The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1911-05-18
Council Spends Hour Trying
to Get Head 0rTailof Grade
at York Congress SITS.
OWNERS IN PROTEST
Council May be Forced to Employ
Expert to Work Out Grades in
Many Places in the City-Construc-
ton Work Stops.


The common council held a special
meeting at the corner of York and
Congress streets on Tuesday afternoon
with a view Of finding some way of
making a suitable grade for the streets
at this corner, but after they had
heard the complaints of the property
owners for an hour and looked over
the impossible grades that had been
made for the corner the aldermen went
away disguised and it will be up to
the city engineer to work out some
plan to meet the inequalities of the
grade and arrange some compromise
that will make possible the improve
ment of the streets and walks without
ripping up the property in manner
that would indicate the passage Of a
cyclone. Nothing jibes at the corner.
The street lines and the sidewalk lines
are all out of keller and although the
engineering department has given lines
for walks within a week these do not
conform to the lines of the street
crossings built by the city only few
months ago. The people living north
of York street seem to be down in
hole while those to the south of the
corner are up on a mountain and in
order to get any grade that would be
satisfactory to the council it would
be necessary to tear out by the roots
scores. of shade trees that have stood
for twenty to forty years. In order
to meet the present grade set by the
city it would be necessary forthe city
to lower two blocks of sidewalks.
One man residing on the southwest s
corner of the street has made an effort
TO meet the grade fixed by the city
and the entrance to his home now has
the appearance of the outlet of the
proposed trunk sewer. His sidewalk
is just thirty inches lower than the
walk adjoining it on the south and
the man on the south has declared
that he is ready to fight before he pulls
out his shade trees and comes down
to meet this grade.
All the people living north of tbs
corner have already raised their houses
and one man asserts that on the order
of the common council he has filed
up his lot three times. Fortunately
his house was originally set on a little
knoll and he mas only filled up to the
top of the cellar windows to date. The
natural condition of the land at the
corner makes it almost impossible to
make a grade that will meet all con-
ditions. In addition to this fact peo-
pie have been allowed to go ahead
and build their walks and set out their
trees and these have been growing for
two decades. If the valley at the in
tersection of the streets was filed up
to the proper heighth it would mako
a gradual grade from, Market street
on the south and from Grand Avenue
on the north meeting in a basin at the
intersection Of the streets.
However, the property owners do
not want a basin there and they are
insisting that grade be figured out
that will be satisfactory to all. Like
grades at lot of other places IN Ke.
nosha this would be impossible It
was expected that the city engineer
would be present at the meeting on
Tuesday, but he failed to connect and
he will row have to work the matter
out without the aid of the council.
The members of the council are get.
ting decidedly tired of these continued
grade fights and it looks as if in the
near future the council will be forced
to employ experts to come into the
city and make an entire new grade
map of the city and when such map
is made the property owners will be
forced to meet the grades established
without quibbling. That is this will
be the rule of the council, but it is
probable that within a month after
the grades are established the council
will again begin making changes just
as they have been doing from the time
the city was chartered and that the
grade war will go on until some one
gets a park commission ordinance
passed. Such an ordinance has been
iE the hands of the council for three
years, but it has been pigeon holed and
it looks now as if the council would
prefer the fight to getting peace by
turning the question of grades over to
a uon-Dartisan commission