The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1912-08-08
Alleged Defects in Street
Grade Ordinance
Discovered.
OTHER ORDINANCES ALSO HIT
Former Mayor and City Clerk Failed to
Sign Ordinances or to Secure Affida-
Wits of Publications. Records Show
that Ordinances Were all Passed.

Chaotic conditions surrounding many
important ordinances Of the city have
been brought to light by property own
ers on Lake avenue and the city is up
against hard proposition in solving
the difficulty. More than score of
ordinances passed by the common coun-
lcitl in the year 1892 and part of the
year 1898 never formally became a
part of the laws of the city on &C
count of the failure of the mayor and
city clerk to sign the ordinances and
an affidavit of publication to be filed.
The most important ordinance affected
by this failure is the ordinance fixing
the grades Of all streets and alleys in
the city and it is declared by the Lake
avenue property owners that no grade
was ever legally established for Lake
avenue. The two ordinances passed to
fix these grade are entered in the ordi-
nance books of the city, but neither of
them was ever signed. The first of
these ordinances, was passed January
l8, 1892. 1t established the standard
for all grades in the city. This ordi-
nance was signed by City Clerk Frank
Mathews, but it was never signed by
the late @. M. Petit, who was then
mayor of the city. On March 20, 1893
the city passed the general grade or
dinance setting the grades for every
street then a part of the city. This or
dinance was not signed by either the
mayor or the city clerk and there is
no affidavit to show that it was ever
published as required by law. Some
of the other important ordinances
which were given similar treatment
were the ordinance granting the right
for the second track of the Chicago G
Northwestern Railway on West Main
street and ordinances for various
switch tracks put in by the company.
Several ordinances relating to sewer
districts We're never signed and the or
dinances relating to the keeping of
hogs in the city met similar fate. In
the list of unsigned ordinances are a
half dozen sidewalk ordinances, but
all walks ordered in these ordinances
have long since been laid and paid for.
The point raised by the Lake avenue
property owners is that the city can
not make legal assessments for the
pavement recently laid on account of
the fact that the city did not comply
with the law in making an established
grade for the street before the i'm
provement was ordered. At the time
the preliminary work for the paving
was done the city engineer worked I'M
der this old grade ordinance and was
of the opinion that there was no dues-
tion as to the passage and publication
of it
The whole tangle has been put up to
City Attorney John G. Slater to I'M
ravel and it is possible that al an early
date the council will take steps to in
some way legalize all work done I'M
der these ordinances.
An investigation of the ordinance
records indicates that there were many
ordinances passed twenty years ago in
which there is no affidavit of puhlica-
tion and which were never signed as
the statute provides. These ordi-
nances relate to almost every feature
of the city government. The general
ordinance for the protection of the
health Of the city is in the number and
there are scores Of ordinances of
minor Importance. 1t is probable that
the city council will order the ordi-
nances Of the city Investigated at once
in order that the officials may know
just where they stand. The work, Of
properly coding and publishing the or
dinances was started year ago and it
is probable that it will now be carried
out even if the expense to the city
amounts to more than a thousand dol
lars.