The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-08-16
THE S0UTHSIDE'S COMPLAINT.
ACTING MAYOR DIXON DISCUSSES
THE SITUATION THERE.

The City Appreciates the Desire of
the southsiders to Have Model
Section and Is Anxious to Help
Them in the Natter-HOw the Narie-
gated Sidewalks Came About.
Property Owners Kicked on Arti-
fetal stone Pavement by Ordi-
nance and Then Adopted Them OF
Their own AccOrd-POles Nui-
sance That Has to BE Put Up With
if Modern COnveniences Are De-
sired. Says Mr.. Dixon.
Acting Mayor Dixon was in the chair al
the City Exchange yesterday and filled it
with becoming grace. The complaint of
the Southsiders that their section is not
receiving sufficient consideration from the
city was promptly brought TO his atten-
ton and as promptly answered.
we appreciate the desire of the people
of the Southside to have a model section"
he said land desire to help them in every
way we can. 1t is not the citys fault
that the sidewalks are not uniform in that
section. The Krouskoff ordinance, adopt
ed by the last Council, made the construc-
ton of artificial stone sidewalks within
certain time compulsory upon the property
owners there. There was such tremendous
protest against this ordinance that it was
repealed. The pres mt Council adopted an
ordinance last winter, requiring properly
owners in the southern section to pro
vide sidewalks on streets named in the
ordinance and giving them the option of
using any material which would meet the
approval of the director of public works,
the ordinance prov ding that where the
work was left to be done by the city that
brick, as the cheapest material, should
be us d.
with the usual Inconsistency of hui
man nature the very people who had so
strongly protested against being COMPEL
ed to put down artificial stone sidewalks,
Immediately proceeded to sci ct this ma
terial and the result is thai a large pars
of the sidewalks in the Southside have
been laid in artificial stone. We encour-
aged this movement in every way we
could keeping in close touch with
the contractor for this work and advising
him as to the streets to be taken up next.
Everything was done to encourage the
property owners to use artificial stone.
Some did not choose to do so, and all
the city could do under the ordinance in
such cases was to go ahead and put down
brick.
las to the grass growing up between
the bricks and forming 'whskers' this will
happen wherever the travel is light. This
can be prevented by putting cement be-
tween the bricks. A grout foundation
was used in laying sidewalks around some
of the city property to keep down the
grass"
AS to poles" said the acting Mayor,
81 agree with the southslder quoted by
you that they are unsightly. There are
great many poles in the southside, and
the fact that that section is as yet
but sparsely built up makes them
all the more conspicuous. The southsid-
ers cannot expect, however, to have mod
ern Improvements in the way of tele-
phones and electric lights without some
of the Objectionable features. The tele-
phone companies have erected about 1000
new poles during the last year, many of
them in the southside. By putting the
wires underground we have been able to
do away with a great many poles in the
northern section, but this decrease has
been fully made up by the increase else
where. l introduced an ordinance about
a year ago requiring all companies using
light currents to use the same poles where
possible TO do so. but the companies
raised so many objections that the ordi-
nance was Withdrawn.
THE plan Of keeping Bull street as
boulevard has been adhered to-" said Mr.
Dixon.
For this reason no poles have been al
lowed placed on that street for the last
year or Two. AbercOrn street is probably
worse off in this respect than any other
1t is the main artery of all the pole lines,
including the street railway company. AS
these companies will not use each other S
poles the number of poles on that street
is excessive. but under present conditions
this cannot be helped. The effort is al
ways made to place poles where they will
be the least Objectionable and the wishes
of the property owners are consulted in
these matters. Many changes of poles
have been made at the request of prop
erty owners"
Director of Public Works Gadsden to
whom this matter was mentioned said
that no company is permitted 10 erect a
pole anywhere in the city without per-
nit from his office and the locations
are always made by some
one from the office. The rule is not to
allow any one company more than three
poles to the block and the effort is made
as far as possible to avoid punching
the poles al any one point.
HAYES ON TRIAL TODAY.