The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1904-10-25

GIVES HISTORY OF THE SCHEME
AND PRESENTS THE BiuLp.
ING TO CITY ON BEHALF
OF COMMITTEE.

OF COMMITTEE.
Ladies and Gentlemen: AS presid-
ing officer of the board of trustees,
having in charge the erection of a mar
ket house and auditorium in this city,
it has been delegated to me upon this
occasion to present to you at this time
brief historical statement covering
! such things as are of interest to the
public regarding the building which we
dedicate tonight and turn over to the
city for future care anu use.
On May 10, 1902, the General Assem-
bly, of the state of Ohio passed an act
blouse Bill No. 1919 authorizing
councils of cities of the Fourth grade
of the First class to issue bonds for
the purpose of building a market
house and auditorium and to provide
for board of trustees and to prescribe
the duties of such board of trustees
Section 3 of said act provides that the
resident judge or judges of the court
of common pleas of such counties
wherein such cities are located, are au-
thorized and empowered to appoint
four trustees, chosen equally from the
two political parties, who together with
three members of the city council to
consist of the president of the council
and two other members to be appoint
ed by the president of the council,
shall constitute a board of trustees to
auditorium.
Following the provisions of this act
the Honorable Judges Henry W. Har-
ter and Ralph S. Amber, of the Stark
county common pleas court, on June 2,
1902, appointed w. w. Clark, william
A, Lynch, John Krause and Rev. L. p.
Herbruck as four OF such trustees. On
May u, 1902, George w. Good, then
president of the city council, appoint
ed John L. Schroyer and T. p. Pax
ton to act with himself as the council
members Of said board of trustees.
This board, as above constituted, met
in the city hall on June 6, 1902 and
organized by the election OF George
w. Good as chairman and G. c.. Lloyd
as secretary.
At this meeting the first steps were
taken which eventually resulted In the
20 10.
ditorium. The council was requested
to clear the site from distractions and
the secretary authorized to advertise
for submission, by architects, of plans
and specifications for the building
On July 2, 1902, bonds of the city to
the amount of $4,000 were sold for
the purpose of erecting the structure,
and on July 3rd plans and specifica-
tlons were submitted by competing ar
chitects. There were taken under ad-
visement by the board until July 18th
at which time the plans of L. w.
Thomas & Co., then of Canton but now
of Cleveland, were adopted by the
board subject to change and on August
18th l.. w. Thomas & Co. were employ
ed as supervising architects.
Bids for the erection of the building
were received October 10, 1902. These
bids we're all rejected because the
board considered them too high and
were in excess of the funds available
at that time. Finding that 1t would be
impossible to erect such building as
the needs of the city demanded with
the means at hand the board of trus-
tees prepared statement and submit
ted the same to council setting forth
that 1t would be impossible to erect
such a building as contemplated for
the sum of $4,000, and asked the coun-
Gil to authorize an additional bond sale
of $685. In order that the erection of
the building might be proceeded with.
This request met the approval of the
city council, but 1t was discovered that
the city could not at that time author
ize bond issue of more than $53 900,
and such legislation as was necessary
was enacted for the sa:e of the S53, 900
OF bonds. These bonus were later sold
and the proceeds thereof placed to the