The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-24
VISIT TO THE LEyEE
BRINGS OUT MANY REMINIs-
CENCES.
THEN GETTING TO BUSINESS,
THE ALDERMEN DISCUSS WHAT
WOULD BE FAIR RENTAL FOR
THE PROPERTY.
An Effort Will Be Made to Finally
Settle the Question at a Confer
ence Thursday.

All the members Of the board Of alder
men, with the exception of Aid. Stuff
man, made an inspection of the prop
erty on the levee which the Milwaukee
road is anxious to lease from the city,
yesterday afternoon. The aldermen
were accompanied by Assistant City
Attorney Phillips, who. during the in
spection, pointed out the particular
spots over which there had been legal
disputes and furnished off-hand legal
opinions to the several members on any
number of points raised. The alder
men splaShed through the mud and
eyed the river in a manner which indi-
Gated that theyeither cid or did not thor
oughly understand all about river nav
igatiOn. Aid. Kenny was perfectly at
home on the levee and told with an
air Of certainty all about where old
saw mills, elevators and freight houses
once stood. Aid. Shepard delivered a
learned opinion on where the channel
of the river was, according to the latest
report Of the United States harbOr COM
mission, and advanced the theory that
the property now occupied by the Mil
waukee freight house could never be OF
any use for levee purposes. He had
forgotten to bring the map showing the
harcOr line with him, and after AID.
Kenny had rendered an opinion, the
Eleventh ward alderman thought seri-
ously of going back to his office for the
map. Aid. Bigelow pointed out places
where he had seen the water nineteen
feet high and had gone in swimming
some fifteen years ago. Aid. Larsen
and DonahOwer expressed the opinion
that if the Bethel boat was ordered
away from the side of the Milwaukee
freight house and taken across to the
Sixth ward the change would not only
help navigation on the river, but en-
nance the looks of the leVee Aid Bell
objected to any change which would
bring the Friendly inn within the linn
its of the Sixth ward for any number
OF reasons
After the property, the river and
freight houses had been examined. the
aldermen held a consultation in the
dining room of the Bethel Assistant
City Attorney Phillips informed them
that the only questions to be settled
were the term of years for which the
property was to be leased and the con-
sideratiOn to be paid by the Milwaukee
road. If the aldermen would agree on
these two points he would draft an
ordinance Which would meet the APP
prevail Of the board. Aid Kaldunski
favored a lease of not more than
twenty years at the outside Aid
Lindahl thought fifteen years would be
better than twenty-five, and $4,000 a
year would be about the right rent to
be paid by the road Aldermen Bige-
low, Bell and Shepard announced that
there was no need of making any such
figures as the road would not accept
a lease at that price. Aid. Kenny sus-
gested that perhaps $500 would be
considered too high by the railroad
company. He was not in favor of
doing anything that would look like
persecution to the company, but he was
not in favor of giving them everything
they asked for. The property was
valuable to the railroad company as
well as the city and the interests of the
city should be carefully guarded So
far as the companys proposition to
build bridge on Summit avenue was
concerned, the Third ward alderman
thought it should not be considered at
all. Under the law the company had
to build the bridge at that point and
it should not be taken into consider
alton in fixing the annual rent to be
paid.
Aid. Al.ard favored the matter being
taken uD by the chamber of COM
merce, and the securing of an opinion
from that body before any definite ac-
ton was taken by the council Aid.
Donahower wanted all the company
would give secured, and he was de-
cidedly opposed to naming a sum which
the company would grab at and the
citizens would say was much too low.
His idea was to make a counter prOpo-
Sition and see what the railroad COM
pany would do about it. In his opinion
$4,000 per year was little enough for
a twenty-five year lease. Aid. Bige-
low assured his colleagues that the
road would not accept the lease under
any such terms. and favored a rental
of not more than 81. 500 as the maxi
mum. His opinion was that 1000 per
year and a handsome bridge over Sum-
nit avenue would be acceptable to the
city and railway company. After half
an hours discussion, at which no con-
clusion was reached. it was decided
to hold a conference Thursday even
ing at the council chamber and en-
deavOr to come to some conclusion in
the matter.