Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-11-27

a mile or two on the West Shore is not
uncommon. Tracts of land are plotted
and new streets laid out without re-
gard for future extensions or the needs
or the community. Owners generally
have had in mind the maximum acre
age of marketable land. The law pro-
vides that plans of proposed streets
must be approved by the town council
of the borough in which the land is
located before the recorder of deeds is
permitted to place the plans on record.
This law has been overlooked or
ignored by the owners and 1t is doubt
full if the approval of one plan in the
West Shore section has been obtained.
The matter of drainage should be
left with the borough councils of the
several boroughs. Certainly no organ
ization of the citizens of the whole
community would attempt to advise
any particular borough as to how that
borough should take care of its sur
face water. However, the organ
ization might be of use in bringing
pressure to bear upon the borough
councils to remedy bad drainage con-
ditions.
Growth Consistent
THE growth of the West Shore sec
tion has been consistent. There have
been no exceptional boom years and
no or years. The growth has been
Harrisburg and we are building here
a future city. Let us build 1t for the
future and not for the present needs
of the separate towns.
The Susquehanna river is a natural
obstruction between Harrisburg and
the West Shore. 1t may forever pro-
htbit the consolidation of the two.
The sections are in different counties
and their government must necessarily
be separate. But they need each
other, and a West Shore Municipal
League could do no better work than
the keeping of this fact constantly in
the minds of the citizens on both sides
of the river"
MIR. Shau1rs Views
Another man who expresses his ap-
proval of the movement to-day is ira
E. Shaull. of West Fairview, a real
estate dealer and building contractor.
Mr.. Shaull has taken a keen interest
in the development of West F'airview
and is one of the men who helped
make the recent celebration in the
town such great success. Mr.. Shaull
says:
Il am very much in favor of organ
iztng West Shore Municipal League
| as suggested in the Telegraph. I be-
| lieve the time is ripe to effect that
| now. Why should we wait? The
opportunity is here to develop all the
towns and boroughs along the West
Shore into one large community and
in future years become Greater Har-
risburg.
"One of the first and most impor-
tant things to be accomplished is q
free bridge across the free Susque-
hanna. Think of it! Two of the
richest counties in the State of Penn
| sylvania tied together with two toll
| bridges. We people from the West
Shore are compelled to pay to get into
the capital city of the State of Penn
sylvania to do business, and then have
to pay to get out. 1t looks to me as
| though they have us going and COM
| ing. so let's get together and get away
from these antiquated conditions.
Il also believe we should work to-
gether with the City Planning Com
| mission. If the West Shore continues
( to grow and improve like 1t has in the
last ten years. and new plots of ground
are opened up here and there without
any definite plans set for the future,
we will complicate matters very much
for the coming generation.
Another things of importance is a
community high school. There is no
use talking about development any
where unless you have good schools.
They would do more good than any
other thing to get the better class of
people from Harrisburg and elsewhere
encouraged into subsurban life. One
of the first questions a real estate man
is asked when he has a prospective
customer is about the facilities for
schools.
This all looks like a very big job
but believe there is enough of public
spirited citizens on the West Shore to
get together and organize and get
results
Talked of Plans Years Ago
P. c. Coble. of Wormleysburg, is an
ardent advocate of improvement and
said that many years ago he and other
residents of Wormleysburg talked over
various things which could be accom-
plished by cooperation. 81 would like
to see an organization in each town
over here" said Mr.. Cob1e. ''Indi-
vidually each town would be benefited
and improvements in the community
at large would result. The moral and
financial standing of the borough of
Wormleysburg would be raised if we
had some improvements made here
and / believe they would come very
soon if we could go right after them.
We need another road back to Camp
Hill. Now | can't get that road. A
half-dozen others of us can't get it,
either, but if we have an organization
and we unite our forces with the forces
of Camp Hill, West Fairview and
Enola then we would be pretty strong
and the road might come. l believe q
new road should be built from Walnut
street, at the upper end OF the town.
through the ravine which runs almost
to Camp HILL If that section of
country would be opened by a road
buildings would be built on either side
and there would be big development
there in very short time.
Now there's another condition here
which / think organization would
remedy. The stretch of road between
the Market and Walnut street bridges
is very dangerous. I've seen many
accidents narrowly averted there, and
mainly because of the way the street
cars operate The law says traffic must
keep to the right of the road, but there
the cars run on the left, and the sys-
tenn is very confusing. 1 believe we
could get the car company to con-
form with the usual custom If we had
an active organization.
Members of the City Planning
Commission in Harrisburg have made
careful study of conditions on this
side of the river and / believe we
should accept the advice of that or
ganization in making any changes. l
would like to see a meeting of all OF
the men interested along the West
Shore held in the near future. Worm
leysburg's town hall is pretty centrally
located and the meeting could be held
there. We could have the planning
commission there and the members
could tell us what could be done here
= trip over the whole territory in auto
i,a1f hi lac hn y, too -.