The Mankato free press., 1912-10-11

L
wanted just as much water sprink.
led in front of their houses as on
Belgrade avenue whether it needed
it or not. In other words, they
were not willing to pay as much for
their share of the work done when
Belgrade Ave. was getting about twice
as much water. The cost of sprink.
ling amounted to about 43 cents a
fifty foot lot for three months. They
expressed their willingness, however,
to pay whatever the charge might
be if the work was done well, but
few weeks ago they filed peti.
tion to have the sprinkling stopped
because it was not doing any good
The Nicollet avenue residents also
maintained that the sprinkling on
their street had been stopped for as
much as two weeks at time, but
this was found to be an exaggera-
ton, and William Page who held
the contract for the job said that
as the streets did not need to be
gone over every day. he had put the
team to work on other jobs between
times and when he did this, the work
they were then doing had to be
| finished before he could continue
the sprinkling.
Some Favored Oiling.
After this discussion the levy
cussed for the sprinkling next
year. Some were in favor of
oiling the streets but this was not
considered advisable because the
streets were not up to grade and
were not well enough worked
to make this plan a success. Most
of those present were in favor of
having the village buy tank and
hire a man to sprinkle the streets
but no definite steps were taken.
Contractor Page positively refused
to have anything more to do with
the sprinkling business. There was
also good deal of discussion about
who benefited by having the streets
sprinkled, only the residents on the
sprinkled streets or the whole vii
lage. 1t was pretty conclusively
proven, however that all were bene-
| flied at least as much as the sprink-
ling cost.
A petition was read from J. Kol-
| bert and William Volk who wanted
a continuation of the sidewalk put
in front of their own property and
along the property of Herman Ober-
| ly to connect with the walk OH
Wheeler street. Without much dis
cussion the petition was granted.
The bill establishing a county as
SCISSOR in each county, in place of
the 1890 or more local assessors,
which was submitted to the last two
legislatures, and will be again sub
mitted to the next legislature, is
too voluminous to be here set forth
| in detail. Many verbal, but other
wise immaterial, changes in the ex-
listing laws are necessary to make
them conform to the proposed meas
ure, and most of the sections of the
bill are of that nature.
The salient and most important
! features of the bill are as follows:
First. The abolition of the office
of local assessor Except in cities
where it exists by virtue of special
law or charter) and the substitution
in it's place of the office of a county
assessor in each county. These. as
| SCISSORS in the first instance are to
be appointed by the county boards
of the respective counties at their
regular meeting in July, 1913, and
! hold their office until the general
election in 1918, when, and every
! four years thereafter, such assess
ors are to be elected by popular
vote the same as other county Of
retain a city assessor under their
charters cannot participate in the
election of a county assessor.
Second. Such county assessor
must be a resident of the county,
and give bond for the faithful dis
charge of his duties.
| Third. Where necessary, and un-
der proper restrictions, the county
assessor with the consent of the
tax commission can appoint deputies
to assist him, not exceeding one
deputy for each 5000 of the popula-
| tion of the county excluding the
cities aforesaid All assessors and
deputies are to be under the direc-
ton and supervision of the tax COM
mission
Fourth. The assessor must devote
his entire time to the gathering of
information and data for and to the
making of his assessment He can.
not hold any other office nor en-
gage in any other business.
Fifth. He is to receive a reason
able salary which is based both up
on the population and upon the area
of the county. 1t may be said gen.
orally that such salary will be lit
tie less than the present salary of
the county auditor or county treas
urer. The compensation of deputies
is to be determined by the county
board.
Such are the most important pro-
visions of the bill. 1t is believed
that such an assessor, secure in
long official term with a reasonable
salary, being free from local in
fiuences and not intimately connect
ed or associated with the persons
whose property he is to assess, will be
able to make fairer and better as
sessment for each town and for the
county as a whole than can be made
under the existing system Devoting
his entire time to the work Of h1s
office, he will be constantly gathering
the facts and data upon which to
base his assessment, and will famil-
iarize himself with the property,
real and personal, of his county and
with the values thereof. Real es-
tate, farms, and city lots can be
mapped and plated the character
H.