The Palatka news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1905-1908, 1905-04-07
New Street Railway
Ordinance Proposed.
President Craig Makes an Ap-
parently Fair Proposition
70 City.
VIII Broaden Gauge, Pave Between
Tracks and Forfeit Property and
Franchise to City in Case of
Violation of Ordinance,

NIOldtl0n Oh ordnance.
The meeting of the city council on
Tuesday was enlivened by the pres
ence of Hon. Rob't w. Davis who
appeared as attorney for w. J. Craig,
president of the Palatka q Heights
Street Railway company, with a pro-
posed new ordinance to extend the
franchise of the street railway COM
pany.
The ordinance was on motion read
for information.
1t provides in section two that
"this extension of the rights and
privileges of the street railway COM
pany is made upon the express con-
dition that the said street. railway
company shall change the gauge of
its track from the present B foot
guage to the standard gauge of feet
81 inches, and that, as soon as Lem
on street is paved by the city of Pal
atka from or near the st Johns river
to the line of the A. g. l.. railroad on
Twelfth street or to whatever point
the city does pave Lemon street in
that direction, that then the street
railway company will discontinue
the use of the horse car and will
place on said street a motor car or
cars of modern pattern, satisfactory
to the city council and of sufficient
capacity to accommodate all traffic" :"
The ordinance also provides that
the street railway company will con-
E, s,n I St tn
Oak Hill cemetery and will place
motor cars thereon within six months
after Lemon street shall have been
paved. 1t also provides that the
street railway company shall pave
between its tracks and one foot on
the outside of the rails with the same
material as used by the city.
Section three provides that the
tracks shall be laid down in an APP
proved mode of constructing street
railways, and that the grades shall
be maintained.
Section six provides that the COM
pany shall run cars of such schedule
as shall be approved by the council.
Section seven limits the rate of fare
for passengers to five cents.
Section nine provides that the
change of gauge as above provided
shall precede the laying of pave
ments on the streets so that there
shall be no tearing up or displacing
of pavement once laid.
The franchise is to extend for 30
years unless forfeited as provided in
section eleven, which says in sub
stance: That in accepting and act
ing upon this ordinance the street
railway company enters into a con
tract with the city to comply with
the conditions of the ordinance, and
the company agrees that if it does
not comply with the conditions as to
paving it will forfeit the said road
with its tracks and rolling stock to
the city, and that if it does not COM
ply with the other conditions it
will forfeit its franchise.
At the conclusion of the reading
Mr.. Davis was accorded the privileg-
es of the floor and spoke at some
length on behalf of the street railway
company. He called particular at
tention to those sections of the pro"
posed ordinance which placed re-
strictions and obligations on the COM
pany and said if they were not strong
enough and binding enough the
street railway company had no OBJ
lection to amendments to the pro-
posed ordinance making the restric-
tions, obligations and forfeitures
even more binding. In brief, he as
serted that the company meant to
act in good faith and was willing to
be held to the strictest accountabili-
ty. He argued that if the street car
line had not been maintained in the
past in q manner creditable to the
city the streets themselves on which
the car tracks were laid had not been
kept i'll a manner which offered much
inducement. He said that now that
the city had taken on new life and
new energy the street railway COM
pany desired to go hand in hand with
the municipality and hence had pro-
posed this ordinance. He argued
that no one else stood ready to do
more toward giving the city ade-
quate and creditable street railway
facilities than the present company
and he pledged the company to keep
faith with our citizens.
At the conclusion of Judge Davis
remarks the ordinance was laid over
to later meeting.