The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-04-19
THAT DOUGLAS AVENUE PAVEMENT.

! i ne average ClIlIcu, buo UlOfe pdTl!tu
larry the property owners who must pay
! for the work, fail to understand the delay
of the contract, and not little feeling is
| being given expression. 1t may be all
well enough to talk of the responsibility of
members of the city council, aud of the city
administration, but after all theirs is but a
representative responsibility and those
whom they represent do not feel inclined to
stand any monkey work. The property
! holders on Douglas avenue don't want TO
paw for the fraud that was in the first place
| fraudulently loaded upon them, and in the
next place majority OF them have, over
their own signatures, not only declared
| their preference for asphalt, but that the
| contract for it be let on the terms proposed,
| l. e., the suit to be dismissed, the present
pavement not to be paid for and to be re-
moved without cost to them and first
class, guaranteed asphalt pavement put
down in its place, under such conditions
and safeguards as would leave the respon-'
sibility where it should be-backed by
property holders do not understand the
delay upon the part of the city council,
knor the import of certain motions made
and carried III reference thereto. II is GER
tain that il everything had gone forward
in business like way Douglas avenue
would have been repaved for just what
the work would have originally cost had
| no jasperite ever been laid; so that now,
should the property owners in any event
have TO pay anything for the present swim
die. or to pay anything for Its removal,
there will be trouble, and the blame for
the failure will be placed where it belongs.
| This talk of brick and other materials
was, and is, all bosh, and intended as dust
for the eyes of the people. No brick made
| in the west, anywhere, would stand the
! traffic of Douglas avenue. No brick paw
ing done in this city would last under
the continuously heavy traffic of that
street. But whether or not, none of
| these things cut any figure in
the case, because those who
have the work to pay for, after no little
observation and two or three years expe-
rience, have said, in the only way the law
prescribes they should say, just what they
wanted, and motions in the city council to
refer, to postpone and to lay on the table
are getting to be exceedingly irksome. a
fact that the city council should under
stand.
The property holders not only of Doug
las avenue. who must pay for the work.
but citizens at large, are growing impa-
tient over delay which might cost them
dearly. All talk OF any particular respon-
sibility upon the part of members of the
council, further than that they
should execute the will Of the people, is
humbug. 1t is the duty of the council to
see that the contracts are sound and the
work according to specifications. 1t is
the councils place to execute, the peoples
to command. In all this dilly-dallying
they know, and the people know, that so
long as the present suit is pending no
pavement can be laid, and that if that
jasperite outfit should dismiss the present
suit and commence another, or should
other parties in interest institute pro-
ceedings in court, nothing could be done
so long as the case might remain pending
and unsettled. The proposition and
petition signed by the people fronting on
the avenue, comprehended and settled all
such threatening possibilities. The only
question remaining unanswered is. why
does not the council act?
a matter wherein the line Of duty seems
so plain a resort to unusual methods
would seem unnecessary if not uncalled
for, blu. the property holders on the avenue
might well afford to be present at the
next meeting of the council, prepared in
dividually or by representative speakers
to emphasize their desires.