Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-08-20
Bridge Commissioners We're Given An Agreeable Sur
 prise at Meeting.
TO NAME ASSESSORS
Fine Bluff Property Owners to Bear the Heaviest TaxatiOn-
 Will Equaiize Taxes.

pVi9 LII lle Jefferson : county Free Bridge Commission held several hour meeting yesterday af - ernoon and vii! meet again this morning at 10 o'clock tc d;scuss other important matters before if i With a view Of completing all pre-
 lmlnafy arrangements that are to be made for the creation of the Free Bridge Improvement Dis rict, author- .zed under the Free Bridge act. The session this morning will ba held be- i cause three of the commissioners, P. r. Byrd. r. B. Tomlinson and E. A. HcWell, are to leave this afternoon for New York on business trip With several other prominent cotton men of lh s section.
 Al the meeting yesterday. which was held at the offices of Attorneys Coleman and Can't in the. Citizens Bank building, the manner of mak- i ing assessments and the organization of the improvement district were dis cussed. The commissioners also talked ever the appointment of the assessors, it being their desire to get three men to make the assessments who will be perfectly satisfactory to all the property owners of the county 1 and three men in whom the property owners can place the Il ghest confi- ! aence. The manner of compiling the assessment books wa's also gone. over.
 In making the assessments for he improvement district the Com missioners expressed the idea of mak- i ing Pine Bluff and it's property own CTS bear the heav;es. burden of the Free Bridge tax, as they figure tat this city will receive the greatest benefits from the Free Bridge. The property owners of the country dis 1 tricts will not be heavily taxed, as l has been charged by anti-Bridge peo- pie in the past, but the assessm ents l will be equalize1 in comparison to 1 that of his city neighbor. In the Cut | lying districts, that is for property owners who I've the edges of the county. the taxation will be compar- atively small So small, in fact, will their assessments and taxes be, that the Commission expresses the belief that there will be absolutely no complaint from some of the resi- dents of the country prec nets who have strenuously opposed the Free Bridge.
 It developed at the meeting yester- 1 day. through an inquiry received by 1 the Commission from another rail
 road company, in which it was hinted that the offic als of the line would like to use the Free Bridge, that the revenue from the railroads alone would be greater than was antlcipat- ed by the Bridge Commissioners themselves. Tn fact, the commits sioners now believe that assessments will only have to be made on prop l erty in the county few years. Ihe revenue from the railroads, they state. will pay for the Free Bridge
 The interurlban and the Pine Blufl and Northern Railroad are assured
 but the inquiry from another roao came as a great surprise to the
 Commission yesterday, as no The nae
 Eeen figured on for Pine Bluff III the direction from which it VII come | When the correspondence IS answer l ed and some definite information X
 received the Commission will give ou
 the correspondence.
 The Commission have peer
 working faithfully in the few moh'ns I for the success of the Free brlass
 They have been slandered and aousse ! publicly, but notwithstandlng 'hl'
 they have skept their heads anu
 treated the opposition courteousi' J and fairly. They have spent hours Il
 hot sessions, going over the roulin'
 matters and all without any remun.
 eration whatever, only through os'
 .. o;d thoir citv and their coun' ty. Their loyalty and public splrl' is being commended on every 2 as \ for these are few men wno Hou's