The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-10-15
SCHEME REVIVED.
Orchard Place Sewer PrOp0-
sitiOn Given New Hearing.
State Treasurer, Frank Grimes,
Making a Fight.
IS MUCH OPPOSITION.
People Who Built No. IA Up in
Arms.
Afraid That Their Sewer Will
Be Overloaded.

After being declared officially dead by
it's promoter. the scheme to sewer part
of Orchard Place by means of Iatera.s
attached to sewer No. IA has been re-
vived at the request of Frank Crimes,
state treasurer, and several others who
are building residences in Orchard
Place. Mr.. Grimes and his friends will
be given a hearing before the sewer
committee of the council on Friday al
ternoon.
There is great opposition to the grant
ing of this permit to connect with the
old sewer main. on the ground that the
present request is simply an opening
wedge by which it is proposed to sewer
the whole so acres of Orchard Place into
No. IA, thus avoiding the heavy expense
of building a sewer main The peoplo
who built and paid for sewer IA claim
that if Orchard Place is connected with
No. Il that it will overload the sewer
when within a few years Orchard Place
becomes thickly populated.
At present the proposition before the
sewer committee of the council is to
permit two half blocks in Orchard Place
to connect with the sewer. This would
be all right, perhaps. if it were not foS-
the fact that it is feared that it would
open the gates to a similar connection
with other blocks.
The precedents in the council are al;
in favor of granting the permit desired.
1t is customary to allow people outside
of sewer districts to connect with sewer
mains, but the condition is always i'm
posed that the person so connected shall
waive all right to protest against pay
ing his due part in case he should at
some future time be included in a sewer
district. There have not been many
cases. however. where it was proposed
to allow more than one house al a time
to connect with the sewer in this way.
The Orchard Place scheme is to connect
six or eight houses which are either in
process of construction or under con-
tract.
There is considerable talk of creating
a sewer district to include not only
Orchard Place but Dennis and Martins
addition and Walnut Grove. Petitions
for such a district are now being cir
culated. But the Orchard Place people
say that il will take so long to organize
this district that they can not put III
their sewer connections while then
houses are being built. and that they
need some sewer facilities Immediately.
c. " Wolf, chairman of the commit
tee on sewers. said today: The city
council made a mistake in the first
place when it established the precedent
Of allowing people to connect their
properties to old sewers by means of
laterals. The question is now whether
the council shall disregard this prece-
dent and grant the people who are
building houses in Orchard Place some
temporary sewer facilities. There seems
to be a general opinion that if we grant
such a privilege it will result in the
whole of Orchard Place being severed
into No a. This would be manlfestly
unfair to the people who have built ana
are Dayirg for Nc, a.
when the matter was up before this
committee the first time, we decided that
it should be laid over, and the parties who
made the request were willing that this
should be done. Now. however the peo-
pie who are building out there want 10
have another hearing. and the committee
has agreed to give it to them That is all
there is to the present situation
City Engineer NcCabe says that the whole
sewer system of Topeka was organized
on a wrong basis He believes that the
city should have built several immense
sewer mains at the expense of the whole
city. and then created sub-districts for