The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1903-01-01

| sT's1..1S5 SSSlHS @luSlHS
for Princeton People.
a Golden Opportunity for Princeton
10 Turn Over a New Leaf
and Try Another Tack.
The village election occurs next
Tuesday, January 9th, and at that time
the voters Of Princeton will also deter
mine min whether they want to adopt the
city charter as proposed by the village
council. It only requires a majority Of
lallsvotes cast on the charter proposition
to adopt the charter. If only twenty
five votes are cast on the charter pro-
position and thirteen of these are for
the charter, the charter proposition
will carry: The sentiment is against
adopting the charter, because it will
meanta loss of a part of the Princeton
school district and impose on Prince
tona system of municipal government
entirely too cumbersome and broad for.
place no larger than Princeton. The
only thing to do is to vote down the
charter proposition, and thus place a
quletus on the whole matter for the
present at least -.
The main thing to do now is to elect
council that will pledge itself to go to
work and act underst the present charter
which in55many respects is broad enough
in its scope to warrant the council in
adopting some practical system. r.
While under the old charter the pro-
visions for grading, paving or macad-
amizingg streets, building sidewalks or
4 CUTTERS, is subject to the whims and
personal fec lings and considerations of
property owners, the council does have
ample powers to improve streets and
sidewalks "atSthe expense of the own
/ ersof the lots, or. parts of lots, respect
. iyeN opposite and adjoining to such
streets, crossings or sidewalks, OR OUT
OF SHE COMMON FUND OF SAID VII
LAeE. !" This is one Of the first powers
grant Ted the council under the old char
), ter,Sso it can very readily be seen that
the Charter gives the council plenty OF
i authority to improve its streets, by
ol.sal l up and q grading new streets,
q al;is,fng new Sidewalks, etc. a4- he
; council has the authority to make
these improvements either by assess
me bit of the abutting property, or out
of the common fund.
The village constitutes one road dis
; triet, "and the street commissioner
, the reof to be appointed by the coun-
CLIP reads the charter. In fact the
, charter so reads that not bit of per-
manent improvements on street work
can be made without street commits
sioner. Under the charter "all taxes
wit thin the limits of said village for
road purposes and collected by the
treasurer of Mile Laos county shall be
paid by him. to the treasurer Of said
; Village upon the warrant of the county
> auditor" One would very naturally
, inter thatasthis meant road money
levied by the village and not by the
) county. ILL.
q But the village has not been making
any very liberal appropriations for
; Iroad or street work of late, nor. has
anyone even heard of fifty per cent of
the property owners on any given
;, street petitioning the council for fixing
the streets, in the way of surfacing
them, or building cutters or sidewalks,
; etc. Thus it will be seen that neither
), has the village levied any tax for street
improvements nor have the business
!, men been moved by spirit of public
), pride or generosity and signifed that
they are willing to pay for a share of
q the cost of street improvements. =
'Il Until we can get new charter
adapted to the needs of Princeton, the
proper thing for the council to do is to
exercise what powers and authority it
has and take few, steps toward the
betterment Of the village. The one
s weak point of the old charter is that it
makes no provisions for a sewerage
i system, which Princeton needs to es-
tablish, and this does not mean sewers
! for surface drainage, for they are not
/ needed. The streets when properly
surfaced and with cutters, can be
drained easily enough. What are
needed are sanitary sewers to carry off
the sewage of public buildings and pri-
i vate residences. This system of sew
erage is what is known as the "Separ-
ate SYSTEM and was originated by
! Col. Warning, who instituted sanitary
I reforms in New York City, and who
was sent to Havana to cleanse that
i city, Col. Warning considered six