The Wilmington daily Republican., 1895-05-14
HIGHLAND AND ROCKFORD.
There is Likely to be Trouble Over Their
Admission to the City.

able trouble over the addition of the two
| little towns known as the Highlands and
| Rockford to this city The addition is a
| valuable one and neither the people OF
| Wilmington or of the section which was
| taken are complaining. The trouble is not
| of that kind, but it will result from the
| manner In which the bill making the addi-
| tion TO the city was drawn. 1t was not
| drawn with much attention to detail as
| 1t should have been. The reason of this
| was that when Senator Pyle offered the
| bill in the Senate as a substitute for a
| House bill which only took in a small piece
| of land he expected that il would be OPP
| posed by a number of people and that it
| would have to be amended to suit all of
them before it could be passed. When the
| bill was offered, however, 1t was found that
| tbere was no opposition to 1t and 1t was
| passed without opposition. The bill merely
provides that the two little towns named
| shall become part of the Seventh ward
| OF the city of Wilmington 1t does not
| provide when the people who live in the
| section shall become citizens of the city
oil Wilmington All Of the city departments
and the county itself are therefore in
| state of agitation over the provisions of the
bill.
The first city body interested in the mat
! ter is the City Council, which has the
| levying Of the tax for city purposes. The
| city assessment for the coming fiscal year
was made before the new section was
| taken Into the city and there cannot, there
fore. be an additional assessment levied for
this new portion of the city this year. 1t
therefore looks as II the city would lose the
amount of taxes which should be due on
this property for this fiscal year
The second city body which is interested
in the matter is the Board of Public Edu-
cation. There is school house at Rock
ford which is the property of the people of
the school district in which it was situated.
The terms of the present school commits
sioners Will expire now that the district has
been taken into the city and the question
is whether the school commissioners can
deed the school-house to the Board of Pub
lie Education In this city. There is no
such provision in the bill and the only way
out of the difficulty seems for them to do 1t
on their own responsibility and then for
the General Assembly at its next session
| to confirm the transfer of the property
This may be done and probably will be
DONE The Board of Education has ap-
pointed the Legislative Committee of the
board to look into the matter
After tne transfer of the property there
is question of funds with which to run
the school. The school taxes of the dis
trct in which the chool-house was stu
ated before the land was brought into this
city are levied In June. There are ample
funds with which to run the school until
that time but the commissioners have no
further authority to levy taxes>for that pur-
pose and this city cannot levy any taxes
for the reason that the time for making
the city assessment has passed. The esti-
mates of the Board of Education for the
coming fiscal year have been fixed and sent
to City Council, OF course no provision
could be made for this school, In addl-
ton to this there is mortgage of $4,000 on
the school house and some arrangement
must be made by which this mortgage can
be transferred SO that the Board of Educa-
tinn instead of the school commissioners
will be responsible for it. The expenses of
running the school are about $2400 a year
and the Board of Education must fix some
plan by which the school can be kept open.
Luckily the schoo-house itself is being
modelled on the plan of school-houses in
this city.
The Police Department will also be called
upon to furnish police protection to the peo-
pie of this district as well as to any other,
although they have not so far as can be as
certained. made any provision for it in their
estimates. The Street and Sewer Depart
ment is not much worried over the matter,
for the reason that the district is already as
well drained and lighted as other outlying
portions of the city, and the members think
that 1t is their duty to attend to the older
portion Of the city first
The Department of Elections was, up to
last night, worried over the contents of the
bill for the reason that they were unable to
tell whether they would be compelled to
provide a new election district for the city
at the coming city election. The bill does
not provide for this, and that being the
case President Doud of the department
says that the people in the new district will
not be qualified to vote at the coming city
election. Unless there is an express pro-
vision made in such bill for them to vote
at the next city election the people In any
new district are compelled to be residents
of the city for three months before they
cure the right to vote just the same as a
man moving from one of the rural districts
into the city would be compelled to live
here for three months in order to secure a
residence here and the right to vote. As
this bill does not provide for the people in
the new district voting at the coming city
election they will be compelled to live here
for three months to secure that right, They
were very glad to find the provisions of the
bill as they were for the reason that regis
tration to vote at the city election will COM
mence shortly and they would have had
but little time to lay out new district
New Castle county will be affected as we'll
as the city of Wilmington. The new district
Will have to be assessed in wilmington hum
dred instead of Chrstana hundred. There
to f1taGEiBu nf Vfh her the assessment can
be legally made for the reason that the bill
merely annexes the land to the Seventh
ward OF Wilmington and does not provide
that Ii shall be a part OF the Third assess
ment district Of Wilmington hundred as it
should have done. This omission might give
the same trouble as the portion of the
Twelfth ward which was taken in, but not
made part of the same assessment district
of the ward. AMI caused an assessor who re-
ceiNed majority of votes of the people for
his Office to be thrown out. Taken alto
gether the matter is in muddle and there
will be considerable lot Of trouble In get
ting it Strengthened out.
Chas. van. Druggist sprin giied, III.
writes: Japanese Pile Cure Is big sell
or and has given entire satisfaction, OK,
eept in one case. which WAS mado entirely
satisfactory by your promptly refunuing
the S. 00n
n b. Danforth. Second and Market
streets, and Mllers Drug Store, 402 Mar
ketst eet.
Dedication of Odd Eeiiows' Temple, Phiia-
phin. aIay 21st.
For the above occasion the Baltimore
and Ohio railroad Company will soil ex-
eursion tickets to Philadelphia and return
for all trains, on May Goth and 2lst valid
for return until May 23rd, at IS cents. for
the round trip.