Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1892-09-16
THE SPECIAL VILLAGE MEETING.
EVENING, TO CONSIDER THE
GRADE QUESTION.

Middlebury village was called at the
town hall on Wednesday evening. Its
object, as stated in the warning, was
"To pass an ordinance regulating the
grade of Merchants Row and Main
street between the highway bridges over
the railroad and to Frank Bonds cloth
ing store, and to do any other business"
1t did not pass such an ordinance, but
it voted that the raising of the grade two
feet above the mark fixed at the special
meeting of December last was deslra-
bic, provided it did not cost too much,
and it appointed DR.. Sheldon, Oliver
Severance and Henry A. Smith a COM
mittee to find out what the cost would
be. They are to report at another spec
ial meeting of the village voters on
Wednesday evening next at 80 o'clock.
Hon. George Hammond, the modera
tor, called the meeting to order, and II.
l.. Sheldon, the clerk, read the warning.
The first part of the warning, relative
to the grade, was laid on the table tenn
porarily to enable A. Il. Stapleton to
move that the village should not pay
men in its employ less than S1.50 day
during the rest of this administration.
G. NJ. Wilds, Esq, did not think that
such vote would amount to anything
more than an expression of opinion The
motion was put and lost.
Mr.. Wilds stated the situation with
reference to the grade matter, speaking
for the board of village trustees, who
had called the meeting. At a special
meeting of the village last December, he
said, an ordinance was passed by which
the level of the roadway at the east end
of the creek bridge was raised four and
one-half feet and true grade establish
ed from that level to the railroad bridges.
The power to change grades belongs to
the village and not to the trustees, and,
as there was desire in certain quarters
for still further change in the grade,
this meeting had been called. If the
bridge is level and the grade fixed in De-
cember is followed, the roadway of the
bridge will be foot above the level of
the floor of Mr.. Earl's store, while the
stores on the other side of the street
will be still further below the roadway.
Der Mr.. Battell will have to make three
drops in the main floors in his block be-
fore reaching the creek. He has made
one already. If the grade is raised two
ha wi haU RI
There is no trouble about raising the
grade at the east end of the bridge; the
problem is how to manage at the west
end, where, as has already been said, the
raising of the stores one foot seems
to be required now. The trustees believe
it would be advantageous all around to
raise the grade on both sides of the creek.
The grade now established will be the
grade for all time, and the consideration
of the subject should be approached in
the same spirit which has animated Mr..
Battell in his rebuilding, spirit of lib
erality. If further raise of two feet is
determined upon, there will be a fall of
but six feet from either of the railroad
bridges to the level of the bridge, and
the center of the village will cores
pond with the rest of it; that done, we
lagos in the country. But no one had more
than an approximate idea of the cost of
the proposed raising of grade, and one of
the objects of the meeting ought to be to
"A 1axric IF pAi nut Ia nt
derstand that abutting property owners
could recover damages resulting from
change of grade; but there ought, never
theless, to be fair compensation made
them. The best way is to appoint COM
mittee to ascertain what they will accept
as such compensation. AS to the finan-
cal condition of the village, which had a
bearing on the subject of incurring fur
her expense, something might be said.
The town hall debt rested upon the whole
town, of which the village furnished
three-ffths the grand list. No one re-
gretted the erection of the hall. The
ception of s25OO. The water works cost
$4,000 and the interest on the bonds is
$1,000 year. The rentals now, when
the plant has been in operation only nine
months, figure up $500 year, and the
expense of running the plant is small; so
that the works will very soon be self
sustaining. The next expense was the
filling of the street. That had been about
500 up to date. The old stores on Mer-
chants Row were not on line either
with each other or with the spublic and
private buildings on the street, and Main
street was too narrow on the east side of
the bridge. The cost of Strengthening
the Merchants Row line and widening
Main street was $500. 1t was shown that
private persons stood ready to give $1,000
for the site of the Allen block provided it
could become public property and be
kept free from buildings, and the trustees