Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1898-11-19
TWO BIG PROJECTS.
The levee and Reservoir Are
Both Nearing Com
pletion.
EACH a SUBJECT OF PRIDE.

Sources of Credit Are They TO the Ad-
ministration and Council Which Have
Put Them Through notwithstanding
Obstacles That Were to BE Overcome
Future VIII Praise Them.
Few people in Rock Island, it is
safe to presume. realize in the fullest
measure the magnitude of the two
main public improvements now in
progress here. These two great I'M
dertakings are the the river front and
| the reservoir, both of which, import
ant and needed as they are, have been
only made possible of success through
the efforts and determination OF Mayor
Medill and the council that has stood
nobly at his back.
The contamination OF the levee pro-
ject comes after n struggle of years
in the face of all kinds of obstacles.
There is not a corporation enjoying
privileges on the river front but that
at some time or other has given as
surance of its friendship for the i'm
prOvement and promised to do all pos
sible forit at any time the work might
be entered upon OF the corporations
so promising the Terminal company
was the loudest in its boasts. 1t was
willing to pave the entire levee, if
necessary, if it could have certain
rights there. These certain rights
We're not to be of an un-
reasonable nature, but were
to be practically what the
company has already received at
the hands of the city. Indeed it is
now a matter of record that the Ter
minal company, in lieu of the grant
ing to it by the city, the franchises
necessary to complete its right of way
as far as it has already been secured.
was to do the levee filling. The fran
chise and right of way were given.
but the filling is vet to be done by the
Terminal company, and this part of
the levee improvement is nearly done.
The main interest the Terminal COM
pany has shown in the improvement
aas been to attempt to retard it.
There are other corporations
that have made promises that still
stand unfuifiiled, but as their pledges
were not made Officially there has
not been such strong grounds to ex-
pect the help that is nevertheless due
and which the city may yet secure
some day. Suffice is it to say, however,
that the Rock Island Il Davenport Ferry
company and the Rock Island IL Peoria
Railway are up to the present time
the only corporations that the city
has actually received contributions
from. Nevertheless the improve
ment is going right along and
the council will not permit it to be
married by further unnecessary tres
pass. either. The LAYING of brick on
the extension OF Seventeenth street
and the delivery of stone for the
Telford paving have already been
commenced. The removal of obstruc-
tions in the way of buildings is
under way. a casual glance at the
Ievee. even at the present stage, af-
fords an idea of the temptations that
such a magnificent piece of property
as the city proposes to make of it
offers to any railroad. But the city
is not improving the property for
private corporation uses or for any
one corporation. The levee is to be
for the use OF all and for the common
good.
The Reservoir.
Likewise is the reservoir, which is
the other great distinguishing feature
of the present administratiOn-an
Improvement, which. too, has been
brought up to the point of consum
nation under the most adverse cir
cumstances. The underta king was
not beset by difficulties of the same
nature as those which made the levee
so difficult-there has not been the
opposition to it nor the designs upon
it. Its success was more the solution
of a financial problem. a question of
ways and means. 1t would ordinarily
have been a bigger Job than the
other, but it required the same de-
termination to insure its success.
Both improvements are going forward
hand in hard to completion. Future
generations will praise those whose
efforts made both possible.