The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1916-02-10
CITY COUNCIL NOTES.

| Ol SlckDeSS anu Ine mayor reported Dy
postal card from jacksonville, Florida,
President Thorison presided.
The vacancy caused by the recent
death of Alderman William Scherer
was filed by the council electing form
er Alderman Schellin. On the first
ballot Schellin received of the 10
votes and in the second ballot, which
Thorson declared necessary, he re-
ceived votes. The other men receiv-
ing votes were August Kaems, John
Koutnik and George Handl. Schellin
was escorted to the desk at once by his
colleague Schuetze, was sworn in and
took his seat. He took over Scherer's $
committee work.
The G. & N. w. Railway does not
want TO lay concrete base paving in
Franklin street in its track zone and
submitted a proposition to lay an oiled
macadam there and TO move its main
line northward at 18th street to make
a wider driveway. The council offered
tentative counter proposition to al
low this if the company will pay for
part of the paving outside the tracks.
The whole matter was referred and
there will probably be some negotia-
tions.
City Attorney Harry Kelley fled a
written opinion holding that under re-
cent decisions of the court there is a
possibility OF requiring the street rail
way company TO pave between its
tracks To start this an ordinance was
| introduced requiring the company to
keep the part of the street occupied by
its tracks in repair and specifying that
paving and not macadam is repair on
paved streets. Following is the opin-
ion of the city attorney:
''To the Honorable Mayor and Board
of Aldermen of the city of Manito-
voc:
"You lately directed me to file an
opinion in the matter of the liability Of
of the cost of paving the parts OF streets
occupied by its tracks.
'The supreme court of Wisconsin,
the past few years, has been announc-
| iug the law on this subject to be what
believe was not formerly generally
believed to be the law.
l.,,t, ,h i.
might be stated To be that n promise
| by the company in its franchise TO
keep the portion of the street occupied
by its tracks in repair, means that it
must pave and repave that zone as re-
pair requires it.
'Lf the former franchise Of the com
pany were still operative, have abso-
lutely no doubt that the repair clause
of that franchise would require the
company to pave its zone The fran
chse was superseded by ac. of law in
1911 by an indeterminate permit. The
Madison company, unde: an iden-
tical clause, was required To pave
Whether the repair clause survives
the change 10 an indeterminate permit
is doubtful under the rule OF the La
Crosse decision Q45 Wis. 40S). But
whether it does or not, the language of
the paving cases IN the l5l, 1876 and l57
| Wisconsin reports lntimales quite
strongly that proper repair and conse-
q1ently in a proper situation, paving,
may be required OF the company.
1.-The council will remember that
this point is not decided outright and
that even as far as they go, decisions
are by divided court. Yet the trend
is SO strong toward requiring paving
that do not think we would be doing
our duty to the city unless we exhaust
ed every effort TO find out whether or
not the law does enjoin this duty upon
the company, when regulations requir-
| ing it has been adopted. This is n very
recent law and we are on new ground,
but some one must break the way. |
have accordingly drafted an ordinance
designed to put this question in issue.
These proceedings ought not to delay
the actual work OF paving, at least
not more than few weeks, and not at
all on Frank lin street."
To provide for possible contingencies
the Board of Public Works was in
structpl IN glvertisp for bids for nav.
ing the street car zone alone and also
the steam railway zone alone. These
may not be needed but it was ordered
to save time IL later found to be neces-
sary.
Oshkosh objects TO paying $500 for
a grave for pauper buried here when
local people are sold space for Si.00.
Mayor Mulva sent 81 90 and considers
the incident closed, in which he is
probably mistaken.
The man who broke some bones by
falling at the point where the G. q n.
w. track crosses Sth street at the Elks
Club has claim in for $500. The
city claims that the railway company
is liable If anyone is. The matter was
referred to the committee on claims.
The Sacred Heart church paid tax
Of $3l as IN some church real estate un
der protest and says that the assess
ment was mistake and that the prop