The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-07-29
FLAGMEN, GATES AND BELLS
MN TH WARD RESIDENTS SEEK PRO-
 TEOTION AT GRADE CROSSINGS.

Railroads and Bridges-Attorney F. c.
 Buckland Spoke Against rt-Other Mat
 ters Considered by the Committee--No
 Definite Action Taken.
 At the meeting of the railroads and bridges committee of the court of com mon council, held last evening, persons were heard in regard to the petitions for gates and flagmen on Ninth ward railroad crossings, the widening and double tracking of West Chapel street, and the change of the tracks of the New Haven Street Railway company from the east side of upper State street to the middle of the street.
 The petition in regard to West Chapel street was signed by c. M. Walker and others and asks for the widening of Chapel street from York street to Park street and the double tracking of Chapel street from Park street to Howe. MT. Walker said that the de- | lays of the cars in that section are caused by the single track and that the l.delay impedes traffic on the whole line. l He asked that the committee look over the layout.
 E. F. Mersick appeared in favor of the petition and said frequently twelve or fourteen cars are stalled on Chapel | street at Dwight street, and extending from there to Howe street. He thought ! that there was no necessity of widen l ing from Howe to Dwight streets, as ! y-iI in, hof the plans laid out by the city engineer. William P. Da1y's petition for the re- | moval of the tracks on upper State | street from the east side of the street to the middle of the street from James street to Bishops Gate. was next taken up. John A. Doolttle and others spoke in favor of the petition. It was stated | that the wagon track on the east side of the railroad track is too narrow for | safe driving and that so many heavy l brick teams are driven along the wagon road west of the track that frequently turning out by light teams Is necessary. It is thought that if the track Is placed In the middle of the street there Will be ample room at each side of the track for teams going in different directions. l President Dodge of the New Haven 1 Street Railway company appeared | against the petition. In answer to the | statement that the roadway a the east l Of the track was too narrow for driv- ing, Mir. Dodge said that he had meas ured the space between the outside rail | and the curb on various streets of the | city where the car tracks are in the center of the street and had found that | in many of these streets the space so | measured was narrower than is that ! complained of on upper State street. He further said that no complaints had | been made of these other streets and no accidents had been reported as hav- 1 ing happened there. He thought that | there would be no more difficulty in | turning a team out on the State street | tracks than on any other tracks in the 1 city. He said that the people living on the west side of State street, where l the change is proposed, are opposed to any change being made.
 1 MT. Fisher, member of the commit | tee, stated to MT. Dodge that the pave ment on that portion of the track un- der consideration was very poor and made driving over the tracks difficult and dangerous.
 MT. Dodge replied that this was the first complaint as to the pavement be- tween the tracks of his road that he had heard.
 The petitions of the Ninth warders were next taken up and considered to- gether. The petitions are as follows j. c. Casariego and others for the en- forcement of the laws In regard to the speed of trains over grade crossings P. R. Reynolds for two nagmen, gates and bells at the Bassett street crossing and also at Hazel street; Henry Dun- ham for flagmen, gates and bells al Ivy street; s. T. Riggs and John T Pohlman for flagmen, gates and bells at Webster street, and J. C. Casariegc for f1agmen at Shelton avenue.
 MT. Casariego appeared to speak ir favor of these petitions and alleged
 that the crossings named in the pc. tition are in a dangerous condition. He said that 1t was impossible at this time to abolish grade crossings and tha such crossings should, therefore, bt protected as much as possible in order
 to minimize the danger. He said tha people in other parts of the city ha( protection from dangerous railroad crossings and those of the Ninth warG u6SlIeu lut SdIHc I1e Cdlltu dtleutiOI
 to the fact that the Shelton avenue
 school is near the dangerous crossing:
 and that the children are continually
 passing over the tracks in going to ant
 from school He said that two of the
 crossings mentioned in the petition!
 were protected by f1agmen during thu
 day, but were totally unguarded a
 night He said that in case of fire il
 that section of the city there was grea
 danger in the night to the fire engines
 and apparatus being struck by trains
 Alderman Rourke also appeared il
 favor of the petitions and said that al
 though he did not live in the Nintl
 ward he formerly lived in that vicinit! and realized the danger at the unpro
 tected crossings. He enumerated sev
 eral fatal accidents which have hap pened on these crossings in recen
 years. Others who appeared in favo
 of the petitions were J. T. Pohlman
 Harry Donovan, Thomas Bailey, Joh1
 F. McGrail, William Butler, William
 Moran, William Mcclure and Thoma, McAuley.
 Attorney E. G. Buckland, represent
 ing the New York, New Haven anc
 Hartford Railroad company appeareC
 in opposition to the petitions. He stat
 ed that the company's opposition to tn,
 granting of what was asked by the pc titioners would be made before the stat aNa V-r1.