The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-03-12

hose, besides other necessary equip
ments. We added three men to the
department and enlarged the quar-
ters for the men.
We remodeled the city hall and
put in many Improvements on it and
the city prison.
t. Streets improved.
We have done more street improve
ment work than has ever been done
since Ardmore was a town. We have
graded thirty miles Of streets; we
have paved several streets at from
AZ to As cents per yard cheaper than
any streets were ever paved in And
more before. The difference in cost
between the paving now being done
and that done when Main street was
paved, per block, including excavat-
ing, filling, grading, guttering and all,
amounts to about $S50.00 per block.
And remember these streets were
not in the good business section,
where the bonds sell more readily
on account of better security.
We have purchased number of
mules for the street department. We
have purchased wheeler and othe:
equipments. We have put in thou
sands of dollars worth of culverts and
filled in many bad draws. We have
cut down and put 10 grade thirty
miles of streets.
Street Tax State Law.
In this connection | desire to state
| that the street tax we are all pay
ing is provided for in the statutes
of the state. 1t was formerly $4.0O
and was raised by the last legisla-
ture to $500. The city or town
ship may collect this tax and the
board of commissioners decided that
they had rather have the money col
lected from Ardmore spent on ouI
streets than TO have it put on the
roads in Morgan township.
All mae citizens, not public
charges, between the ages of q and
80, are liable for this tax
Law Suits Pending When We Wen,
Into Office.
When we went into office there
were suits against the city aggregat
ing $4,000 pending, and up to date
judgment has only been obtained fol
$4,000. These cases were brought
by some of my best personal friends
and because l did my duty to the
taxpayers and fought these cases ii
a finish ! have lost their friend
ship and some of them are agains
me.
The city has received about So.
100000 interest on the funds it has
had in the local banks during the
past two years. Heretofore, the city
never received any interest on its
money deposited in bank
These are among the most i'm
pOrtant things that have been done
by the present city administration
Almost without exception, every city
employee, from the scavenger up
has strived zealously to do his
whole duty at all times.
| can truthfully say that it has
never been my good fortune to as
sociate with body of men who
have strived harder to serve un
selfishly their employer, THE Pub
Lie, than have the men working
for the city.
When the 100000 bond issue OF
the school district failed we SCI
about to refund the Indebtedness. II
has been a hard task. There are
certain limitations placed upon re
funding, both by the statutes and
the constitution. We made many
lists of all these warrants and fig
ured and figured to get everything in
shape. We finally prepared an ordin-
ance and passed it providing for
an issue of s47,1OO, which will take
up the outstanding Indebtedness.
When We filed our petition in court
remonstrance was filed and we
fought and wrangled over the mat.
ter in the district court from Sep
tember 10Th, to December 5th. We
finally won out and then had to wait
until the time for an appeal expired.
AS soon as that was done we pre-
pared complete record and for
warded it to the bond attorneys, who
have finally declared the record all
right.
We set the date for the sale OF
the bonds on tomorrow, the 10th. 1t
looks like our Efforts would be
crowned with success and that we
would soon have all these old war
rants paid off. The city will be in
excellent financial condition then. We
will have plenty of money in the
| treasury to paw all running eXpenses