The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1904-07-06
A SITE FOR
FIRE STATION
School House Lot Not
Available
CITY ENGINEERS OFFICE
And the Expenses Of Same Came In
For Criticism by Mayor at
Council Meeting.

The city council held its regular month
ly meeting last evening, and the small
boy to show his appreciation OF the may
or's proclamation allowing the fifth to be
celebrated in the same manner as the
Fourth, gathered near the city hall and
kept up a continual din Of exploding
crackers and caps during the session The
principal matters before the council for
consideration were communications from
the city attorney regarding a fire station
site and to the salary Of the street superin-
tendent
The communication from City Attorney
Gordon on the matter OF taking the Church
street school house site, or portion Of the
library lot for Iire station site. was as
follows
THE city of Barre as such does not
own the Church street property, and
cannot vote at a city meeting on its dis
posal. 1t will be seen that It is practi.
cally impossible to get one-half of the
grand list represented at a meeting. This
provision was inserted In the charter for
the very purpose, as was claimed at the
time, of preventing the conversion Of
school property or funds to some other
use, as would be done In this case, II this
property was turned over for fire station.
In regard 70 taking portion of the Ii
brary lot, would say that the library lot
was purchased by special library tax.
as ! understand the case, and was bought
for library purposes If this is SO, it is
my opinion that the city in order to take
any portion of it, should allow a reason
able amount of the value OF the lot to the
library, otherwise tax raised and put
into real estate for enc purpose could
readily be converted to other purposes.
This cannot usually be done. IL appears
to me that in order to avoid all legal ques
tions, the city should purchase fire sta
tion lot outside of Main street or around
the city park Fire stations as a rule are
not placed upon the principal streets, and
certainly it is not necessary to do SO.
A large number Of city warrants were
read and ordered paid
The sum Of 5000 was appropriated to
the oyerseer of the poor for use 10 his de-
partment,
A communication from committee of
the stewards of Heddlng NJ. g. church
offered to sell the city strip of land two
feet wide the full length OF the church lot
on Church street for $500, Oh strip be-
ginning at nothing at the corner of Wash
back to a width of 5 feet at the rear for
$500. Referred to street committee and
city attorney.
Building Inspector F. e. Colburn re-
ported II applications for building per-
mits had been received and granted in
June. He also reported Improvements in
cleaning up about premises and the re-
pairing of defective chimneys.
Former 0verseer Of the Poor u. H.
Thurston made his final report for aid
given between Jan. / and April !, 1904
The total amount expended for the three
months was Sl,3S9,3S. The report was
accepted and placed on file.
The committee on finance reported
against investing the sinking funds in
bonds or other securities, but that 1t re-
main on deposit bearing interest Accepted
and placed on file
The charity committee reported that af-
ter an interview with Dr. J E. MeSweeney
he had withdrawn his bill for services to
patient who died in DR.. Gilman's hos
pital. The committee recommended pay
ing H. j Bolster and Henry Premier rent
for tenements occupied by city charges.
The committee on water reported Up.
land avenue was the limit to which city
water could be extended and give service.
This would accommodate seven houses. 1t
was recommended the extension be made.
The report was accepted and the extension
ordered made
The report Of Chief Of Police Brown
showed As arrests had been made in June,
Of which 35 were for intoMcatiou, for
breach of peace, tramps and violations
OF the city ordinances
Alderman Mckenzie for the street com
missioners, reported they had secured
prices on two-horse street sweepers, one
from the Studeboker co. and, another from
the Good Roads Machine co. The former
quoted price Of S275 and the latter a
price Of $3.50
The city attorney reported that he un-
derstood the city hired the superintendent
Of streets by the year and paid him by the
year, and he should be paid whether the
city furnished him work or not If the
superintendent was sick and unable tc
work, the city was under no obligation to
P1g hAAls AZ irPOAt AAlhush nlatru eAs
superintendent could not designate who
should fill bis place while of duty without
direction of the city council. The report
further said the city engineer was not en-
titled to pay when OF duty. He further
said the whole matter was not legal one
but one to be settled BY the council. Thi:
latter part of the communication caused
considerable discussion, Alderman Nc
Kenzie saying the council had not asked
for any opinion touching Getty engineer
and then explaining that while the city
engineer, working for the city could moi
be called on to work more than nine hours