Evening star., 1924-09-28
BELL WOULD LIFT
RESURF AGING LEVY
Favors Changing Law to Re.
Iieve Property Owners
of Paving Charge.

The Borland law, which assesses
half the cost of street paving work
against abutting property owners.
should be modified so that it would
not apply to the repaving of worn
out streets, in the opinion of En-
gineer Commissioner Bell.
Maj. Bell made known this view
last night in discussing various pieces
of District legislation on which ac-
tion probably would be sought at the
forthcoming session of Congress.
The Engineer Commissioner said he
would not propose that the Borland
law be repealed. but he has reached
the conclusion that it should be so
changed as to apply only to original
paving and not to resurfacing also.
When paved street becomes
worn out by traffic and has to be re-
surfaced l do not believe that work
should be assessed against the peo-
pie living on the street" said Maj.
Bell
Little ResurfacinE Done.
c. &. Hunt. engineer of highways.
pointed out that there has not been
much resurfacing of old streets done
since the Borland law was enacted,
for the reason that the city has been
growing fast with limited appropria- =
tions. making it necessary to pave
many new streets.
From now on, however. with the
gasoline paving tax in effect, the Dis
trict will have more street funds
availa Bile than in the past, and Bor-
land assessments for resurfacing will
become d more important factor to
property owners.
Maj Bell said it might not be pos
sible in the short session OF Congress
to get through this modification of
the Borland law, but he said he would
take steps to bring it to the attention
of the lawmakers for action as soon
as possible.
There are other legislative matters
on which the Engineer Commissioner
is hopeful of obtaining favorable
action by the Senate and House at
the next session.
Three Measures Up.
The pending measures in which
Maj. Bell is most directly interested
because they affect his departments
are the bill for the reorganization
of the Public Utilities Commission,
the street railway merger bill and the
proposal to extend Fourteenth street
through the Walter Reed Hospital
reservation.
The first bill would add two more
members to the utilities commission
which is now composed of the three
city mmissionerS. One of the new
men would be an engineer and the
other lawyer. Maj. Bell fathered
this measure at the last session, be-
Iicving that the Commissioners should
have more assistance in disposing OF
utility problems.
The second bill would change the
method of taxing the two street rail-
way companies with a view to in
ducing consolidation.
The city heads also will reply in
December to the request of the Sen
ate District committee for sugges-
tions as to how the powers of the
Commissioners might be extended in
order to relieve Congress of the ne
cessity of passing on various munich
pal questions of a minor nature.
welfare Bill to BE Reviewed.
In Commissioner Rudolph's depart
ments the most important legislation
to come up this Winter will be the
several bills recommended by the
commission on public welfare legis-
Iation last Spring. The foremost is
the one to create a board of public
welfare in the District government
to coordinate child-caring and other
social service work.
Commissioner oyster may have
some legislation to recommend to
Congress growing out of the annual
report of Maj. Sullivan, superintend-
ent of police. Maj. Sullivan has
suggested additional legislation for
prohibition enforcement, more
stringent gun-toting law and appoint
ment Of two more Police Court judges.