The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1910-09-07
ROAD ORDINANCE
KILLED By MAYOR
g ,i4ti
PEOPLE or COUNTY CAN USE
RAILROADS IF THEY WOULD
COME TO CAIRO.
ROADS COST TOO MUCH.
Tax Would be UnIimited--Councii
II Sustains Veto Ey to G.
Sewer Compromise
Approved.

The city council held its first regI.
| lar September meeting last night,
lThere were present His Honor Mayor
Parsons and Aldermen Greaney, Mag.
liner, Cannon, Kelly, Walsh, Ferguson
Williams, Burke, Koehler
iScullin and Neff.
The mayor called Alderman Neff ~
| the chair and read message yetoin.,
1.-THE Road District ordinance adoptef
lat the previous meeting of the coln-
| ell, as follows:
Cairo, H., Sept. 6, 1910.
To the Honorable Members of the
City Council of the City of Cairo.
Illinois:
Gentlemen. | return to you here.
with, without my approval the ordl
nance entitled AN Ordinance elect.
| ing that the City of Cairo be included
in Road District Number Seven of
Alexander County, Illinois," which or.
dinance was adopted by your Honor
able Body, at special meeting, held
on the 22nd day of August, 1910, call
ed for the purpose of considering said
ordinance.
When Road District Number Seven
was originally organized, 1t included
only that territory outside of the city
limits which Is located east of the
right OF way of the Illinois Central
Railroad company This was done fc :
the purpose of improving the outlet
from the city of Cairo to Cache rives
bridge, which bridge belongs to aud
Is kept in repair by the city of Cairo,
and connects with the National GENE.
|tery road at the north end of the
bridge and furnishes an iniet to t'ie
city of Cairo from large amount of
territory in the counties north of
Alexander county. The proposed
new district covers a large area IN
Alexander county, with many roads
running in different directions, when
roads. the commissioners of the road
district could improve as they de-
sired, without consulting with the
city of Cairo, or any one else, so that
the taxes raised in the city of Cairo
for road building would be beyond
the control of the city authorities and
the tax payers, if this new ordinance
now under consideration saould b.
come effective.
The proportionate amount of road
tax which would have to be paid by
the city, as compared with that
raised in the territory outside of the
city limits, | understand is more
than $500 in the city to $1.O0 in the
county, and the tax payers OF the city
would have to pay that unjust proper
tion for the purpose of building roads
wherever the road commissioners reit
inclined to construct them, and If the
city should become a part of this rold
district, there is no way in which It
could be relieved from this taxation
so long as the county commissioners
maintained the boundaries of the DIS,
trict as now proposed.
Since the original establishment of
the road district, with Cairo. included
in it, the city has undertaken by
special taxation or special assessment
upon the tax payers, to improve its
streets by the construction of sewers
paving and concrete sidewalks at a
very heavy expense, which expense
will continue over period of ten
years for each improvement from the
time said Improvement was author
lied and approved by the County
Court. During, say. period OF ten
years, If the city of Cairo were in.
cluded in Road District Number
Seven, the tax payers would pay
100000 road tax, one half of
which would Immediately go out Of
its control, while they, (the tax pay
|ers) are being called upon TO pay by
special assessment at least that
amount annually for the Improvement
of certain specifiA streets In the city
But that is not ALL At the end Of
that ten years, this same road tax
would be continued upon the people
|of the city without limitation, except
as above indicated.
The Legislature of the state In for
mer years has passed laws by which
the city Of Cairo could assist in build
ing roads in certain directions, and
1t is fair to assume that such action
could be taken again. The city al.
thorities have in times past appro.
priated money legally or otherwise
toward building certain roads from
the river bank into the states or Mis-
souri, and Kentucky, and this actioa
has always been most heartily APP
proved by the tax payers of the city
| I have alwa given personal atten-