Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-06-27
M'MAH0N WAS THERE
Made Things Pretty Plain at Last Nights Meeting of Board.

The board of public works held an- other interesting session last night. The mayor didn't get in until late and in his absence Commissioner Nell presided.
 Thomas F. McMahon was on hand early and gave the board few more sharp thrusts regarding it's lack of interest on the part of private prop erty owners and overweening desire to accommodate the railroad compa- ny at the expense of few private individuals.
 The whole trouble so far as MT McMahon 4s concerned is simply this: When the proposed railroad changes were before the railroad commission CTS, the commissioners ordered the closing of the Waterville road, but not until the railroad company had provided another street to take the place of it. When the company want ed to commence operations there it found that in order to go ahead in 6 satisfactory way the lower Water vile road had to be closed before the other street could be opened. The only way this could be done was by purchasing such rights as private in dividuals had in the highway or hav' ing 1t discontinued in the regular way, which would mean a public hearing and an award of benefits and damages, all of which of course would have to be paid by the com pany, because nobody else would be specially benefited. But they didn't do either of these two things. There was better way out of the dilemma and the company saw it. They peti- tioned the board of public works to close the street pending the carry 1 ing on of certain work, but said noth- ing about how long 1t would take them to do it. They got it and then they went ahead and commenced to ! make dirt fly before some of the prop erty owners interested knew what was up. A ditch twelve feet wide was dug across the street. Then they commenced to smell rat and MT McMahon called in to ask questions. Meanwhile the company was pushing things and at the present time 1t ha mass of masonry eight feet high and twelve feet wide in the street and some other Instructions that are | there to stay. Last night was tn fourth time MT McMahon was before the board on this question. On th first occasion nobody pretended tt ! understand him. The second visit tho mayor caught on and meeting wa arranged to which Engineer Ester brook was invited At that sessio, MT McMahon made 1t plain to every. | body that the railroad company wa | given permission to do something there that should not have taken place without hearing or at leas' without satisfying the abutting prop erty owners. The railroad enginee didn't deny this. The commissionei
 leaned trifie to MT McMahon,s side of the question and voted to have tho company finish up on July 20. Tht culvert they have been working o: is for the thirty-six inch pipe lin
 which will go under the railroad
 that point.
 l When MT McMahon got the floor last night he said that he didn
 think that the vote passed at the last meeting regarding his case met the question. He wanted 1t furthe
 amended so that 1t would bind the company to leave the street in tn
 same condition 1t was when they entered upon 1t.
 Whats the use of talking abou
 this" remarked Mir Walker, appar- ently somewhat angry. T understand the company owns the land at the entrance to the street and that they can close 1t any time they chose" Mir McMahon-"That is not so, MI Commissioner. The railroad does owr the land at the entrance to the street but then they wanted to close that street when MT Morris, then super intendent of streets. held them ur on 1t and if the present superinten- dent of streets did things on the same plan as his successor you wouio have known something about what l. going on up there. Does any of th' commissioners know what Is being done up there?"
 All pleaded ignorance, whereupol MT McMahon continued as follows .The engineer doesn't know and
 talked with the mayor this afternoon and he said he is not aware of wha has been done there the past weei want to repeat that If your super intendent was attending to his dutie
 in proper manner and safeguarding the interests of the public he woul
 have called your attention to this thing"
 Mir Nell wanted to know how tn
 company could do that work without closing the street. to which Mir Me Mahon replied that they couldn't
 1t all, but added that if they wante. the privilege of closing the street
 advance of the time mentioned ii the order of the railroad authoritie they should have paid for it. Ther
 was no reason why they should hay, received such advantages at the e.
 pense of a few private individuaIs one of whom is his mother and other.
 his sisters. At this juncture Mir NJ
 Mahon called for the petition whie
 he had presented asking for protec. ton of his rights in the premises.