Asheville daily citizen. [volume] (Asheville, N.C.) 1890-1900, 1892-12-24
THE LAWYERS FEES PAID
LAST ECHO OF THE STREET
RAILROAD CASE.
The Fees Altogether Amounted
to $I,5OO-RamOih's Plea for
More Paving on NIerrImOn Ave
nue. Refnsed-Other Business.

A batch OF lawyers bills confronted the
Joint Board Yesterday afternoon and
caused some Of the members to be glad
that the end had come. The street rail.
way trouble was at the bottom of it all.
Chas. A. Moore had made out bill
for 5000 which read, 'in full for profes.
sional services" meaning the late street
railway case. Advisor Bearden asked
what that meant.
81 thought we'd already paid that
bill" he declared in surprise.
"Oh no, somebody told him, I'VE paid
a retainer of $780,"
"Oh,' was MIR. Bearden's only re.
sponse.
After the conversation had subsidized
somewhat Mr.. Blanton read bills from
w. w. Joues and Cobb & Merrimon,
which were exact duplicates of Judge
Moore's. For a moment there was
silence.
Lets see about that" slowly observed
a mathematically inclined member at
last. These three amount to 5000.
Taking the 5000 retainers that we've
already paid out the lawyers get about
81 500 out of this case. That's $500.
apiece"
"a sight more than the city ever got, i"
somebody remarked drily, soto voce.
Aldermen Leonard and Waddell and
Advisors Green and Hunt voted in favor
of paving the bills, and Aldermen Starnes
and Mcdowell and Advisors Miller and
Bearden voted no. Alderman Gudger
insisted on being excused from voting
and left the matter tie. The mayor
broke this BY going with the ayes and
the bills will be paid.
Attorney T. r. Ransom asked the
Board that a special committee be ap-
pointed to examine into the claims that
w. G. Corpening makes against the city
on his grading account. The estimates
made by City Engineer Lee of the work
are several hundred dollars less than the
amount Mr.. Corpening thinks he is en-
titled to. Mr.. Ransom told the board
that unless something was done the case
would be taken to court. The matter
was referred to a special committee con-
sisting of Aldermen Gudger and Mellow
ell and Advisor Miller.
Chas. McNamee called the Boards
attention to the fact that in thecontract
for the Vanderbilt brick for paving pur-
poses it had been expressly agreed that
the brick were to be inspected and ac-
cepted by the city at the brckyard. Des-
pite this fact, he said, the city had hauled
$4,000 brick to town and then rejected
and refused to pay for 1000 of them.
He objected to this violation of the con-
tract and told the Board it could either
pay for the brick or return them to the
yard. The Board decided to d. the lat
ter
RamOth Wants More Paving.
A petition from a number of people
owning property on Merrimon avenue
asked for a continuation of the brick
paving on the avenue to the city limits.
E. D. Carter acted as spokesman for the
petitioners, among whom were c. T..
Rawls, h. X. Rawls. Geo. W. Pack, Chas
w. Woosey, Alderman Waddell, H. B.
King, W. B. Gwyn, W. W. West, and ].
M. Ray. Mr.. Carter presented an unofi-
cial letter from Mayor Woolsey, of Ra-
moth urging that the paving be done
declaring belief that such a step would
incite Ramoth to do something at an
early date towards improving its own
part of the avenue. Mr.. Carter pre-
sented figures to show that the 4,S40
feet paved on South Main street had
cost the city $500 foot, or 500, ,692 so
for the whole job, while the 1000 feet
already paved OH Merrimon avenue had
cost but $4,000. Taking this latter as
basis he calculated that the 1000 feet
that the petition asked for would cost
$7920, making the entire 5000 feet
amount to only $17,S20, less than half
what the South Main street job cost.
Col. Green moved that the paving be
done. The vote went against the motion
3 to 4, as follows; Ayes; Green, Bear
don, Waddell and Hunt; noes; gudger,
Starnes, Leonard, Miller and Mcdowell
r. K. Rawls asked the board what
was going to be done about making
sidewalks on South Main street. He
urged that either ce,hent or brick should
be used from the Swannanoa hotel to
Mrs. billiards. property and, on the
other side of the street, from the Rey-
nolds' block to the car sheds, taking the
ground that an inferior sidewalk would
be injurious to the property above. The
matter was referred to the Joint street
committee as was also the question of
what material should be used for the
sidewalk on Patton avenue between
Buttrick and Buxton streets,
1t was ordered that a retaining wall
be built at the approach to the iron
bridge at the French Broad river at a
cost of $2.9 95 yard. The contract was
let to w. d. Patton.
L. A. Poe handed in his bond for $3.50
for building the pumping house at the
water works, with II. D. Baker and T.
]. Perkinson as sureties. The bond was
approved.
An award Of $500 was ordered paid to
]. P. Sawyer. W. H. Penland and G. B.
McCrary for damages caused to the
Straith property on Patton avenue by
the raising Of the grade.
n SouipidluL was lHuuS ny Attorney
]. D. Murphy that the property of G. l..
White on Bailey street had been damaged
by lowering the grade. The complaint
went to the street committee.
On Alderman Waddell's suggestion the
joint Street committee was instructed
to see what could be done about securing
small corner of Capt. Fagg's lot at the
junction OF North Main street and Mer-
rimon avenue and portion of the
Starnes lot in the angle made by North
Main and Water streets. 1t is desired
to make the junction Of the three streets
more easily accessible.
City Engineer Lee handed in an esti.
mate Of $1,221.69 as the amount due
Belote Bros. for cement sidewalks. No,
body seemed to notice the fact that a
charge of $l00.23 for sidewalk around
the Legal building on court square was
included in the estimate, although the
city had nothing to do with this work
and the bill had long ago been paid by
the owners of the property. This error
was not discovered till an outsider called
attention to II Thao n tbo,eooJ Jnl