
acres. Dupont avenue must be opened
as parkway, 100 feet wide, with a
planting space of thirty feet wide in the
center and twenty feet of drainage on
each side. Forty-second must be
opened and roadway made through
the park so as to give free access to it.
The thirty-SiX- park must be called
"Lyndale park" A certain knoll on
the land must be graded down so as to
remove an obstruction 10 the view out
over Lake Harriet, and a corresponding
low place must be filled up. A bond of
$4,000, given by Col. King when the
council vacated certain streets in the
land which he acquired in the suit
against Remington, must be cancelled.
Col, Kings property must be exempted
from special assessments for park pur-
poses until such time as the total eX-
emptions shall equal the original value
of the land. The taxes now due on the
land must be paid.
The special committee which had this
matter in charge, composed OF COmmls-
sioners FolWell, Boardman, NOrthrup
and Ridgway, reported favorably upon
t,leaving blank the value to be set upon
the land. Col. King also stlpulates that
the grading of Dupont avenue, neceS-
sary to make it parkway, be done i'm
mediately and that the curb and gutter
be put in within five years. Col. King
will furnish the money for this work at
per cent for two years. The commit
tee estimated that the cost of imprOv-
ing this land, according to Kings stipu-
latiOnS, as follows:
For grading. Observation-Disclosures. .$13.000
For curb and gutter Observation-Disclosures. 2lOO0
Tree planting Observation-Disclosures. 1000
Other expenses 1000
Total ..S42, 900
In order to get the question before the
board for discussion, Commissioner Fol-
we'll moved the adoption of the commit
tees report. Commissioner StOft was
the first to oppose it. When he was in
the council Col. King petitioned the
council to have the streets in the REM
ington addition. or all the land at issue
In the famous ing-Remington case,
vacated so that he might replat that
land, agreeing and giving bond to that
effect, to so arrange the new plat as to
give to the city as much street room as
before. This is the bond which King
now asks to have cancelled. Commits
sioner StOft said that, as near as he
could ascertain, three-fOurthS OF this
proposed donation of Kings is COM
posed of streets, land (Which already
rightfully belongs to the city. He
question. Commissioners Dahn and
Brown also expressed desire to fur
Their examine this matter before passing
upon it, likewise Mr.. Winston. Some
of the commissioners couldn't see the
difference between buying the land out
right and paying for it by eXempting
King from assessments.
Commissioners FOlwell, Boardman
and Ridgway undertook to explain how
this land would not cost the park board
one cent. Their explanations amounted
to this: After securing this land, the
probability is that the park board will
never need any more land in that part
of the city. The land which Col. King
offers is worth, at the lowest calculation.
100000. By no sort of figuring can it
be made to appear that Col. Kings eX-
emptlonS will ever amount, in the ag-
gregate, to more than $4,000. Then
there is plenty of property abutting on
this land besides that owned by Col.
King. The special assessments will be
spread over all of this property, and the
owners of it will pay for the improve
ments. King is not exempt, under the
conditions of the deed of gift, from the
special assessments.
Then the question arose, Do the prop
erty owners around that tract desire
this park? Have they ever intimated
that they would be willing to pay for it?
Vice President Hangar explained that
no protest against it had ever been re-
ceived, and the presumption was that
they were in favor of it. He knew, per-
sonally, that some OF the largest prop
erty owners out there were in favor of
it. The result of the discussion was
that, in Difference to the new members
of the board, the matter was postponed
until next Saturday, the regular meet
ing. The board will meet Saturday
morning at 10 o'clock and go out to
view the tract i'll question, then decide
upon its acceptance.
The new members of the board are
reluctant about accepting this offer from
King because the board has so little
money, and that part of the city has so
many parks. They feel that it would be
doing an injustice to other portions of
the city to spend nearly all of the
boards available funds out there, when
so much remains to be done elsewhere.