Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1907-08-20
ADJOURNED ID
 HEAR SPEAKING City Council Was in Session Only Fifty Minutes Last Night, but Wharf Dues tion Was Disposed Of,
TO BE BUILT
On East Second Avenue Over Drain City Will Build Wharf. Aided by Board of Trade, and Will Have Full Charge of Same,

last night the aldermen agreed to grade and to pile the proposed wharf if the city Board of Trade would have the money subscribed for the pav.n,; Iof the wharf. According to these plans the cost of this improvement to the city would be about $500 in all, and Ithe expenses borne by the Board Of Trade would be between s2,S0O and $3,O00. The council decided to hay: a concrete culvert built over the draiu on East Second avenue.
 The council meeting was called L. order last night with Mayor w. l.. Toney in the chair, and Aldermen Fox, Hudson, Dunnington, Nichol, Jordan, Clements and Dellmon present. AL derman Meyer is out of the city. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved.
 The first thing of importance before the council was the building of a con- crete culvert over the drain on East OONokAA IVY CAuC. 0kuAIC O SOou uCdl OL discussion followed, and the argument was advanced that the city was heay- fly in debt at the present time, and that the culvert should not be built un- less it was absolutely necessary. When the question was called for, the coun- cil voted to build the culvert.
 Alderman Nichol, as a member of the Public Works Committee of the Board of Trade, having been selected to present the matter before the City Fathers, spoke to the council in re- gard to the wharf question. He said that if the council would do the grad ing and piling necessary for the con- cure the title to two small strips of land on either side of the present wharf, the Pine Bluff Board of Trade would raise the remainder of the mon- ey. One of the small strips of lani in question belongs to man named Culpepper and the other to Joe Krumpner. Alderman Fox argued that if the city council agreed to do this without first finding out at what price the land was valued by the owners: it would place itself in position where the owners would have the ad- vantage, and could ask any price they chose for it. The city would then have to pay it. He said that he thought that the council could easily come to terms with the owners, and he rec commended that this clause be stricken from the resolution. Quite a good deal of argument, pro and con, fol- lowed. It was agreed that this clause should be left out, and when the reso- lution, with this change, was voted OF by the council, it passed unani- mously.
 It is believed and generally under stood that the city will also obtain the title by condemnation or other wise to the two strips of land wanted by the Board of Trade for the wharf, and that the wharf is now assured. The Arkansas River Packet Company formerly offered to pay half the ex- pense of constructing the wharf, but the Board of Trade thought it would be better to have the wharf the pro- perty of the city, and not to allow the packet company to have anything to do with it. If the wharf is built under the arrangements adopted last night, the wharf will be under the en- tire control of the city, and the Board of Trade will have nothing to do with the running of it. The city will charge a stipulated amount to all
 steamboats landing there, and the city fathers seemed to think that it would not be bad investment.
 The Board of Trade will pave the wharf, which will be $50 feet long by 75 feet wide, and will pave a driveway 25 feet wide leading to Barraque street. The cost of this work accord ing to the estimates made by the city