The herald., 1898-06-11
MAIN STREET PAVE
PROSPECTS FORALIVELY
LEGAL BATTLE
RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED
PROPERTY OWNERS DECLINE TO
PAY ASSESSMENTS
THEELECTRIC COMPANY FIGHT
Question Whether the Street Has Been
Legally Accepted by the City to
Be Tested-Other Work


cupied the attention of the officials from the
mayor to the janitor at the city hall yes
terday 1t was known that the Main street
property owners were to meet last night, os-
tensiby to protest against Main street being
torn up by the Los Angeles Electric COM
pany for the purpose of putting down con-
duits, but behind this was the real and
greater purpose, namely, to decide the
question as to whether after a street had
been improved and accepted by the street
superintendent such acceptance bound the
city, or it, as the city attorney contends,
every street must be accepted by special
ordinance by the council in order to bind
the city.
The Main street people are not alone in
the matter. Spring and other streets are to
be improved, that is, resurfaced. If it can
be proved to the satisfaction of the courts
that the acceptance by the street superin-
tendent of a street when first paved is an
acceptance of that street by the city,
through that officer, then the property own
ers along Main, Spring and other streets
cannot be made to pay for the resurfacing
of the thoroughfares.
On the other hand, If the courts hold that
each and every street improved must be ac-
cepted by the city council through an ordi-
nance by the council, then the streets can
be torn up once a week. If the council so
concludes, and the property owners be made
to pay for the repairing of the same until
such time as they are accepted by ordinance
since none of the improved streets in con-
troversy have been accepted in that way.
At least that is what the lawyers say.
Section 20 of the Vrooman act, which ap-
plies all over the state, provides that a
street once accepted by the city as 'im-
proved" must forever after be kept in re-
pair by the municipal corporation without
any direct tax upon the property owners
whose possessions abut on the street or
streets reimproved.
Main and Spring streets were originally
improved before the passage of the Vroo-
man act, but have never been accepted by
direct ordinance by the city, hence the re-
Improvement, or more properly the repav-
ing Of the streets, has been at the cost of
the people owning property fronting on the
thoroughfares.
Main street was recently accepted as re-
surfaced from First to Ninth streets by the
superintendent of streets and city engineer.
W
improvement. Some of them have paid the
assessments. but others have refused to pay
and 1t is the latter who now propose to
test the question whether the acceptance of
piece of work by the city's authorized OFF,
cials is a legal acceptance of the same by the
city or not.
Those who have paid their assessments
for the Main street work are joining those
tox, o,,1 xx,I,4 o1iv
on the ground that the street should not be
allowed to be again torn up by the Los
Angeles Electric company in order to put
down conduits. They assert that before
Main street was paved the Los Angeles
Electric company announced to the council
that its conduits "were as good as laid in
asmuch as that company had made arrange
ments with the San Gabriel Electric ON
pany to use the latter's conduits. Since
that announcement, however, the two cleo
trio companies have disagreed and the San
Gabriel company refuses to allow the Los
Angeles company to use their underground
wires.
This difference also involves the city
lighting proposition to further muddle the
matter as it was upon that rock the two
electric companies split. The original
agreement, it is understood, was that the
San Gabriel and Los Angeles companies
should consolidate, and that the former
would let the city lighting contract alone.
This 1t has declined to do, and the result
is that the Los Angeles company now de-
mands the right to put in conduits on Main
street, being denied the right to use the
conduits already in place there.
That the electric companies are at war
was clearly demonstrated at the meeting
of the Main-street property owners at For
esters' hall last night. Both the San Ga
briel Electric company and the Los An
geles Electric company had representatives
present. When, in the course of the three
hours desutory though sometimes inter-
esting, talk, the statement was made that
the Los Angeles Electric company had told
the council that its conduits ''were as good
as in," the representative of that company
admitted the fact, and explained that the
two companies had quarreled, and hence
the Los Angeles concern would go 1t alone.
1t was suggested that perhaps an agree
ment could be brought about by interven-
tion of citizens, whereby the original plan
of the electric companies could be carried
out, both using the same conduits.
tive knocked this on the head by promptly
announcing that, much to their regret,
his employers had discovered that they had
not an inch of room or a wire to spare in
their Main-street conduits.
After talking and talking, all to no pur-
pose, except an attack upon Street Super
intendent Drain by Major Burke, who had
been misinformed regarding the city ordi-
nances, and in setting whom right the
street superintendent gave the property
owners some valuable information, the
meeting adopted two resolutions-one pro-
testing against the tearing up of Main
street for the purpose of laying conduits
for the period of one year, and the other
reading as follows:
Resolved, That we hereby request the
city council to accept Main street, be-
tween First and Ninth streets. by ord-
nance, as complete, as provided and in
accordance with the provisions of Sec
ton 20 of the Vrooman act
And we hereby in making this request,
do not waive our objection to the re-
fusal Of the city to accept said street
heretofore or after the former paving
thereof, but reserve all our rights to
claim that the latest resurfacing of said