Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1914-12-05
) LOCAL COMMENT !

The report OF the secretary Of the
fair association would indicate that
most of the building expense of the fair
has been put behind it and that hence
forth the association can begin to ac-
cumulate a surplus for rainy days. The
proposal to fill in around the cattle
barn and to gravel or macadamize the
walks Is good one and should be car
ried out. The association is not in
need of additional ground If it will
improve its own waste land along Linn
creek. The most practicable way to
do that would be to scoop out a creek
channel several times wider than the
present one and carry the dirt up to-
ward the buildings for filling. This
will take care of larger volume OF
flood water and will raise ground low
els above higlFwater at the same oper-
alton. However, the county fair need
not fear another food during fair
week for generation of men, as such q
thing seldom ever happens in the fall.
4
MarshaNtown Is surely going to pre-
sent an attractive Christmas tree APP
pearance when over 800 very large
trees have been set up along it's main
business streets. With the decora-
tons which will naturally be presented
by storekeepers themselves Marshall
town will approximate the rose festival
Of Pasadena which has acquired ma
tional If NOT International renown. Let
occupants of second story rooms on
Main street join in the general festiv-
tiles with some expression of the holt
day spirit in evidence from their sec
ond story windows. The time will
come when window boxes and orna-
| mental planting will transform Mar
shalltowns Lincoln highway into a
bower of beauty for the admiration of
our own people and>of the thousands to
be passing in transcontinental travel.
Two view points as to the benefits
from or value in street paving have
been exhibited in the voluntary action
of our citizens this week Property
owners on North Ninth street have
petitioned the city council not to pave
their street while property owners on
Hughes street north of Highview have
petitioned to have their street paved.
In the one case the lots are owned
mostly by those who are not seeking
to sell while in the case of Hughes
street the lots are owned either by
those who wish to build new homes or
who want to attract home builders to
buy lots which are for sale. 1t is safe
to say that lots on Hughes street after
it is paved will command prices well
above those on Ninth street so long as
the latter remains unimproved. Build
ers of new and slightly houses are
seeking the paved streets almost with
out exception and it is the character
of building improvements which deter
mines lot values in their vicinity.
Muscatine, Louisa and Cerro Gordo
counties now all have their seeding
miles of concrete pavements on rural
highways and it is reported that in
each community the people are clamor-
ing for more. Next spring Marshall
county will join the list with the first
seeding mile of paved rural road on
the Lincoln highway but the where
withall will have to come largely from
the same sources as in each of the
other three counties, namely from pub
lie subscriptions combined with linn
Iited amount from city and county
funds. The every day road is coming
to Iowa but 1t is coming much slower
than in most of the other states. Iowa
has the third largest mileage of roads
OF any state in the union. every five
years she will spend $50. 100000 upon
her roads and bridges and yet she
stands 27th in the sisterhood of states
for the number of miles of roads im-
proved. 80