The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-02-15
THE OATH OF OFFICE
TAKEN YESTERDAY BY TAX COL
LECTOR DAVID WELLS.
WILL KEEP OLD FORCE.
NO CHANGES AMONG CLERKS TO BE
MADE AT PRESENT.

VIII Assume Active Charge of the
ONCE TO-day-County Commission
ers Established New Public Road
and Named 1t Levy Avenue-lt
Runs From Dale Avenue to Bona
venture Shell Road--COurt House
Bonds neutrality-suspicious. for
Oyster Leases Met with Caveats.
shotguns Guard the.Water Lots in
Dispute.
At the meeting Of the County Commits
sioners yesterday afternoon Mr.. David
wells chosen by the board to fill the va
cancv in the Office OF tax collector caused
by the death of the late James J. Nc
Gowan, qualified and took the oath.
Mr.. Wells offered two bonds, for $4,000
each, payable respectively TO the state
and county, with the Fidelity and De-
post Company of Maryland, as surety
and conditioned upon the dilgent and
faithful discharge of the duties of the Of
fee of tax collector. The bonds were ac-
cepted by the commissioners. and then
Chairman j. J. Dale administered the
oath of office.
Mr.. Wells will assume active charge
of the Office to-day. The office force, con-
sisting of Messrs. Hugo Platen, Jerome
Sullivan, Fred Cler and Victor Schreck,
will retain their positions for the present
at least. Mr.. Wells stated after his quail
ifcation yesterday there would be no i'm
mediate change certainly, and that il was
quite possible there would be none in
the future.
Other than the induction of Mr.. Wells
into the office to which he has been elect
ed, there was little in the meeting of the
commissioners to make it different from
those held every month.
Nothing was said or done about the
election to fill the two county offices,
those of ordinary and tax collector, which
have no regular incumbent. and are
merely filled by temporary appointments
by the commissioners. The commissioners
don't seem to be considering this matter
of an election at all There Is to be
special meeting of the board in about two
weeks, and Commissioner Moore sug-
gested that it was possible that an cleo
ton would be ordered then. He didn't
know though whether an election would
be ordered or not
The commissioners, however, established
a new public road, which was named Levy
avenue, in honor of Mr.. b. H. Levy.
The new road begins on Dale avenue, at
a point one hundred and fifty feet west of
the west bank of the Piacentia canal, and
runs in northerly direction, through the
lands of the Merchants and Mechanics
Land Company. 1t terminates at a point
on the Bonaventure branch of the Skida-
way shell road seven hundred and fifty
feet from the bridge across the PlacentLI
canal. or Timber Landing creek. When
constructed the road will be 1850 yards
tong and fifty feet wide
The commissioners decided to push to
as rapid completion as possible the new
road to Isle of Hope, known as LaRoche
avenue, for which the entire right of way
needed, has been secured from the owners
of the land through which the road
passes.
seven Court House bonds. amounting in
par value to 5000, were cancelled by the
commissioners. The bonds were Nos. 3
So and 60, of the denomination of $1,000,
and Nos. l. SO. "a and 70. of the denomina-
ton of $500. They had been called in and
paid under the resolution of the Commits
sioners adopted last June, in accordance
with the terms of the issue This pro-
vided that 5000 of the bonds should be
drawn and redeemed every year after the
first ten.
The bonds cancelled yesterday are the
second batch that has undergone this OPP
Grafton, leaving the total bonded indebt
eduess of the county $4,000.
The commissioners passed a resolution
providing that in future the clerk of the
board should be the purchasing agent of
the county. and that supplies for all the
county offices should be purchased by him,
upon the requisition of the proper officer.
The commissioners say that this is to
give everybody a chance to bid and the
county a chance to purchase the best ar
ticles at the cheapest market price
Some interest was excited among the
spectators at the meeting by the state
ments of counsel for the opposing parties
at interest in some applications for oyster
leases, now pending before the commits
sioners. There are twenty or thirty of
these applicat tons, made by negro oyster
men of Thunderbolt and Wilmington, for
some of the water lots in the Romilly
marshes. To the grant of the applications
by the commissioners, Capt. Augustus
Oemler has filed a caveat.
Mr.. G. w. Beckett represented the appli-
cants for the leases, and Mr. w. w. Cor
don, Jr., was looking after the interests
of Capt. Oemler. Mr.. Beckett stated that
he was very anxious to have the commits
sioners hear and determine the question
raised by the caveat to the applications
for leases filed by his clients. He said
that the beds in question had been used
by his clients for gathering oysters reg
ularly every year until the present. Now
they were being kept off the beds by
watchmen, employed by Capt. Oemler.
who warned them away at the point of
shotguns.
Mr.. Gordon said that this was scarcely
q fair statement of the facts. Capt.
Oem,er he said, had been in possession
of the property for thirty years, and was
only trying to protect his rights. To this
MIR. Beckett rejoined that Capt. Oemer,
whatever other methods he had employed
to protect his alleged rights, had never
tried to keep persons from gathering oys-
ters from the water lots in question until
this year.
The commissioners referred the question
10 County Attorney Cam, and agreed
that as soon as the county attorney had
had time and opportunity to investigate
At and to file his report, a special meeting
would be called and counsel for both sides
given an opportunity to introduce evil
dence to support their varying conten-
tons.