The herald., 1896-04-16
Only $3.50 Overdraft in Con.
structing New Schools
JOHN ROBB'S $500 CHECK
Members Of the Council Count That as
a CASH Asset 4
City Refuses to Obey One Of Its
Own Ordinances

draft in the constitution Of and equip
ment of the new school buildings to
be $763. They count, however, as a cash
asset on hand the check for $500 de-
clared forfeited because John Robb. the
contractor declined the work OF al
teration awarded to him after he had
agreed to perform it. The ownership
Of this money may, and no doubt Will,
be determined by the courts.
The estimates for the buildings were
made in January, 1895, while work was
commenced nearly a year later. Mean
while the population about the oil dis
trict, Temple and Custer street, act
ually decreased, and the eleven-room-
building in that locality has only four
rooms in use. The school at Twenty
first and Norwood streets in the Fifth
ward is four blocks from the Seven
teenth street school, and has only five
of it's ten rooms occupied, while had it
been placed mile further westt it
would have relieved the Thirtieth
street school, which needs relief, and ac-
commodated children who go mile
to school, and the building would have
been full. In the lower part of the city
the original estimate called for four
buildings. This was cut down to three.
The growth in this district especially
the Sixth and Seventh wards has been
remarkable since January, 1895, and the
two buildings in these wards are still
running nall day sessions.
The Olive-street building is not yet
entirely finished, and the situation is
such that the members of the council
are very much worried over the turn
| which affairs have taken. President
| Teed and City Clerk Luckenbach went
over the official figures of expenditures
yesterday, and the $3.50 overdraft is the
| result of their labors
The council will hold a special meeting
Ia
stated object being to consider the ap-
plication of the contractor having the
work In charge for an extension of time
in the improvement of State street be-
tween Fourth and Fifth. The Fiesta
seat ordinance is also to be adopted
and the overdraft in the school moneys
is also to be considered
VIOLATING ITS OWN ORDINANCE
Chief Walter S. Moore reported yes
terday list of buildings still unprovid-
ed with fire escapes or stand pipes, the
owners of nearly all of which will at
once comply with the ordinance. They
were given until the board meeting to be
held the first week in May in which to
do so, after which all delinquents are to
be prosecuted. The city hall, court
house and state normal school are the
only buildings where there has been no
disposition to obey the law, and the
clerk of the board was instructed to Of
ficially notify the city council, the board
OF supervisors and the trustees of the
normal school of that fact. f
A communication to the city clerk re-
fering to the board requests for fire
| alarm boxes at Iona drive and Gra-
villa street. and Sixth and Westlake av-
eRue, and at Union avenue and .Six1
teenth street. was filed. s,s.s s.a T
"A petition from a. Broadway piano
firm for the board to pay IS damages:
<Jfata II.
the department. was referred to the
chief to investigate.
The application of c. c. Bartell for Il
position as callman was filed. 81 r7 :
The sum OF 500 was allowed the chief
for decorating the apparatus for tha
Fiesta parade.
LIBRARY STATISTICS
The library trustees at their last
monthly meeting. held on Monday after
noon, audited bills to the amount OF
$545.e2. The librarians report disclosed
statistics during March as follows:
Circulation of books-Home, 80, 41G; IL
brary. 10,790; reference, 1923; total,
1920.
New members 432: total membership,
:S.675; books added, 202; books discard
ed 124; books to April l., 4S,23S; maya
zines added, 2.
The committee on attendants recon-
mended that the library be closed on
the afternoons of April %. "a and IS,
from to s. and on the evening of the 23d
at Z p. M, which motion was carried.
The library is just in receipt of several
handsomely bound volumes of The Val
ley Road. a work which is profusely
and handsomely illustrated.
The work has 224 pages of heavy SUI
persiZed and calendered paper, and
tells in brief the salient features in the
history of the Traffic association: the
League of Progress, the North Ameri
can Navigation company. the Mer-
chants Shipping association of San
Francisco and of the San Francisco and
San Joaquin Valley railway
AS frOntispiece it has full-page
half-tone portrait of Claus Spreckels
Then, scattered through the book on
nearly every page is a half-tone illus
tration of one or more of the most enter
rrising men of San Francisco and Stock
ton, and more particularly of those in
terested in the Valley railroad project
the place of honor, the page following
the title page. being given to the news
paper proprietors of San Francisco. In
the center of the page is the half length
portrait of Charles NJ. Shortridge of the
San Francisco Call, and this is sur
rounded by bust likenesses of w. II.
Hearst of the Examiner, M. H. DeYoung
of the Chronicle, r. A. Crothers of the
Bulletin, William NJ. Bunker of the Re
port, and George X. Fitch, formerly Of
the Call and Bulletin.
CITY HALL FLOTSAM u
Water Overseer Shafer is trying to in
duce the council to amend the zanja or
dirlance so that the rates will be 81
head inside the city and IS outside.
The present rates are 50. so and S. In
the annexation of Vernon the income
from zanja sources, Shafer estimates,
will fall at least 40 per cent, the
80 t<o