Grand Forks herald., 1922-08-26
STREET RAILWAY LIABILITY.


frequently, there are still many persons who have
mistaken understanding Of the nature Of the abil-
ity from which it is proposed to relieve the street
railway company by the adoption of the ordinance
for which petitions are now being circulated There
is a quite prevalent impression that by the terms
OF its contract with the city the company is re-
quired to pay for the paving of ths space between
its rails and for some DISTANCE on either sidc-ap-
proximatey eight feet-for the entire length of it's
trackage any street which is being paved.
This beliefs quite erroneous. The company is
not now and has been required to pay for the
pavement Of any portion Of any street except at in
tersectons At the intersections for the paving of
its proportion of the intersections. that is, for the
eight-foot strip through each intersection. The
company is also required to keep the strip of pave
ment along the entire length of its tracks in repair
and in connection with the north end paving a
required to reinforce the concrete under the tracks
1t is these charges from which it is proposed to re-
lieve the company for the ten-year period
The paving Of the strip through the intersec-
tons represents but small percentage of the cost
of any paving job The cost of repairs depends
largely the character Of the original construction
If the work is properly done in the first place the
repair bill will be Insignificant The cost Of con
crete reinforcementis almost negligible The con-
crete must be laid few inches deeper under the
tracks than elsewhere, but there is Offset in the
matter of material required in the space occupied by
ties and rails. %@
At the meeting on Thursday evening the sug-
gestion was made that while it might be we'll
enough to relieve.the company from the charges
which have accumulated and which are immediate
ly in prospect it would be uwise to extend this re-
lief for ten years as Within that time the company
might build many miles of new line, all of which
would be exempt during this period under the terms
of the proposed ordinance.
It would be pleasant to believe that within ten
years important extensions Of the street railway
line would be required by the city and would be
profitable to the company, for that would mean an
increase in population truly phenomenal Without
any increase Of trackage the system as at present
laid out could give good service to a population
double that Of Grand Forks today More cars
would be required, but not more miles Of track
For an additional obligation to be entailed on
the city account Of new construction it would be
necessary to have this enormous increase Of pop
ulatio within ten years, and to undertake, within
that time the paving of the streets upon which the
new track is to belbuit. Assuming that this might
happen within ten years we should have more prop
|erty values to Be assessed and more people among
whom to distribute the cost,
The visible facts are such that il the relief pro-
posed Is to BE granted at ALL ten years is not too
long 4 period for 4 to cover. sSa
Former Kaiser William IS reported 10 be en-
gagged be married but sorehcw this fails to cause
he II would were some really prom
ipsnt Dough- Sairbanks Of Babe Ruth,
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