The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-05-25
NOT A POLE LEFT.
All in Business District Will
Come Down.
Independent Telephone COM
pany Starts Improvements.
WIRES UNDER GROUND.
Force of Surveyors Now LOcat-
ing COnduits.
Experts Are Employed TO super
wise the Work.
WIRES UNDER GROUND.

Inc DulQ1nE at ia ana 10 " est Sew
enth street, owned by the Hall Brothers,
has been leased by the Independent
Telephone company and headquarters
for their corps of engineers who have
opened offices there. The office is In
charge of G. B. Roberts, an engineer
from Chicago who has been identified
with the installation of some of the
largest plants owned by the Independ-
ent companies.
Mr.. Roberts Installed the Independent
plants in Trenton, n. J., and the plants
at Indianapolis, Terre Haute and Los
Angeles. all OF them systems of more
than ordinary capacity. The east
building viii be used for the office force
of the engineers corps while the room
which adjoins it on the west will be
used as a storage and general supply
room.
Surveyors are at work and within a
few days It will be decided where the
conduit work will commence and the
streets that win be used for the under
ground wires. If the present plans are
carried out the condu1ts Will De la sl,l
| on Fifth, Seventh and Thirteenth
streets and the poles on these streets
will be taken down, as will majority
of the poles in the business district
and the thickly settled portion OF the
resident section of the city.
Fourteen carloads of building mater
ial have been shipped and are expected
to arrive within the next few days,
and as soon as they begin to arrive
work will be commenced on the under
ground system and pushed until COM
pleted The supplies ordered consist
of brick cement, cables cOnduftS ana
Office fixtures. Three trains of 80 cars
each will be required to transport the
supplies already ordered for the con-
tempiated improvements as an order
for 100 carloads of supplies has already
! nlaHaH than
that it viii be necessary to place other
orders before the work contemplated
is completed.
; .AT poles IN the business section of
the city will come down., said B. +.
Pankey, president of the company, this
, morning as soon as we get our con-
Z duits laid but as far as that is con-
r cerned we have not a single pole on
Kansas avenue at this time, and very
few on Sixth street. I heartily agree
with the work which has been mapped
out by the civic improvement league
! and the Independent Telephone COM
: pany will cooperate with them Wher-
ever it can possibly be done We in
tend to cover the western portion OF
the city by three conduit lines running
, from Kansas avenue to Fillmore street
, on Fifth, Seventh and Thirteenth
streets
LAS soon as these conduit lines are
J laid we will take down all of the poles
: carrying wires to the section of the
/ city covered by the underground SER
vice. OF course II VIII De necessary
for US to use poles to carry our wire
to the outlying districts but these poles
can be so placed that they need not
mar the beauty of the city in any par
ticular. Our plans were perfected Tor
a an underground service long before
: the civic Improvement agitation be-
gan and we intend to carry them out
just as we have planned. Under our
conduit system there viii be but few
poles within the city to which any one
= can take exception.
e II for one expect to make Topeka
my home and am heartily in accord
: with making it the finest place in the
Il world to live, and am willing to do my
:, | share and little more for that mat
!, | ter. The eastern section of the city
e will be covered with conduit work as
we'll as the western portion and where
s 1t is impractical to use conduits the
e wires will be grouped In cables and
s the unsightliness of poles strung full
of wires win be done away with.
e 1.-The work on our new system viii
f be pushed with the utmost speed until
t completed We have employed the
y most experienced telephone men in
the country and when the plant is
I completed we expect to have one of
e the best, not only in the west. but in
i the United States and one that the
n residents of the city can point to with
T | pride. Within thirty days we will have
one hundred men at work on our inn
prOvenentS and unless we meet with
some unexpected nishaD our new
: plant viii be in operation by Deem
q Der first if not before that time.
t Work will commence within the
: next few days on our new Office build
ing which viii be constructed as a per-
= manent home for the Independent
Telephone company and as soon as it
is completed and our central office
transferred to the new location, our
patrons may expect some improve
ments that they have not even antici-
pated. This is especially true of those
using party lines which have become
8 so popular in the resident portions of
the city"