Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1898-12-23
DID NOT GET PAID.
Street Laborers to Go Without
Their Money.
NO QUORUM OF COUNCIL
Special Meeting to Pay tho Bills Failed to
NIatcrialize. Committee Did Not
Report Them ut the Regn-
lar Meeting.

There are some eight or ten men who
worked hard for their money on the
streets OF tire city, but who Will not get
it in time for Christmas. 1t will prcb-
ably come to them some time, on the
same principle that the Council at its
last meeting ordered paid certain bills
that We're not authorized by the Street
Committee, it being decided that mas
much as the city had gotten the bene-
fit of the work and materials for which
the bills We're made, the city ought TO
pay them, but With the understanding
that no more such bills be contracted.
This lis about the same condition Of
affairs that exists in the case of the
street laborers only they have not been
paid, and the others have.
1T will be remembered that when the
resolution reviving the chain-gang was
adopted, it was ordered that the paid
men on the street force be dismissed
with the exception CT two or three who
had to be retained as drivers. But the
chain gang did not so into effect until
some days after the Council provided
it should, and the men We're not dis
missed until it did.
When the Street Committee met ofore
the last Council meeting, it failed to re-
port certain bills for labor on the street,
amounting TO some $780, This is a
comparatively small sum, but as the
men who worked for it are all poor
men, and needed the money badly, es-
pecially at this season, this failure on
the part of the Committee was q very
serious matter to them.
Some of these men went to the Presi-
dent of the Council, Mr.. J. A. Buxton,
and placed the matter before him, and
he called a meeting of the Council for
last night to consider the bills. with a
view to paying them, SO that the men
might have something for Christmas.
When 8 O'clock came, u quorum was
not present, and consequently nothing
could be done, and the men Will go
without their money. Councilman Ford
was in Richmond; Councilman Bur
cher was unwell; SO was Councilman
O'Donnel; Councilman Thomas was in
Norfolk. and Councilman Washington s
| wife was i'll. Councilman Cory and
Doherty We're absent and unaccounted
for. Those who did come, in addition
to President Buxton, We're Councilmen
Mackey, Mclaughlin, Hughes, Caffee
1 Powell and Roane.
! NOT THE RIGHT TIME.
|
nection with the sewer work that some
of the Councilnen wished to bring ur
I before this meeting had there been a
| quorum but this could not have been
| done as the call for the special meeting
1 did not provide for it. The matter re
ferred to is the running of a sewer
| down West avenue between Thirty
| fifth and Thirty-fourth streets for tho
! accommodation of the residents OF
| that thoroughfare.
The suggestion was made at the last
| meeting Of the Council by Contractor
Honan, but was lost in the shuttle
somewhere. This is a matter that re.
quires early attention. as the citizen:
| on West avenue are very anxious to bi
| connected With the sewer as early a
| possible. especially Mr. Lee, who la
| q large house at the corner of Thirty
1 fifth street and the avenue
The next meeting Of the Council will
! be held on the first Tuesday in Janu
| airy.