Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-06-28
JAMES STREET PEOPLE
Must Pay Expenses For Moving
 Houses Back From Highway.

Some of the property owners on
 James street feel agrieved at the
 attitude of the department of public
 works regarding the removal of such
 portions of their proEcrt., as prof jsct
 outside the new street lines. They
 thought that the award of damages
 included the performance of such
 chores as setting back houses and
 such like, but this is not so. The
 board of assessment made the award
 high enough or thought they did at
 least, to meet this outlay, and inas-
 much as the whole proceedings were
 conducted in broad daylight 1t does
 aeem that if blame rtst ts any placa It
 is with the property owners who
 were given ample opportunity to see and hear what was going on and neg
 lected to appeal if they felt that they had not been treated fairly. This is
 not case where any set of officials did things covertly. On the con-
 trary the whole plan was laid pare
 before hand was tur,icd and ever5-
 body who cared to inquire into the facts had chance to do SO at two different hearings The trouble il
 this case as in many others of the kind is due to indifference on the part of the people who make light of such hearings. A man who would employ an attorney and go to law about an inch of ground provided he thought his next door neighbor was encroaching upon him, often lets q hearing for layout and grade of a street abutting on his property go by without even dropping in to see what was up, and again, people who would not think of stating their own case in an action in court where probably not over few dollars were involved, march boldly into meetings of the board of public works and the bureau of assessment. while in many in- stances almost all they are worth is at stake. and simply say yes or no and then go away as if 1t were only a mere matter of form. When any such project as the layout of a street, change of grade of an old highway or the establishment of a building line comes up, it would be a wise move on the part of all the property owners to get together and employ an attorney of recognized ability and character to appear at the different hearings and see that their interests were properly safeguarded. It would save them lot of anxiety to say nothing of dollars and be- sides 1t would be much pleasanter for those who have to do with such matters. It would do away with the charge of favoritism and If sharp work was being done in any quarter it would soon come to the surface and in the end everybody except the tricksters would profit by such vigil- ance. The troubleis that few recog- nize these boards as courts, but that is just what they are, and you might tour the country before you would find judge that wielis as much ar bitrary power as the presiding officer of city board provided he cares to exercise 1t. He may employ it wrongly and not be aware of the fact and the injured party knowing nothing to the contrary may allow his ruling to stand too long to admit of an appeal to higher court and thus suffer seriously without any redress. Such cases are quite con- mon, but because the victims are not always in position to make a ''holler" the public never hears much about them.
 This Is not a plea in the interest of limbs of the law, for the lawyers are good fellows to keep away from, but when something turns up where you need the service of an attorney the best thing to do Is to set him to work at the outset. If you don't do that it Is like calling the doctor to prescribe for dead man to hire counsel and rush into court when it is too late. If you win he will prob- ably get all there is in 1t and If you lose the case it is still worse. There is nothing to be alarmed about in the laying of sewers, constructing water mains, paving streets and building sidewalks.and work of that character SO 1t does not make much difference whether you attend the hearings or not. but layouts of streets, change of grades and establishing building lines are matters of great moment to owners of land affected and land to be taken and the man or woman who trusts to his or her own knowledge of his or her rights in the premises Is very likely to make a serious blunder. And one need not be a block head either to get tripped up on such things. It takes an attorney, a man with the necessary gall to hold officials up and inquire into the why and wherefore of this and that and equipped with some knowledge of law to handle these questions with any measure of safety, and the att torney who would do it properly would need to keep in touch with things of that sort. as one can tell when he hears a disciple of Black stone talk on municipal procedure and knows he Is very wide of the