Evening star., 1925-01-29
CITY HEADS UPHELD
IN 18TH ST. ISSUE
House Subcommittee Ap-
proves Reducing of 8O-Foot
Width Ordered.

The Commissioners were fully up
held by the subcommittee OF the
House District committee in widen
! ing Thirteenth street to a width of
only 10 feet, instead of the so feet
authorized by law, 1t was disclosed
today in the printed report of the
hearings before the subcommittee of
the House committee on appropria-
tions for the District
The Commissioners took upon
themselves the responsibility of re
ducing the authorized width by 10
feet when a delegation OF business
men called upon them and put up
sufficient money to cover the extra
expense of further widening the
street should Congress disapprove
of the 70-foot expanse. The broaden
ing took place between F and ]
streets.
I'VE required that the owners of
the properties affected deposit enough
money so that in case we were di-
rected to pave the street to a width
of 80 feet we could go ahead and
make it so feet wide, in absolute ac-
cordance with law, and protect the
Government absolutely from any ad-
ditional cost. That seemed good
business judgment" the committee
was told by Col. Bell, District Engi
neer commissioner.
Business Men Protest.
In response to a question by Chair
man Davis as to why the law was
violated in this regard" Col. Bell
stated:
That was done at the request of
the Thirteenth Street Business Mems
Association. They thought at the
time the appropriation was made that
they wanted the street 80 feet wide.
and 1t was provided that the street
should be so feet wide. We started
to cut back into the sidewalks so as
to make an S0-foot street. The work
had not progressed far before we re-
ceived very strong protests from
practically all of the business inter
ests along the street, saying that
they did not want II that wide.
They realized when the work was
started that we were digging back
into their vaults and cutting down
the sidewalks to narrower width
than they wanted. Therefore we had
conference in my office, at which
they were largely represented. and
Ii seemed to be good business and en-
gineering judgment to make the
street 70 feet wide
1T has been completed?" asked
Chairman Davis.
Cost Under Estimates.
Yes sir. think If you look at it
you will say that 1t was good bust
ness to do il that way. However. if
you deem 1t advisable to widen the
street to so feet, we can do it, and
the Government will not lose any
money whatever. We have
the protection. Those people brought
down Liberty bonds and deposited
them to protect US against any dam
age whatever. I consulted with Mr..
Andrews and other business men in
teres sted There may be a very small
element that would still prefer to
have the street so feet wide. but that
element is less than 5 per cent of the
whole I think if we had gone ahead
and made it 50 feet wide against that
protest we would have been derelict
in our duty"
Engineer of Highways Hunt point
ed out that in addition to the money
referred to, the Commissioners had
been given $4,000 to cover the cost of
undoing the work started under the
S0-foot plan.
Representative Funk, member of
the subcommittee, remarked that
while he had no objection to the
change on Thirteenth street, he would
object very seriously" If the Engi-
Eeer Department took the position
that there must be a 20-foot side
walk, as on Thirteenth street, on
every street. The interests of the
people who use the street, rather
than those of local property owners,
should be- the paramount considera-
ton, he said.
Mr.. Hunt said that the work would
cost about $65,000 or $4,000 when to-
tailed up. which was well under the
appropriation made for the purpose
$4,000.