Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-06-25
(Tribune's Helena Bureau)

Helena, June 24.-In connection
with a fight which has been waged for
several years by the business men and
other shippers of Augusta and vicinity
for the extension to Augusta Of the
Sun River line of the Great Northern
railway or for an industrial spur from
Gilman to Augusta, the Montana board
of railway commissioners today made
public an order directing the Great
Northern to construct such Il spur.
The order directs that the Great
Northern shall, on or before Septem-
Der Is, 1922, construct and operate
a public industrial spur track to serve
the plaintiffs in the proceeding and
others at Augusta; that the spur shall
in all respects follow and fulfill the
standard plans and types of construction
for such tracks and shall occupy a
right-Of-way not less than 100 feet in
width, and that the railway company
is given the option of constructing such
spur from the end of the present track
at Gilman, a distance of l.56 miles, or
from a point between the switches at
Gilman, a distance of 1.I6 miles.
1t is further ordered, in order to
facilitate the construction of the spur
and to minimize the expense, the petit
TONERS and the railroad company shall,
on or before July u, report to the
board for the purpose of conference
as to ways and means to the end that
the petitioners on such date shall de-
liver to the board for delivery to the
railway company a warranty deed to
the necessary right-of-way for such
spur track under either of the routes
proposed. 1t is provided that at this
conference the railway company shall
elect which route it will utilize where
upon the appropriate deed for right
of-way shall be delivered to the rail
road and the unused deed shall be re-
turned to the petitioners.
The order further provides that all
expense in connection with the con-
struction of the spur shall be borne by
the railway company. with the eXcep-
ton of the coast of right-of-way which
shall be borne by the petitioners.
While no estimates of costs of con-
struction of the proposed spur are
given by the railway company. surveys
were made by engineers of the rail-
0 commission who prepared figures
showing the cost of the. spur would be
S24,356.5O, including $967 for right-of-
way, and that of a spur from between
the Gilman switches at $~27.:526.53, in
Guiding 5000 for right-of-way.
The order of the commission is the
outcome of a petition filed September
10. 1921, by Manix Il Vaughn and
others engaged in various mercantile
businesses at Augusta. acting under
the provisions Of Il statute enacted by
the fifteenth legislative assembly Civ
ing the railroad commissioners author
ity to compel railroads to extend or
construct commercial or industrial
spurs from constructed lines of tracks
at stations or within station limits.
the length of which spur shall not
exceed two miles. This statute was
enacted by the legislature at the in
stance of the people Of Augusta, with
the idea of forcing the Great Northern
to extend its lines to that point after
it had refused to build such a line.
On October 4, 1921, the railway com
pany filed an answer praying that the
proceedings be dismissed. in which it
denied the authority Of the railroad
commission and insisted that the stat
ute was unconstitutional.
A hearing was held at augusta.
November %, 1921, which was follow