Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1898-05-12
should be placed on level with the

Z
need repairing or relaying and to noti-
fy the lot owners to relay or repair
same and to stay with them until they
did it, and in case they refused TO re-
port them to the Council.
The same ordinances regulated the
laying of sidewalks, so that now lot
owner is required when he proposes to
relay or lay, to excavate five inches
and fill back three inches with gravel
and the two inches of the paving brick
brings the sidewalk up to grade. The
brick are to be hard burned, of uniform
thickness and with straight edges
Another duty Of the sidewalk inspector
and one which know you will all ap-
preciate, is this: In case Of depression
in side walk or paved street caused by
laying pipes or otherwise, it shall De
his duty to notify the proper parties 10
restore such pavement to grade ana 10
repair same forthwith, and to stay with
them until it is done.
This ordinance became law OF Ma
rietta on March Esd, 1897, but has not
been enforced. AT that time the sani-
tarv policeman of the city agreed to
perform the duties of sidewalk ipspec-
tor free of charge, and / believe he is
still willing to undertake II.
hope you will pardon good deal
of seeming egotism, but it is good bit
easier to sail right along and use the
personal pronoun wherever it is neces-
sary than TO beat around the bush try
ing to find some way out Of the diff
Guilty.
1t NAV be said with truth that there
are laws enough, and that all that is
needed is to require them to be enforc-
ed. 1t may be this is one of the im-
portant missions of your society. You
cannot 60 on forever collecting money
to do what the city in its corporate ca
pacity ought to do. Certainly what is
for the benefit of all should be paid for
by all. DIR. Northrup, when he first
conceived the idea of village improve
ment did not think that the burden of
such work should be borne by few.
He no doubt endeayored to get the
municipality to assume the work as
soon as he had demonstrated the ad-
vantage of it and had shown what
could be done with a small amount of
money. So think it is the mission of
your society, not to go on forever col
lecting voluntary subscriptions for
; public improvements, but rather to
point the way and insist that the laws
already in force should be carried out,
! or that laws and ordinances easily OBJ
tainab BILE by action of the City Council,
should be enacted and enforced. Only
thus can you hope for permanent sys-
tenn of street cleaning, sidewalk i'm
provement, park improvement and
: identifying of our public thorough
fares and parks.
Some years ago several gentlemen OF
Marietta including myself formed the
Marietta Open Air Concert Association.
Mr.. NJ. P. Wells was President and
: WAS Secretary and Treasurer, he Sc
cured the subscriptions and l collected
the money. The first year we collected
IS. 90 from each subscriber amounting
to over $4,000. We built the first
music stand and employed the band to
play twice week, Tuesday and Friday
evenings. The next year we repeated
e the experiment and so on for the next,
' but after three years of effort, raising
money and furnishing music for the
edifcation Of the masses, we found
that at the annual meetings only the
same people, the faithful few, came TO-
gether and consequently the burden
fell on the same shoulders very year,
and SO we gave it up However, we
had built better than we knew, for
what was the result? The parks were
; all enclosed and the cows which then
roamed at large were excluded from
the city S pleasure grounds, park cor.
, missioners were secured TO take care o1
; the public grounds, the Marietta Shade
Tree Association was formed with Mr.
Wells at its head, the Boat House Asso
. citation with Mr.. Wells at its head wa.
also formed, and the results you car
see all around you in this city. Beau
tiful shade trees on every street, al
fine boat house in the park as there
is in the state, the cows excluded from
the streets, ar when the cows went th'
fences came down, and now there il
scarcely lot in the city that has I
g front fence, adding immeasurably t,
|. the beauty of the city's appearance
It Finally Mr.. Wells got tired and we al
]. got tired. We we're not like the Irish
o man who came over to this country an
n engaged in carrying the hod. He wrot
IS home to Ireland that all he had to d
Is was ITO carry the brick up the ladde
IT and the other fellow laid them" Co
lie lecting money for public improvement
It after a while becomes irksome even
Of some body else does solicit the subscrii
II tions.
e. The points wish to make are thes'
De First: There is already an ordinanC
,e relating to sidewalks, which II enforced
err will soon bring order out of chaos an
et give us sidewalks properly laid and r
m oa irad