The age-herald., 1901-01-17
REGULAR MEETING
 OF CITY COUNCIL Unimportant Matters Consume
 Much Time.
WRANGLt AMONG MEMBERS
Contract Awarded to Chicago Firm Con- ditionalIy-Franchise For Heating
 company-lmprovem ordI-
 nance Passed-Other Business

| Nlllle was dctOHpllSHSu. 4NCeliS tNO iObio | were devoted to the consideration of four or five improvement ordinances and more than half hour to a discussion of the recommendation of the street committee | that the contract for a $630O job be award | ed to a Chicago firm The Chicago firms bid was 25 per cent. less than the bid Of the home firms, and when the report was | read Aldermen Altman, Heidt and others | raised the question of the cost of the ma | terial and questioned the liability of the lowest bidder to do the work at the fig ure stated in the bid submitted to the com- | mittee.
 l A representative of the firm was present | and offered to afford the board every op- | portunity to investigate the financial stand | ing of his firm and that in the event this | should prove unsatisfactory he would de- posit with a local bank sufficient money, subject to order of the board, to pay for all labor and material and in addition to give bond signed by the American Sure ty Company to guarantee compliance with all specifications. This done the whole matter was referred to the Mayor, who was instructed to sign the contract if after in- vestigation he found the lowest bidders were responsible.
 The board passed ordinance granting franchise to the Birmingham Steam Heating Company and instructed the Mayor to sign same:
 The Meeting.
 The following members of the board were present. Mayor Drennen, Aldermen Ly nagh, Rainbow, Camp, Mcknight, Kerr, | Meighan Moore, Williams, McNally, Alt | | and Harrington.
 The Mayor called attention to the col
 lision between an electric car and freight | train at First avenue and Twelfth street
 on January and recommended that the | street railroad committee make an inves-
 tigation and report back to the board at
 the next meeting The recommendation is
 printed in another column of this issue.
 Alderman Kerr reported favorably an or l dinance granting 8 franchise to the Bir-
 mingham Steam Heating Company. The | ordinance specifies that the franchise shall | be for twenty years, with the right to re- l new at the expiration of that time, work on | the construction of the system to begin l within six months, the company to make | bond in the sum of $25,O 900 to insure the city | against accidents that might arise through | the neglect or fault of the company; the | company not to sell or transfer its fran | chise to any other company or person ! without the consent of the Mayor and AL | dermen; no streets or avenues paved with | vitrifed brick or artificial stone to be torn | up for the, purpose of laying mains; the l company to furnish steam heat free to | city buildings located within one block of
 any main or mains of the company. The 1 ordinance was adoBted.
 Improvement Ordinance.
 Alderman Jones called up improvement
 ordinance Mo- 67, which provides for the
 grading, macadamizing and curbing of
 Fourteenth avenue South, from Seven
 teenth to Nineteenth street, at a cost of l s25O0 and improvement ordinance No. 6S, | which provides for the paving of both side l walks of Fourteenth avenue between Sev- | enteenth and Nineteenth streets. and of | Seventeenth street, between Fourteenth | and Fifteenth avenues, South, at cost of l s9oOO Both were adopted, and February 70 | was fixed as the date to hear protests l from property holders.
 Chairman Altman of the judiciary | mittee stated that improvement ordinances | Nos. n and 75, inclusive, were ready to be reported, and Alderman Thach called for \ No. 72, which provides for grading and | macadamizing Fourteenth avenue. South, | from Twenty-first street to Beach street, | at cost of $25O0. It was adopted.
 Alderman Altman suggested that num-
 Der of citizens were present and that they | be heard by the board, and motion to
 that effect was adopted.
 Capt.,-W. A. Walker was the first to re-
 spond. He appeared in the interest of a | petition presented some time since by thea | Kansas City, Memphis and Birmingham | Road, in which that road asked permission | to build an additional track adjoining its | yard between Ninth and Tenth avenues, | and also to remove the scales from Twen- | ty-fourth street to a point further west | Permission to build the track was granted, | but the board refused to allow the scales moved.
 | H. Hentschel before the board to | protest against the franchise recently | granted the Birmingham Belt Company to | build a temporary track in Avenue E be- tween Tenth and Eleventh avenues He | stated that he and General Manager Clark | of that road had agreed that the track | should be between Twelfth and Thirteenth | streets. Alderman Harrington of the Ninth l ward interposed an objection, saying that he would not consent to the track being | laid between Twelfth and Thirteenth | streets. motion made to refer the | matter to Alderman Harrington with in- | structions that he confer with General | Manager Clark, MT. Hentsche and other | interested persons and be reported back to | the board; and this, after much talk and
 more or less wrangling, was adopted. The DistlIery.
 l A petition from property owners in the northwestern portion of the city presented | a protest against the location of a dis | tillery in the vicinity of Eighth avenue and | Thirteenth street. This brought on more | argument during which Alderman Altman | raised the point that the board had no power in the matter and could not prevent l the location of a distilery in the city if it cared to do so The matter was finally re- | ferred to special committee, composed of | the Mayor. the chairman of the judiciary, the finance and the police and sanitation committees and the two aldermen from Second ward to investigate and report back to fba hoa ard