The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1915-05-14
Church Street Crossing.

On the first page of the paper il
given an account of the meeting o
citizens and officials of the M. e. o
and ~, G. & st. l.. Railroads, which
took place at the Palace Hotel last
Saturday morning.
Many years ago the Board of May
lowed the railroad companies to
build the passenger station where
it now stands. The old depot stood
just north Of this place across the
railroad tracks. Little was said
about it then perhaps, but some
years later when the contour of the
streets was emphasized with i'm
provements and people began to
open their eyes to municipal ad-
vantages somebody, perhaps a pass
ing stranger, remarked why don't
you move the depot. The echo was
taken up and finally one of our citi-
Zens called attention of the Board
of Mayor and Aldermen to the sug-
gestion. Nothing was said about
crossing facilities. The only idea
then was the moving of the depot
Finally the idea crystallized. 1t was
taken up at citizens meeting and
discussed, and few years later the
Board was asked to take some &C
ton. The citizens, those who want
ed the depot moved, had not until
this time offered as a justification
of their contention that better cross
ings facilities for traffic were need
ed. And finally, as everybody
knows, the Legislature was asked
for a bill authorizing Union City
TO open the streets, alleys, etc,
across the railroad tracks, etc,
which appears on another page of
the paper
All this led up to the meeting
held here last Saturday, at which
time President Peyton and Mr.. Tay-
Tor, in behalf of the railroads, Of
fered to enter into an agreement for
the construction of an underpass,
the railroad companies to bear one
third of the cost of same and the
city of Union City one-third of such
cost, providing for vehicle and foot
passage from one side of the street
to the other under the railroad
tracks, same to be in lieu of the
surface opening of said street, which
means of course that the location
of the depot is not to be disturbed.
The depot was not, however, dis
cussed at all.
Now, if our great contention is to
rest on the assumption that great
er crossing facilities are needed, the
underpass, it seems to us, is the So
luton of the trouble. There are
hundreds of advantages in the un-
derpass. AS to the opening of the
street there is nothing else involved
except the obstruction to the street
the moving of the depot on the val
ue of property. There might be
something. added to the street by
the construction of an imposing
building where it now stands
So, as l say, if the contention of
opening the street is based on the
necessity for street crossing facili- |
ties the surface opening would be a |
mere bauble compared to the ad-
yantages of the underpass. The
chief engineers of both roads assure
as that the construction of an I'M
derpass drained with an automatic
electric pump is absolutely and per-
fectly practical. In fact it is pre-
ferable to the raising of tracks and
buildings at a much greater cost.
This cost is placed at $4,000, one
third assessed to Union City. Now
this estimate is merely tentative
A more careful estimate, the engi-
neers lead us to believe, can be made
at $4,000. In private
with Mr. Taylor, he ad-
mitted that it was customary in
numbers of cities for the citizens to
pay instead of one-third of the cost
If eliminating grade crossings only
or twenty-five per cent