The times., 1898-12-09

The District Commissioners yesterday
threw cold water on the propositions of
w. Y. Stevens superintendent of the free
bathing beach. for the construction of
the foot lof Seventeenth Street southwest.
west OF the Washington Monument reser-
vsetion.
Superintendent Stevens has for long
time been nurturing the scheme for the
new beach. or the ground that the Ma
tional Capital should not be behind other
large American municipalities in the mat
ter of providing free bathing facilities
for the younger generation. He argues
that the present beach is dangerous to
life of inexperienced bathers on account
of the rise and fall OF the tide and be-
cause 1t is situated below the outlet of
the Seventeenth Street sewer, which, he
claims, discharges impurities into the wa
ter.
The idea of the superintendent is TO es-
tablish new beach in the inner pool or
basin at the foot of Seventeenth Street,
on the reservation belonging TO the War
Department. and which would be allotted
for the purpose provided Congress makes
the necessary appropriation for the new
beach
The Commissioners do not take kindly
to the suggestions offered by the super
fntendent and have directed that he be
SO informed In passing upon the matter
yesterday, Commissioner Wight recon-
mended that Mr.. Stevens be informed
that the Commissioners do not favor the
. hast for hafh no.
beach, and that they have already sub
mitted their estimates for work in con-
nection with the present beach"
lnaSmuch as the Commissioners do not
seem inclined 10 bring the suggestions of
Superintendent Stevens to the attention
OF Congress at the present time, his ef-
forts for the establishment of the new
beach have been indefinitely blocked.
As late as December 6 last Super in
tendent Stevens wrote to the Commits
sioners submitting detailed information
and blue print plans of ethe proposed in
ner basin beach and rs accessories In the
way of diving pools, swings and other es-
sentials. 1t was this ias, letter of sug-
gestion that prompted Commiss oners
Wight and Beach TO direct that a brief
reply be sent to the superintendent. in
forming him that his pet project does
not meet with their approval.
The area OF the inner basin is eight
acres and, with the ,ef6hnds allotted to
II. ten acres would be at the disposal OF
the new beach. 1t was proposed b. Su-
perintendent StevenSitn reduce the pres
ent depth of seven feet for reasons cf
safety to a depth Of four and a taIi
feet except in the deep diving POOL
which was 10 be forty by 10 feet in z.
This would require sGoc5 yards OF hli ng.
t.. T.sV.# !
Stevens, for this dlling WINS eishtet n
cents per cubic yard. --oout 00) yards
of dredging would alone be required and
at least six inches OF sand would have
TO be distributed over the whole lake
area to obtain a satisfactory bottom
The plans submitted By him Include the
erection of 100 new dressing rooms. a
three-story office, a clerks room. suit
room, wharves having total length of
2.4i feet and a water frontage of 80
feet, safety fences to prevent persons
wading into deep water. eight tish
trapezes and fourteen spr.nsb ards.
Supt. Stevens expected to accomplish
the construction of the new beach at a
cost OF sio,Ueo at the most, but the filing
dredging. sanding, and pumping out of the
water would take so large a portion of
that sum that the remainder would no:
be sufficient TO execute any plan that
would adapt the lake to meet the great
and increasing demand for public bathing
facilities. When he made his recommen-
dation for $4,000 there was n balance of
s2Ca0 to the credit of the inner basin. but
this was expended on the old beach last
Summer by the bathing beach committee
He therefore on Tuesday asked the COM
missioners to recommend an appropriation
of $1,000, and offered to do the work of
re-establishing the old beach in the inner
basin at his own risk for that sum. He
also made willing offer to yie.d the con-
tract to anyone who would faithfully exc
cute the work for smaller sum