The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-04-03
WANT CEMENT TO HAVE CHANCE IN. PAVING PROJECT Avenue B Property Own ers Specify Material In
 Making Petition COMMISSION TO
 BE FINAL JUDGE Usually Accepts Rec0m- mendation Of City
 Engineer

Give concrete "a chance,,p was the motif. of the petition for Avenue B paving that brought on discussion in stke city commission Tuesday. Since then the subject has become more or less general topic in the city. With extreme breyity, save for the formula of the printed yerbiage. the petition sets out that which is, desired
 z ssTo pave and improve Avenue B from Fourteenth to Eighteenth streets. the paving to be seven-inch. plain one, course Portland cement concrete
 Most of the owners of the business property abntting on the thoroughfare signed the petition. Few X petitions have reached the. city commission with the names of more representative group of directly affected organizations appended. The sighers were
 s. I. Knecht, Fies Realty company, Myer Candy company, Birmingham Realty company, Burger Brothers, Moore & Handley Hardware company, Hess Strickland Manufacturing com spany, Standard Fuel and Material com pany, D. J. poncellor, Crystal Carbonic company, American Railway and. Ex- press company.
 R. Groom Beatty of the. Birmingham Realty company explained to the com mission that he signed the petition as sA advocate of paving the street, but that the material specified had been added after bis signature had been placed. Those who circulated the pe- tition said the paper had been carried around a second time, after the pro vision for concrete had been added, and apologiged to Mir. Beatty for not bring ing it back to him.
 Mr. Beatty said he was not there as an opponent of concrete or an advo- cate of another sort of paving, but to urge that the selection of whatever sort of paving is used. to he left to the judgment of the city engineer.
 Commission Decides Type
 It was stated at the city hall Wednes- day that the commission has the de- cision regarding the sort of paving to be used, regardless of what the petition may specify, but wherever possible the wishes of the petitioners are taken as a guide.
 Sponsors for the petition say it is time for Birmingham to give concrete as surfacing a wider trial: that ce-
 n melit manufacture is q great industry of the Difminsham, district that one, snf least, ef tho big cement planfp here is within fhe city limits and payer of city taxes, and Is, in measure, esl. titled to more or less consideration aa home industry.
 Use of cement in paving, between the street car tracks on Fifth avenue, at points between the Tutwiler hotel and the Terminal station, was pointed out as concrete example of such surfac- ing. Others held that there was no plain instance of concrete surfacins for streets or roads, free from street car tracks, in the city limits, and ce. nent surffacing should be given spe- cific and complete try-out. >
 In the choice lof paving, under the law, decision is made by the members of the city commission. The comnnis- sion passes the ordinance and the ordi. nance specifics the paving. In Bir- mingham it has been the custom of the commission to rely, on the recomh,en- dation of the city engineer, as quoted by that commissioner whose department handles the paving and street, work.
 Procedure of paving petition in
 tceHt'nsea sa Psss I've. Column Thres)S