The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1917-12-05
MAYOR URGES
BOND, Issue
MANY IMPROVEMENTS NECEs-
SARY AND EXECUTIVE RECON-.
MENDs s2so.ooo SECURITIES

The feature Of the meeting of tn,
city commissioners last night was tn,
reading OF the official communication
by Mayor Roberts urging the, neces
slty OF bond issue to cover many
improvements which ifre imperative and
pointing out the large unnecessary ex'
pense the city Is to at this time
because of the lack Of facilities for car
rying on the corporation. The COM
munication In full Is as follows:
To the Board OF Commissioners of the
City OF Ardmore, Oklahoma,
Gentlemen; rl
The time has arrived when the city
must either expand and keep step with
the forward movement that has been
going on for the past three years al
though IL has been unconscious to
most of us who have lived here and
seen the growth. and the upbuilding
or TO say that the city does not wish
TO expand and Is content TO remain a
county seat town.
without looking iRto the figures. |
would say that In the past eighteen
months over ten miles of street paving
has been laid. and that we now have
under contract near double that
amount Where there was an old field
laid out into city lots. now there are
beautiful residences. the homes of some
of our best and most progressive peo-
pie The fact is now that the city
has expanded. and is still expanding. TO
such an extent that | am advised II Is
next to impossible to get rent house
in the town.
Sometime since. the city began the
construction of additional facilities to
m hAan H.
ed forward. but in some way the i'm
provements have been greater than our
resources and we are now carrying at
one of the local banks about ss5 00o.0
and still the work is not complete.
There has been petition after petition
before our body asking for extensions
of water mains, and sewer mains. These
people pay taxes and have the right
TO have these conveniences. and IT Is
incumbent upon the city to furnish IT..
but we have not a single dollar in the
treasury with which to make these
extensions.
In addition to this the sewer facili-
ties are unequal to the demand made
upon them. The Guaranty State Bank
building. Federal building, Princess
theatre. the Simpson building and / un-
derstand the new First National Bank
building are each six feet lower than
the sewer main. The new hotel, now
in progress was delayed in beginning
its work, on account OF Inadequate
sewer facilities. We have patched the
latter up for time but am unable
to say how long it will last.
We have always had. and have now
an inadequate drainage system. AS
the city has progressed. grades have
necessarily been established that have
been made with little regard to the
natural drain, and the large amount OF
damages that we have paid for over
flows. can be directly charged to IN
adequate drainage.
The rates for fire insurance are now
higher than they should be and l am
informed that the rates are higher 'than
other cities in the class with Ardmore.
This may be due to two reasons one.
that our alleys are not kept clean ana
trash and other rubbish accumulate In
them. and again that we have an IN
sufficient number of fire plugs ana wat
er expansion with which to fight IRE.
In the first instance this can be cured
by an ordinance that we VIII ENFORCE