The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-03-07
FOR A BOULEVARD
Plan to Have One Along City
Park Is Revived.
Fourth Ward People More or
Less Excited About 1t.
TO BUY MORE LAND.
Necessary to Get a Strip 20
Feet Wide.
Cost of improvement Would be
About $500.
TO BUY MORE LAND.

An effort to revive the scheme to buy
land for the creating of a boulevard
along the south side of the city park IS
60 be made probably at the council
meeting this evening, and it will pre-
cipitate a fight. At present it rather
looks as though the proposition would
be defeated.
It is a question which involves the
Fourth ward principally. although II
the scheme is carried out as intended II
will cost the city at large about $1,000
So bitter is the feeling on the question
In the Fourth ward that it has become
an issue in the coming Republican prl-
5maries. Sam Rice is supposed to be
. friendly to the purchase of the land,
and F. B. Gillette represents the other
side of the case, although neither man
has taken any active part in the con-
troversy. Councilman Weber is the
man who is advocating the plan most
theoretically. Weber lives in the east
end Of the ward. where the sentiment
is very strong in favor of the project;
To create a boulevard along the
south side of the park mas Deeh tue
pet scheme of the park commissioners.
They say that if the present narrow
street is made % feet wider, 1t Will soon
be paved, and will therefore become one
of the most beautiful drives in town.
To widen the street, the city will have
to buy a strip of lots on the south SIDE
of Crane street One of the lots fronts
on Kansas avenue, and will be ex-
pensive The total cost of the i'm
provement will probably be about So
500. Councilman Weber thinks that as
it viii be a great Improvement to the
city park the city at large should pay
a large portion of the expense, which
he estimates would be. including the
expenses of aDDraisement, about $l,oOO-
There are some large obstacles in the
way of this land purchase, which per-
haps will be sufficient in the minds of
the council to defeat the plan The
city maps show that while Crane street
west of Kansas avenue is only half as
wide as Crane street east OF Kansas
avenue, the trouble is that the city
park has encroached on the street. If
the city should take a strip of land off
from the south side of the city park,
it would bring the north line OF Crane
street back to where it belongs. APP
parently the city is the trespasser, and
had fenced in more than belonged to
it for park purposes. 1t has tried to
take up part of the street, and now the
park commissioners are making an eff
fort to have the city buy, at large ex-
pense, more land to replace what the
city has taken from the street. If the
city should buy the 25-foot strip on
the south side of Crane street, it
would make a LOG" in Crane street
a Kansas avenue. The street would
be % feet out of line.
If the street is widened, as it nc
doubt should be, the Turner's society
expects to make some extensive i'm
B prOvements and changes at their hall
which will give them a frontage direct
~ on the new boulevard, instead of or
the Rock Island railway tracks.
Councilman Nellis, who is the Other
member from the Fourth ward, is op-
posed to the purchase of more land. He
says it is Just a scheme to give the
MOeser wagons a better driveway.
Councilman Weber says: 4 think the
city should buy this strip of land be-
cause the city park is too small now
and we don't want to take any more
land from its area. The city park is the
only park in the city which is a rea
park, and it should be given some con
sideratiOn. The money has been spent
literally out at the parks in the ives
part of town, but the city park has
never had to have much done to it
IF we take the 25 feet off from the
city park, the park commissioners say
that we will spoil 81, 600 worth of shrub,
which they have set out there. w,
want that park to be good for some
thing. We want to have band concert
down there frequently during the com
ing summer, and unless we have a wild
street along the south side, there viii
be no place for the carriages to stand
1t is expected that the. park commits
sloners Will be present at the council
meeting for the purpose of presentiuj
their case. The plan is to create a ben
eft district to take in the whole of tn
Fourth ward, and it is claimed that tn
average cost per lot will be about 3
cents.