The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-06
FARCE FROM THE START
COLLAPSE OF THE PRETENDED
PARK WORKS NOT SURPRISE.
Sweeping Contractor ExpIains-Water
Ordinance and Firemen's Pay
in the Council.

No one who had inside information con-
corning the administrators park plans is
surprised a the turn things took last week.
For long time 1t has been matter of
common gossip in administration circles that
the mayor. the city attorney and the Board
of Works knew it was folly to proceed along
the lines laid down, and were only waiting
an opportunity to retire as gracefully as
might be from an unpleasant position.
Early last winter, after a number of con-
ferences, the mayor ordered the work to
proceed, in Difference to demands that were
being made in certain quarters. This reso-
luton dates back TO a short time after the
park law was declared unconstitutional. The
same day without having given the subject
very careful thought, it was announced that
the Board of Works could take up the work.
This announcement was hardly made until
it was ridiculed by many attorneys, but as
the plan had been publicly acknowledged
as the administrators policy the officials
feared that it would subject them to ridi-
Guile to recede. Besides certain newspapers
were demanding that the board act, instead
of waiting until the Legislature might pass
valid park law. From the first the work
was only perfunctory and half-hearted, al
though great show was made for the pur
pose of throwing sand in the eyes of park
agitators
NO one was surprised, as some now pre-
tend to be, at the valuation people placed
on their property. AS long ago year,
when the Board of Park Commissioners was
making valuations, attorneys of prominence
declared that the valuations being set were
too low. The public at large was denied the
right to see the assessment rolls made up
by the park assessors, Messrs Burton,
Flack and Coffin, and yet favored persons
had access to them and knew what the
prices were to be. During the last cam
paign it was repeatedly stated that the
parks could not be bought for less than
three times the price the administration was
proposing to pay. Last week this was vir-
tually admitted to be true, because the fig
ures of the assessment rolls made a year
ago by the park assessors were practically
duplicated by the Board of Public Works
Now new plan is offered. 1t is proposed
from Washington street to Twenty-second
street. Above TWenty-second street it is
proposed to buy several large tracts of
ground and accept the land that property
owners offered to donate year ago. The
gifts at that time were refused on the plea
that the lands were too remote from the
city. But the river-bottom shoestrng parks
nave fallen through, and some showing must
be made. The so-called boulevard" is
with Forty ie eT sha9 roadMaS
on top of it. During the recent inquiry into
values MADE IN pubic many owners of river
bottom property placed what they thought
would be fair value on the land, contin-
gent on a levee built in the future. A good
many admitted that the land IS now practi-
cally worthless. 1t developed that some
property owners had even had estimates
made of the cost of levee, but it was not
Quilt because an agreement could not be
reached as to how the expense should be
prorated.
1t is the idea of the administration to
make the property owners pay for the levee
or boulevard by assessing their adjacent
property for benefits. On the face of
testimony many of them gave before the
board levee would benefit them to a very
large extent
buying lands above Twenty-second street
by agreement with the owners instead of
by condemnation proceedings the Board of
Works would have to go to the Council for
permission. While the Council was befooled
into reappropriating the park fund of $780,
600 to the Board of Works, it was with an
express proviso that all purchases of tracts
worth more than $1,000 should be ratified
by the city fathers. Anyway, there is a
charter provision to that effect
Already councimen are speaking in pretty
strong terms about what they Will do and
what they will not do. An open opposition
has arisen to the purchase of big parks so
far north as Twenty second street. Coun-
cilmen are saying that if the river-bottom
parks, to which they were opposed from the
outset are to be abandoned they want to
see parks bought in various parts of the
city. All the old worry and trouble is to
be duplicated in the new efforts.