Evening star., 1922-03-02
CITIZENS WILLING
TQSHARE EXPENSE
FOR NEW STREETS
Homes Fronting on Muddy
Thoroughfares Generally
Have Paved Alleys.
ASSESSMENT AUTHORITY
HELD BY COMMISSIONERS
Million-Doll Annual Appropria.
tion for Four Years Needed for
All improvements.

People of the city owning homes u
the streets now deep in mire as resu].
OF the bad winter generally stand ready
and willing to pay their share Of SO per
cent OF the cost Of paving the streets In
front Of their homes. it has been pointed
out to The Star man who has been in
specting the streets of Washington. This
is evidenced. it was asserted, by the faszs
that many Of the houses fronting o
these muddy streets have fine pavel
alleys in the rear.
The Star man, during his inspe>.
tions in many parts OF the new sectiofs
of the city, was able to reach the strests
only by using the paved alleys. and
these enable the people to get to their
homes without taking the chances OF
running clothes and endangering their
limbs by attempting to negotiate the
muddy streets in front of their homes.
No Specific Provisisn.
Alleys do not have to be specincal
provided for in an appropriation biz,
in order to be paved, it was explained
The Commissioners have authority ta
pave alleys under what is called the
Assessment and permit" plan. When
a section is built up the Commission
ers can have the alley paved and then
assess half the cost against the abut-
ting property owners, and, it was
pointed out. this is one class OF hsi
that is seldom, if ever. protested. u
indicates. it was pointed out. that tAe
people do want pavements. and VIII
pay for them.
In fact. The Star man has learned
during the course of his visits to va
riouS parts of the city that citizens
are drawing up petitions to be pre-
sented to the Commissioners and to
Congress, asking that they be given
new streets to relieve them from the
serious travelling conditions which
! they now face.
Only a small proportion of the cost
Of street improvements is paid for by
the federal government. II was ex-
planned that when street is I'M
proved the abutting property owners
pay half of the cost outright. Then
so per cent of the remaining half
comes out of the local taxpayers
pockets. being taken from the tax
revenues of the District. The re-
mainder is paid by the government.
History of improvements.
STUDY mas DeeH IIlduc VI tHc HiStois
of the street improvements of the Dis
trict by the officials of the Office Of the
Engineer Commissioner, according to
Col Keller, and they have been traced
back as far as 1895. In order to bring
street improvements of the District up
to date, it would take an annual ap-
preparation of more than million dol
lars for the next four years. the OFF,
cials have found.
I'VE find" said Col. Keller, in I'm
forming Congress of the results of his
research, that in the earlier days the
street Improvement proceeded al very
satisfactory rate: that beginning about
1910 the progress of street improve
ment began to lag and fell below the
rate during the fifteen years preceding.
Our estimate is, If street improve
ment is to be kept level with the
growth of the city, furnishing facfli-
ties that correspond to the construction
of new houses and that correspond to
the legitimate growth of population as
well, that to retrieve the loss that has
been experienced since 1910 would re-
quire an appropriation of $1.095.750 for
each of the next four years. If we re-
ceived that amount for each of the
next four years, then at the end of that
time We would have caught up in the
progress of street improvement with
the growth of the CITY,"
In the face Of this information the
House allowed $113,600 only and the
Senate appropriations committee in
creased this to $278,500.