The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-04-19
COUNTY SOLONS
HEAR WHEELMEN
Present Their Charges Against
Side Path Commission-An-
other Hearing Friday.

"These charges Of incompetency,
neglect and encouragement that have
been made against the side path COM
mission have some foundation, l be-
lieve, and we must take them serious
ly," said Commissioner Powers at the
meeting of the board yesterday morn
ing.
The controversy between the bicycle
dealers and the side path commission,
which has been raging for some weeks
past, came before the board on the pc
tition of Grant Spicer and others for
the removal of the present side path
commissioners.
The petition upon which the cycle
path question case before the board
asks for the removal of the present
members Of the side path commission,
and prefers charges, which, in brief,
are that the commission has hampered
the sale of bicycle tags by placing it
exclusively in the hands of the county
treasurer; has mismanaged the expend-
iture of funds, has arbitrarily increased
the price of tags and has ignored the
Associated Wheelmen
H. D. Frankel, a member of the COM
mission, said he did not think the
county board should attach any weight
to the petition. He said that the paper
was irregular in form, and it's author,
Grant Spicer, was a disturbing element
among wheelmen.
II. p. Keller, secretary of the Asso-
ciated Wheelmen, said that his organi-
cation had adopted only certain fea-
lures of the protest set forth in the pc
titiOn. Their principal objection, he
said was as to the increase in the price
of tags from so cents to 81.
Scores the Commission.
F.. E. Thayer, one of the wheelmen,
said that bicycle riders generally felt
that the members of the side path COM
mission were neglecting their duties
They had ignored all requests from the
Wheelmen, and some of them rarely at
tended the meetings of their own COM
mission.
Commissioner Powers was inclined
to take the wheelmen's side of the ar
gument and said he believed at least
some OF the charges to be we'll founded
he said he had reason to believe that
the money handled by the side-path
commission had not been expended
economically, and if something was not
done soon there would be an awful
storm" raised. He said he thought the
charges should be considered seriously.
1t was decided to make this matter
the subject of special hearing and it
was referred to the committee on roads
and bridges to be taken UP Friday at 2
p. m. Amended charges will be filed in
the meantime generating some of the
new members of the commission from
the accusations Of neglect.
Macadamizing VIII Come High.
The county surveyor presented esti-
mates of the cost of matchmaking the
st. Paul and White Bear and the ST.
Paul, White Bear and Bald Eagle roads.
Figures were submitted on three diff
ferent plans, the estimates on the
White Bear road ranging from $50, 465
to $52,663; and on the Bald Eagle road
from $26,238 to $45,35O.
A resolution by Commissioner Nash
was adopted approprfating $3.50 from
the road and bridge fund as a contin-
gent fund for the use of the commits
slOners. The county attorney advised
against this action, saying that he did
not believe 1t would be legal, but Mr..
Nash said he would like to have that
point tested in the courts, and on his
motion the resolution was adopted.
Commissioner Powers said he con-
sidered it small business for the COM
missiOners to be wasting their time
over such resolutions. The court, he
said, had already decided that the COM
missioners could be allowed nothing
for carriage hire, and the commission
ers being allowed $50 a month should
be willing to pay a dollar occasionally
to hire rig if they wanted one.