Arizona republican., 1918-01-24

corporation commission would claim jurisdiction to order discontinuance or to control the matter of continuance of the service on Grand avenue. He said he had been instructed at a pre- vious meeting to draft q. resolution re- quiring the street railway company to conform it's track with the grade on Grand avenue. Superintendent Mitch ell, of the company, according to At torneny Sloan, claimed this would nec- essarily involve the rebuilding of most, if not all, of the track, and that he was unable to secure the material required, because of conditions due to the war He said that he presumed if the com mission required the railway company to conform it's track to the grade it would mean the company would cease operation of that line. He suggested the naming of a committee of the com mission, or the commission as a whole to visit Grand avenue to ascertain what would be the effect of making the company conform to grade, whether it is possible to secure material to rebuild the track and whether rebuilding is absolutely necessary.
 Upon motion of Commissioner Mac l Bean, the commission decided to make
 a visit to Grand avenue today at 2 | o'colcl
 l Reporting on the matter of just what l the street railway company has done
 in the matter of it's agreement to pave ] certain streets now occupied by their tracks and grading on other streets,
 Attorney Sloan said he had taken the
 matter up with Attorney L. H ChaI-
 mers, representing the company, ask
 ing him for detailed report. This re-
 suited in the presenting to the com
 mission of a communication from Su- perintendent Mitchell conveying in-
 formation as follows:
 ! Second Avenue
 The track from Van Buren to Fill
 more street has been placed to grade The intersection at Fillmore and Sec
 ond has been ballasted and paved
 A new intersection has been located
 and ballasted and paved about mid
 way between Van Buren street anG
 Fillmore.
 Monroe Street
 The track between Second avenue
 and Central avenue has been paved.
 The track from Central avenue tt
 Second street has been placed to a new
 grade, additional ballast put in tracl
 and paved
 Fourth Street Double Track)
 Much work has been done on thi
 track, although We might say the worl is not visible to the general public The work done is very tedious and an moving. When the track was laid, was generally above the paving grad from half inch to eight inches, and it i necessary to remove over ten inches 0 surplus dirt in order to lower the trac an inch or more, and our plan has bee to lower the track in the worst places particularly at intersections, so tha frtlf icrla4 accident. All the intersections hay been lowered and ballasted with tn exception of one where we are nov working. This will leave about 1SO feet of double track yet to be placed t grade. A portion of the above wi have to be raised, and a large portio lowered. The raising of track amount to very little compared to the lower ing of the track, as the lowering c the track is most expensive. and dis agreeable work in connection wit s track construction.
 The intersection at Fourth and Mon roe is awaiting the pleasure of the con tractor to be paved, which will be don in a day or two.
 The intersection at Fourth and Va I Buren is ballasted and ready for pay ing. following the completion of tn S paving at Fourth and Monroe. The intersection at Fourth an 5 Pierce is ballasted and will be read \ for paving within a week The ballast I ing of the intersections will be fol lowed up as rapidly as possible. The lowering of the rest of the trac a will be advanced as rapidly as possibl \ and as soon as it is completed. tn 4 track will be again retamped in place 5 where it shows weakness, and then fol < lowed by the placing of the gravel ( 8 crushed rock.
 We have only been able to secure q limited number of men for the trac 2 work, and it has been necessary a take our small track crew away frol 4 this work in order to do repair Wor 5 on other parts of the line. f The improvement on West Washing x ton will be started just as soon & Fourth street and Second avenue a n completed, as it seems that the abov & mentioned streets should first retei' attention.
 & Attorney Sloan stated that he h; T asked City Engineer Grand to e % anime this report, and he had informt 8 him that he thought it correct.