The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-04-10
DIXON AND LOTION EXPLAIN.
THEY SAY STREETS WILL BE PUT
IN PROPER CONDITION.

| Iracks-Supt LOTION THINKS NoA.
Dixon Spoke Too sOon-street Rail-
way Claims Its improvements Are
PrOGressinE-Excus offered for
Delays.
Col Merritt W. Dixons pointed inter-
view in the Morning News yesterday in re-
gard to the bad condition OF streets as
result of the operations of the street rail-
ways, has exercised some of the alder
men. who claim they have done their duty
| during the two months they have been In
office. II is not denied, however, that the
streets in some places are badly in need of
repairs.
| One disadvantage the street railway man
! agement has to meet is the reckless Gus
! tom of making promises, which has re-
| suited in more or less loss of faith in
/ any promises the company makes to the
public A stereotyped excuse to alder
men Of the former administration when
they complained about the condition of as
phalt pavements was that the asphalt
company would not get the material here"
1t is said that when aldermen called for a
performance of contract, the street rail-
way put them to silence with the excuse
that they were unable to push up an as
phalt company, and could do nothing un-
| til some unknown persuasive was found
and employed. Why the supply of as
phalt was so long shut off from Savan-
nah has never been explained, but it
seems the aldermen took it for graHed
there was no remedy, and therefore ac-
/ Aaa rafi FaNfie
cuse.
The repair of asphalt streets is one OF
| the things the City Council is now being
| urged to enforce. Alderman j. NJ. Dixon,
chairman of the street and lane commit
| tee was seen yesterday about some of the
| complaints against the condition of streets,
and particularly those where the street
railway has failed to replace torn-up as
phalt between its tracks. He said he had
not been in charge of the street and lane
department long enough to accomplish
| much, but he had done all in his power to
have crossings repaired. If the progress
he has made in the past two weeks is kept
up. he says he viii soon be able to get the
streets in proper condition.
Alderman Dixon says 1t is true that Lib
erty street, in the vicinity Of Randolph,
Reynolds and East Broad, is in bad con-
dition, but a gang of laborers have been
there several days repairing the paving.
East of East Broad street the sewer
| broke, allowing Liberty street to cave in.
1t was impossible to find where the sand
was going, but Alderman Dixon says he
directed an employee OF the city engineers
Office TO locate the trouble, and on finding
| 1t the sewer was repaired. The asphalt
paving is now being repaired, he says and
the force will \give attention to
| the car tracks while in that
neighborhood. Alderman Dixon said
| he realized the pressing necessity
for repairing crossings, and for this
reason he stopped Contractor Shreve from
making city repairs on Broughton street
the other day, and directed that the street
railway work be completed first.
tx is my intention to perform my duties
| conscientiously," said Alderman Dixon
and l shall not stop until the crossings
are put in proper condition. Not only
am I pushing the street railway to pro-
coed to repair pavements that have been
cut in the city proper, but / have notified
General Manager Lotion that a brick
crossing must be laid at the intersection
of Bull and Tenth streets. where the car
| tracks make an awkward turn, there by
forming an obstruction in the roadway
! Assurances have been received that this
will be done as soon as the Mendel prop
erty is cleared, as this work would inter-
fere with the paving work The Mendcl
ing of Bull street"
Speaking of the car tracks being aboy q
the level of streets in some places, Alder
man Dixon claims the opposite is true.
The tracks are on the grade, he said but
the streets have not been filled in. "Should
the company undertake to regulate IN,
tracks with some of the streets over which
il passes, what kind of roadbed would il
haveR" he suggested. Until the streets
are graded the tracks will continue to mo
trude. The street railway is required to
get its elevations from the city engineer
and until the streets are graded. they can
not be on a level with the tracks again
say ! intend to discharge my duties i'm
partially, but must have time 20 repair
some of the rich legaces we got from our
predecessors
Supt. Lotion was seen I'm regard to Col
Dixon's references 10 the condition an
streets and the mild way the administra
ton is apparently dealing with the street
railway. Supt. Lotion claims he went IN
work after taking charge of the street
railway, and has since been directing his
! attention to its betterment He recog-
nizes he says, that the interests Of The
railway and the city are mutual ana that
they should work together. His improve
ments so far consist in rebalancing track
repairing crossings in accordance with no.
tice received from Mayor Myers. and nut
ting down new ties. He has distributed
10.OCO bushels of shell during the past two
weeks he says, and has ordered large
quantity of Augusta gravel for repairing
crossings of gravel streets
"Col. Dixon may have spoken too soon. s.
Supt. Lotion said. 81 had talk with him
about the condition of Habersham street
just north of Oglethorpe avenue and
; agreed to see what could be done. i ala
, not expect Col. Dixon TO come at uS riahi
off. 1t takes time to do the work The
street railway has before it, and Il must
be remembered that only one thing can
: be done at a time. The City Council and
the citizens generally may rest assured thai
I / intend to bring things to a higher stand
ard if only given a reasonable time in
, which TO do So"
, MADE l.. A. w. HANDIcAPPER.