The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1904-07-28
Friends of Big Sewer win Noteworthy
Victory on the Floor OF the City
Council Last Night.
QUESTION GOES TO THE PEOPLE.
Special Election to be Held In Month. to
Vote on the Proposed Issue of Bonds for
Building of New Sewer System.


Kenosha, won a noteworthy victory
on the floor of the city council Mon
day evening, when by vote of twelve
to four the council decided to adopt
the plan for the new system recently
presented to the council by the street
assessment committee, and the mat
ter will now go to the people a. spec
| ia1 election which will be held within
month. Should the people follow
the decision of the majority of the
council, the city will issue bonds to
pay for the proposed improvement
and every one in the city will have
sewers.
The close of the great fight on the
adoption of the plans was marked
with plenty of oratory, and the vote
| of the council when announced set off
vast amount of pyrotechnics from
the few property owners who had
gathered to protest against the &C
ton of the council. These people had
not been fighting the adoption of the
system, but they had opposed the
adoption of any system with an as
sessment for the front foot exceed
ing one dollar.
1t was evident when the council be-
gan the discussion of the plans, that
the friends of the big sewer had won
| victory. Mayor German was doing
ali in his power to delay the decision,
but he might just as we'll have butted
| his head against stone wall, so far
as the result was concerned. The
mayor started the discussion of the
plan by asking each member of the
council to express his views. It
started with Alderman Rowe of the
first and continued clear down to
Alderman Thomas of the eighth.
When this free discussion of the mat
ter was over, the friends of the big
sewer were ready for vote, as only
| four of the aldermen had expressed
themselves in favor of anything but
''the big sewer
1t had been expected that there
would be great opposition to the plan
from the north side aldermen, but
when Alderman Greenwa1d was called
upon he expressed himself in favor
of the big sewer if the price per front
| foot could be placed at a tright''
| price. Aldermen Nader, Werner
and Thomas followed suit and Alder
man Peter Jacobs came out firmly for
the big sewer and recommended that
the price per foot be placed as low as
| a dollar.
| Alderman eraser and Alderman
Scho1ey with the aid of Alderman
Head made a hard fight for the inter
cepting sewer but it was losing fight
and they recognized it and gave it up
early. eraser, who had been a leader
in the fight for the construction of
the intercepting sewers, finally joined
the majority and on the last ballot he
voted in favor Of the "big sewer.
| The discussion of the matter took
several hours of the time of the coun-
Gil and it was nearly ten o'clock when
the council began to vote. The first
ballot was blind ballot on the price
to be set for front foot in the event of
| the acceptance of the plan for the
| big sewer. This showed that there
was a large number of the aldermen
| in favor of an assessment of a dollar
and half foot and when the final
ballot was taken the dollar and half
men won by a majority of one. Mayor
German voted on both of these ballots.
When the price had been settled
Alderman Robinson moved the adop-
ton OF the plan as returned to the
council by the committee. Mayor
| German and other members of the
opposition plainly saw that the fight
was all over and there was no discus
sion of this the most important
motion that had been made in the
council in years. The roll was called
with the following result.
In favor of the adoption of the
plans: Aldermen Rowe, Wells, Good
man, Hegeman, Anderson, Robinson,
Greenwa1d, Nader, Werner, Jacobs,
eraser and Thomas. Against the
plan, Sullivan, Head, Scho1ey and
| Kaufman.
The Mayor did not ask to be allowed
to put himself on the record and de-
c1ared that the report of the com
mittee had been accepted.
There was an outburst of applause
from the aldermen who had been
fighting for the adoption of the plan,
but it was not joined in by the little
crowd of property owners who were
gathered outside the 'sbul1 pen. =
The property owners were Infatuated,
and led by Frank Senne they showed
their anger in no uncertain way.
Some of them stated that they would