The Republican journal., 1916-02-24

another serious problem has bean on- .;a.
walks. Many miles of old plank sidew.IL.
were UNSAFE and rotting away. We have bu;,t
lzooz feet OF crushed rock sidewalk this vao-
replacing this amount of old plank v.,l,
Nearly two miles of this was in onr c;+,, IT,
Anq tne balance on the East Side, at the Head
OF the Tide, and at Citypoint. These crushed
rock walks will be in perfect shape to he ton.
dressed with tarvia or concrete this wear T.
neeos one year to have them settle into nlace
before the finishing is put on.
also wish to call your attention -
oriuee problems. The Hanson administra.
'ratlon mad been ordered to build new bridoo
across Little River in conjunction with +h.
iown OF Northport. Instead of BUILDING RI.
bridge he did not even take the tronhIo -
look the plan over, but allowed the co,nt
commissioners. with the advice of q ce,ta;n
gentleman OF Northport, to locate tho h,;d,.o
! IN the most expensive and the least des;r.h,o
pace de simply put off building or doing
any tning toward building, When we started
70 look the situation over, preliminary to he.
ginning work, we found just what we were nm
against. of course it was our duty to +-v
W recti1y the errors and have the bridge In.
Gated and built where it couldbe done .+ s.
ing OF severalithousand dollars. giving brido,o
and approaches equal to Others in sver, %
pe''.a ana better than some, and save the
thousands of dollars to the town of Nortbnor+
ana city OF Belfast. This we tried to dobv ask;no
ior new hearing; but were opposed bv tho
gentleman from Northport, t,spurred on bv Mr.
iaanson ana few others.who openly declared
tfey ibid not care what it would cost ond
whose only object seemed to be to beat ns .+
any cost; and they did beat us. We were or-
0e'eu 70 oolid at once. regardless of the sea-
son. cost or advantage. That we have done a
gooo JOB IN the face of every obstacle forced
upon u.s. any one can see and Judge for him.
sei1. Mr.. Hanson's vicious and uncaIled for
criticisms can be easily attributed to his usu.,
custom OF fault-fnding and wild rav;nos
against everything that does not contribpta 70
his personal gain. For some time ba hoe o..
parentiy had representatives STUDYING tho
D.'use 70 nno some possible object of attack.
inls orldge when completed will be LASTING
anu permanent monument to the credit of tho
CITY OF Belfast and the town of Northport
we further call your attention to tho ff.,,
foot bridge at Citypont. This bridge had not
been safe for at least five years. The nub,io
SAFETY mas demanded new bridge for at least
thae time; but, like all of the city's affairs that
ought to have been done, its rebuIding w.s
put off and put off until we started 70 do
thlngs' and we have put in a steel bridge at a
cost OF approximately 81 ,O0O; safe. permanent
anu bridge that everybody at Citypoipt or
any one who is called to travel tnat wav will
be pleased with.
The bridge at Dog Island, so called. has
needed repairs for long time but thew were
lett undone, and we have repaired that. The
or'oee on Poor's Mills road has been put in
good condition. When my attention was first
called to the condition of this bridge 7 w,s
afraid 1T would not hold together until we
could get to it.
Another large problem was the school nrob.
lem Mr.. Dunton last year purchased the Mo.
Lellan homestead and invested approximately
$S,2OO from the city's taxes in 1914. We have
completed that purchase and placed the build
Ing in shape Tor school occupancy at q cost of
$7149.32 from this years taxes. Wa how. .,so
contributed $l,745 96 to complete the payment
of the contracts and furnish the Peirce Scboo,
Building (The Fastening of obtaining this
new school was made possible by the change in
administration last year, These are perma.
nent improvements. absolutely necessary to
the city at this time, and we are glad to see
them done, even though we have to stand mncb
abuse for the raise of taxes necessary tbero-
for.
Two new roads laid out and promised built
were put off from year to year; one to connect
the cottages on the south shore front with
Bay View Street and the other between AIlvn
and Condor Streets both of which have been
built. One of these had been promised for
four years. but nothing was done but promises.
we settled the damages on Commercial Hill
by repairing the driveways and building re.
tanning wall to hold the land from washing
down the hill. After an expenditure of s9OO
on Commercial Hill during r.Hanson's admin.
lstration it was left in worse shape than be-
fore. These are facts apparent to all who live
IN that vicinity. We not only repaired the
damages. but fixed the hill.
A water way had been promised from Bav
View Street to the shore; that is, the city
would furnish large pipe to carry the water
to the shore. This we provlded-another prom
Use fulfilled-and it has been going on. We
have been dong things all the year until about
everything promised has been redeemed ana
the city is free and clean once more.
We purchased Tractor Engine and Giant
Grader, the wisdom of which has been pparents
to everybody. In fact we believe they have
paid for themselves this ear The work ac-
complished with them has bee satisfactory to
everybody. notwithstanding the constant
knocking by Mr.. Hanson to the effect that the
engine was no good and would not last the |
year out. The economic life of the engine we
expect to be at least ten years.
Another thing wish to call to ; our atten-
tion is our City Building, Memorial Hall. This
building had been allowed to 60 for do not
know how many years without the necessary re-
pairs that should be put on every building each |
yesr to keep it respectable. The plaster was
falling down in almost every room; the building
outside and in was disgrace for want of |