The Topeka state journal., 1908-01-21
FOR EARLY PAVING
City Council Takes Action on
the Petitions.
All of Them Must Be Filed by
February 10.
WON'TPAY CONTRACTOR
Estimate cf NJ. w. Gilmore for
$500 Is Withheld.
Councilman Would Combine City
Offices.

cred by the city council after February
10. A resolution to this effect was in
troduced last evening by Councilman
c. E. Jordan. chairman of the streets
and walks committee, which passes
upon the petitions. The resolution was
adopted. Petitions for new Ndewalk
must be filed not later than June 25.
This will probably mean that paving
and sidewalk contracts will be COM
pleted more nearly on time and not
hang over until well into next year as
they are now doing. 1t will take all
of probably the next two months and |
maybe another month on top of thai |
before the paving let last year will be |
completed. The sidewalk laying was |
only finished last month.
Delay in letting contracts fnterferes |
with securing the lowest possible bids |
If the contracts can be let early, as a |
rule it is possible to secure more |
spirited bidding and a consequent re-
duction in the bids entered.
John Rogers, city engineer predicts |
that there will be a number of new
paving contractors enter the local field
this spring. Several out of town con-
tractors have already called at the city
hall for information relative to the
paving contracts which will be let by
| the council. Topeka is in a good con-
| dition financially and pays it's contrac
| tors in cash. This can not be said of
many Kansas towns of Importance.
! At Kansas City, Kansas. contractors
are compelled to accept tax bills in
payment. The banks discount these
and naturally the contractors greatly
| prefer to come to a town where they
| get cash.
A new policy for the consideration
| of paving petitions for 1908 is being
| vigorously doomed by Mayor Green
and he hopes that the council will see
| fit to inaugurate it.
In short the policy is this. That all
| paving petitions which have a mini
mum of intersections, the cost of
which always devolves%Ipon the city in
| general, will be granted-by the council.
Paving petitions will be considered
favora bly, in the order of the. number
| of intersections which are involved.
| ''I don't want to see the tax of the
city in general increased to pay for
these Improvements. Where the peo-
pie petftioning alone pay for the paw
| ing they can have as much paving as
/ they want. But 1 don't want to see
the general tax Of the city increased"
said the mayor today in outlining his
| new policy. There are larger num-
| ber of petitions than usual which DO
| not call for the paving of street inter-
sections. the intersections being al
ready paved. The whole city pays for
paving these intersections while for
the paving in between the only ones
liable are those who have property
abutting on the paving.
Last Friday the streets and walks
committee considered petitions for 3S15
blocks of paving but did not act on
them. They simply heard the remon-
strances that were filed against petit
tions already presented.
In the list of blocks there are 80 street
intersections. Remonstrances against
six of the sixteen petitions were listen
ed to.
The 3S1z blocks asked for are divided
among the wards as follows: First
ward, three blocks; Second ward, none;
Third ward, ten blocks; Fourth ward,
eighteen; Fifth, three: Sixth, Az. The
paving specifications and contracts
J must be carefully examined and read
by a council committee before being
approved by the body of the council,
says Mayor Green.
previously the council has accepted
the Specifications and contracts they
came from the city engineer without
carefully examining them. This will
have to be changed this year." said the
mayor. II will ask that those matters
be referred to some committee and
gone over carefully with the city engi-
neer and have him explain all that the
committee may not understand. Then
if the committee desires to make
changes it may do so. But this thing
} of having the city engineer responsible
for it all is shifting the responsibility
) too much and 1 think the burden should
J be shared by the council
The sixth and final estimate of NJ. w.
Gilmore sidewalk contractor, amount
) ing in all to s3,397.S was approved by
claims and accounts committee of the
council and the council in turn adopted
the report of the committee. But fur
ther than that they refused to bulge.
The accompanying ordinance to appro-
pirate money out of the city treasury
to meet the estimate was not intro
duced. Gilmore will have to resort to
mandanus proceedings to get the
; money for the city attorney intends to
, hold On to it until he secures a judg-
ment in the grand jury investigation
next month against Gilmore for the
part he played in the construction of
the Fifth ward sewer. Evidently the
r council did not care to act contrary to
the city attorneys advice even If the
: brick manufacturers are urging the
+ city in behalf of Gilmore to meet the
estimate.
= "I find that it costs just $1S.25 for
: | everybody who wants to get connected
for city water. This means just the
, plumbing expense of connection and
' the meter That's too much" said
| Councilman E. Montgomery last even
ing. He believes that the plumbing in
I spection fees as the office is now run
n results in too heavy charges to the man
: who has work to be done. He proposed
; last evening to combine the offices OF
; | plumbing inspector with that of license
: collector.
|. BE it resolved by the mayor and city
q q | council that the city attorney be and
y . | he is hereby instructed to draft an or
: dinance combining the offices of licens::
| collector and plumbing inspector and
that the salary for said official be not
more than 81 200 Also that the charge
of inspection for plumbing be reduced
to the former amount as indicated IL
Il the ordinance when first adopted" Or
IT. %l,o af<arv %I,,fsr,