Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-04
Over a Quarter of a Million Dollars
Already Collected.
VIC. MORELAND A GOOD PROPHET.
The New Street Laws Proving Stimu'
LIANT to Improvement.
LEGISLATION THAT STANDS THE TEST


city's officers have taken test cases GOVERN!
every material legal point in the bill
through the various channels of red tap
necessary to get the Supreme Courts judg
ment upon its constitutionality. That done
the task of taking up the 160 street i'm
provements affected by the act and passIns
them through the devious course OF lega
forms it requires, some Of which necessi
tated months of time, was followed out t.
| the letter.
To-day, all but IA of the original 160 i'm
proyements have been confirmed absolutely
by the court, S256, ,62S have been collected
from the property benefited by the i'm
provements and the money is coming in al
a rate which iustifes the belief that by
January l, 1898, fully S1,0o0,00O of the
money will have been received and paid
over to the contractors who hold claims
against the city.
Reports Confirmed Absolutely.
Last Saturday the court confirmed abso-
lutely the reports of the Board OF Viewers
on the grading, paving and curbing OF
Tioga, Westminster. Howe, Copeland and
Rural streets, and in ten days the city
treasurer will begin the collection of the
assessments for those improvements. These
are included in the 136 confirmed. Next Sat-
urday has been fixed for the arguments on
the viewers assessments on eight sewers to
which exceptions were filed, but as the
questions raised are generally considered of
a trivial nature the city's officers are san
guine as to the outcome. During the pres
ent week the viewers reports on the grad
ing and paving of Aiken and Anderson
avenues will be submitted to the court for
confirmation nj ST.
Three cases have been appealed to the
Supreme Court since the constitutionality
of the curative legislation was determined.
They are Boggs avenue, Shiloh and Wyom-
ing streets, upon which the old street laws
were thrown down.
Testing the Practics OF the Law.
The appeal this time is not on the consti-
tutionality of the law, but on the practice
of 1T. The appellants claim that it is not
necessary for property holders to appear
before Board of viewers, and that they
can ignore such board and 60 into court
direct with an appeal, whereas the law
itself creates the Viewers and provides in
them tribunal for the preliminary adjust
ment of claims for damages or assessment of
benefits.
This leaves but three cases not yet re-
ported by viewers but which will be taken
up at once One of these is the assessment
for the grading and paving of Center avenue,
one of the largest street Improvements ever
made in the city and costing in the neigh
borhood of S275,001. 1t is expected that
within less than month all the cases out
standing will have been sent to the court
for confirmation, leaving only the three
that have been appealed to the higher court
out Of the original 160.
When, in March, the city. by popular
vote, decided to issue 100000 of bonds,
City Attorney Moreland advised that a
little patience on the part of the contract
ors who were hard pressed for their money,
and on the part Of the city officials, who
feared financial difficulties in the near
future, would let the city out without the
issue of dollars worth of'bonds.
City Attorney Moreland's Prophecy.
He showed that as soon as the curative
legislation would go into operation the
money !or the improvements made under
the late-lamented street acts would begin to
cope in rapidly, and, in an interview with
THE DISPATCH, predicted that bv the first
of the present month at least 5000, 600 would
have been collected and paid over to the
contractors, allowing them to float their
paper, relieving their embarrassment and
enabling them to proceed with their bust
ness.
His prediction has been more than veri-
fed. The money is being paid in rapidly,
in some cases property holders paying their
assessments in full before the collection
ont Of ha ifx-T
Already S25G, 62S has been paid in. The big
Thirty-third street sewer for which more
than S2S5, 900 is assessed on about 1000
separate properties is almost ready for col
lection, and the money will come in
rapidly.
Million by Jauuary 1.
With the other assessments soon to be
collected, the outlook seems good to verify
the City Attorneys further prediction that
81, 600, 900 will be collected by next JANUARY,
and the city will be ready to meet her obli-
cations to the contractors without DELAY
Beyond that point the city's officials saw
there can be no trouble in meeting all the
claims as they come due. Under the law,
after the Court confirms an assessment alb
solutely and it passes to the City Treasurer
for collection it remains with him for 30
DAYS for collection at its face If not paid
in that time it goes to the City Attorney
and bears interest If not paid within SIX
months from the date of confirmation liens
must be filed against the property.
Already 115 such liens have been fled,
and there is large batch already prepared
for filing in case the property holders af-
fected do not come to time within few
days. The costs added to an assessment, no
matter how great or small, foots up about
$50, and consequently the number who will
permit their assessments to run over are
C comparatively few.
A Steady Flow OF Money.
The income of money under the curative
act, therefore, is steady, and is expected to.
continue so until it is all in and the con-
tractors paid up. As fast as this money ac-
cumulates the Controller issues warrants in
favor of the contractor to whom it is due.
Right here is a point which gives the
Controller much trouble to explain to the
contractors. The city keeps separate ac
count for each street where an improve
ment has been made. As the money comes
in for each street it is credited to the street,
and is checked out only TO the contractor
who did the work on it. In this way an
equilibrium is maintained, but some of the
when they happen to learn that
a big payment has been made, can't under
stand why they should not be allowed q
share of it, no matter whether it is from an
made by them or not.
GOOD Effect OF New Street Laws.
While the curative act has thus been
prosecuted to collect the cost of
made two and three years
ago, work under the new street laws which
took the place of the acts of 1887 and 1889
have been pushed forward with equal vigor
and through nearly as tortuous q path of