Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-14
IT WILL BE FOUGHT.
Viewers Report on Grading and Paw.
ing of Center Avenue.
PROPERTY OWNERS KICK ON COST,
And Exceptions Will Pc Filed Against the
Assessments.
1T WILL COST s272,511 TO PAY FOR IT

The Board of Viewers report on the grad.
ing, paving and eurbing of Center avenue,
one OF, the most extensive and costly i'm
provements ever made in the city, and the
one over which there was such lively
| fight when the viewers were making the as
sessments upon it, has been completed and
will be filed for the final approval of the
Court under the curative act on the 9th
instant.
1t was over the assessments on this i'm
| provement that Senator Finn was called as
q witness before the viewers and gave testi-
mony regarding the cost of pavements,
which resulted in the passage of an
ordinance under which the city pays
| contractors per cent interest on the money
due them from the time street contract is
| completed until the benefited property
owners pay up to the city's officers or liens
haye been filed.
Cost Over Quarter of a Million.
The total assessment for the Improvement
is 1926 49, The rate per front foot
charged to property holders is So 25 less
fraction. The cost in detail is as follows:
Eighty thousand one hundred and fifty
eight cubic yards of grading, at 6S cents a
yard, S54, 5O7 A; %, 165 square yards of
block stone paving, at So go yard, $50, ,394;
"a, sos square wards of asphalt paving, $685.
767 80; 29,40S 1ineal feet of curbing, at SIS
cents foot, S24, 996 80; 2,357 square feet of
crossings, at 90 cents foot, s., 239 15; al
tering sewer drops, S1,352
The Central Traction Company is assessed
$50, ,253 GO for 1926 square yards of block
stone paving between their tracks and one
foot on each side of the rails. Every property
fronting on Center avenue, from Soho
street to Highland avenue, is assessed, and
the report covers many pages of legal cap.
The largest individual assessment is that of
Mrs. Mary E. Schenley, the total being
80, 19l. There are a number of others run
ming well up in the thousands.
Property Owners Will Resist
When the report is filed in court there is
no doubt but that some of the assessed
owners of property will file exceptions and
make fight on it They have been talking
of it since before the curative act was
passed. The basis of their objection is that
the cost of the work is excessive. They
argue that for the kind of soft earth grad
ing, except at one place, where a small
cut had TO be made through a vein of
stone, the schedule price of 6S cents a cubic
yard is far too high. As to paving, thew
say the same contractors who paved Center
avenue and charged So 80 for asphalt paving
are now taking contracts for the same class
of work at 81 80 and SO 60 a ward. The
difference, they say, between the former and
the present price is out of proportion to the
advantage gained by contractors from the
new law allowing them per cent interest,
and cannot be accounted for in that way.
1t is not likely that any question of the
validity of the street act will be raised, but
there are several objections applying to in
dividual properties where the work of the
viewers will be attacked. With the e1-
ception of two small sewer reports, this il
the last improvement under the curative
act which is to be filed in court.