The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1911-06-08
Chris Petersen Gets Contract
for Paving Elizabeth st.
With Barr Brick
WORK TO Be STARTED At ONCE
Lake Avenue Property Owners to
Start Over as Attorneys Hold That
Contract With the White Company
is of No Effect

The old fight over the paving of
Elizabeth street came to an end at
the meeting of the common council on
Monday evening when the council with
out division voted to award the con-
tract for the work to Chris Petersen.
In keeping with the petitions of a large
majority of the property owners the
street will be paved with Barr brick
on a bed of concrete and filed with
an asphalt filler. The street assess
m ent committee brought report to the
council simply submitting the bids as
rec eived in April and making no
recommendation as to the course to be
taken. The council then took the mat
ter into it's own hands and let the con-
tract to Mr.. Petersen. The contractor
was ordered to begin the work within
week and he announced that this
would be possible. Petersen telegraph
ed for materials just as soon as the
formal action sof the council had been
taken and he declared that he would
have the curb here within a week.
Petersen has also made arrangements
to get brick so that it is not thought
that there will be any delay on the job
Lake avenue residents were not so
fortunate. The long dragged-out dis
cussion of the contract on this street
ended in a iasoo. Attorney Peter Fish
er appeared for the White Construction
company and declared that after an
examination he felt certain that the
contract between the company and the
city was not a legal contract. The
company has expended more than a
thousand dollars ON the street but under
the opinion of the attorneys the com
pany decided that it would rather
come in under call for new bids and
seek the contract than have the work
done under a contract which would not
stand in court. City Attorney Stewart
gave the same opinion to the council
and the coufcil voted to cancel the
contract and this morning the property
owners on the avenue started out with
new petition for the Improvement
of the street. 1t is probable that they
will now ask for sheet asphalt and that
the council will avoid further compli-
cations by advertising for but the one
material It will take at least forty
days to get this work started again,
but it is understood that the property
owners will seek to have the paving
work start this year.
Outside Of the paving work the most
interesting matter to come before the
council was the attempted election of
keeper for the public bathing beach,
Fourteen ballots were taken and this
revealed that there was a nationality
fight in the council between the Irish
and the Germans which brought dead
lock and the council finally adjourned
without electing any one to look after
the beach The principal candidates
were H. Angenant, Frank johnson,
Captain B. G. Cameron and Michael
Link, Jr.
The council voted to aid the new
English Catholic church by vacating
the alleys in the block to be used as
the church site with the understanding
that the congregation will deed to the
city other land for alleys. The council
also directed the city attorney to draw
an ordinance to vacate such property
as may be necessary in order to clean
up the old street line fight on South
Exchange street.
Petitions were received for extern
sions of the saloon license districts so
as to include property at SAL Grand
avenue and the real fight will come on
this proposition when the ordinance
providing for the extension is brought
to the council. Many, of the aldermen
are opposed to any extension of the
saloon districts and it is not thought
that sufficient number of votes can
be secured to pass an ordinance as re-
quired by law and the rules of the
council.
The Kenosha Electric Railway com
pany will not be required to pay any
personal taxes to the city of Kenosha
as an examination of the law shows
that the state license collected from
the company is considered in lieu of
all other taxes. Eighty-fve per cent
of this state license is paid into the
city treasury and this fact makes it
impossible for the council to demand
further taxes from the company.
The monthly report of the city treas
furer showed cash balance in the bank
4 of $41, S99.16, but several of the funds
are now overdrawn. :
The finance committee reported to
the council an ordinance providing for
the issuance of $4,000 in school bonds
and the ordinance will take its usual