Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 1913)
fctretttit VOLUME xn. JiA GRANDE, UNION COUNTY, OREGON, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1913. NUMBER 87 Now Impera ':we City Business Manager a C i DRASTIC CUT lit DISTRICTS iW REALITY SEVEN INSTEAD OF NEARLY SO SUPERVISORS IS PLAN OF , THE COURT. COUNTY PAPERS NAMED Central Road Situation Is Bettered to Be Largely Remedied When Som ber of Supervisor Is Cot Down Three Fourth, Condenelng Respon sibility and Fixing the Blame for Bad Roads. OFFICIAL PAPERS NAMED The La Grande Observer and the Union Republican have been designated the county's official papers at the February term of county court now in session. The 3 Union Republican succeeds the Elgin Recorder as the second of- flclal paper In the county. What Is bellev.K) t.i be a long -trlde toward, systematizing road supervi sion, along both financial improve ment and better working results, is being' taken this afternoon 'by the county court. To create seven road, districts instead of 20 odd that now prevail Is the first step in that direc tion. It condenses the responsibility to seven men Instead of nearly four times that number, and puts blame for inattention to roads and highways directly up to the supervisors. The' method of thus Improving the county roads at a minimum expense, was evolved by County Judge Henry and his commissioners and late this af ternoon the men are working out the details. It Is believed by men who have given the matter study that this I remedies obsolete, haphazard meth ods of yore and instead of having everybody or about 30 anyway, at tending to the roads of the county, a uniform scheme can be laid down to these seven and by them enforced; It not enforced the county court retains the right of removal of supervisors with privilege of Instituting energetic system and law enforcement. Out of the scores of panaceas advanced for better and cheaper road upkeep this Is generally conceded to be fore most among the best. PEACH BRIDGE READY. Structure Over River In Peach Lane Is Complete and Under Service. County Bridge Superintendent Joe Campbell Informs The Observer that the Peach Lane bridge has been com pleted and that it la now open for traffic. Three other bridges are to be put In In that section during the winter and work on them will be rushed. This Is the third bridge com pleted by Mr. Campbell during the winter and all of them have been bridges of aome size. DROGHER WILL REFEREE Milton Team fReturus From Union Today to Meet T. M C. A. Team. W. L. Mclnerry, a well known trav eling salesman, will handle the whis tle In the big T. M. C. A.-Mllton col lege basketball game at the T. M. C. A. floor tonight. The game will not be played in the high cahoot gym as generally understood Mr "Mclnerrey is an oldtime Wisconsin athlete and coach and Is now located at Portland. He Is in Elgin today but will return tills evening In time for the game. ' The Milton team arrived this morn ing from Union and will play the V. M. C. A. this evening commencing at 8 o'clock. Both teams are fit and comparative socres Indicate that the game will be exciting from the start In fact, It is doubtful if a faster team will be sent against the local quintet this year. Union People Here. W. O. Miller and Ed MItchel of Un ion are In the city doing Jury duty. Also L. M. McKennon, Wm. Wiggles worth, and W. A. Farrell of Union are In La Grande attending the sessions of court. Former Business- Hade Here. Chas. Binder, a former business man of La Grande, now living In Huntington, Is in the city on business matters today. LIEUT. GOVERNOR BILL UP. Despite Advene Vote, Measure Is Put on Ticket for Next Tear. Salem, Feb. 6. Despite adverse vote of the people in November, the legislature today -ordere dtbe ques tion of creating a lieutenant governor placed on the ballot in 1914. The sen ate today passed a resolution to sub mit It and the house has already act ed. MAYOR HALL'S STAND FOR COMMISSION FORM. The thing that Is "of greyest Interest to the taxpaylng public of La Grande right now Is the stand Mayor M. K. Hall has tak en for commission form of gov ernment. In his message printed elsewhere he brings attention to the cumbersome methods now in practice in handling the city's business: shows where this city is fearfully In debt, and last but not least. Impresses one with the Inability of men engaged in oth er pursuits to care for and man age a corporation of the size La Grande has grown to be. There is but one remedy,, posi tively," only one the commission form of government. That May or Hall should, at this early date in his administration, come out flat footed for the commission form, taking the people Into the inside working of the city's af fairs, as he has, Is to be highly commended. v The Observer will support the mayor clear down the line on this movement, for it is the only correct way of- handling the city's business. A visit to the council rooms during a session of the council, taking notice of the time consumed, the small amount of business accomplish ed, the lack of system, and gen eral disorganization will con vince any person who has ever met a pay roll or plowed an acre of ground that our system Is in effective. Besides, there is a great flnan- $ clal problem before La Grande. The indebtedness has plied too S high, and It Is up to some one to ? get things in shape to pay these debts without working, too great a hardship on property. The mayor Is right In his recom- mendatlon. Now let every citl- sen who believes In doing bual ness on business principles, take a stand with hm. Keep In mind this one fact La Grande Is the biggest busi 4 ness corporation here, therefore 3 you need strict attention to ev ? ery department of this corpora- tlon to Insure economy. W CITY IS T SHELLING CONTINUES BUT LIT TLB HARX BEING DOVE SAT CENSORED REPOIETS. Ruse to Get Clear Path for Naval At tack on Constantinople Is Being Waged by Big Detachment Cap ture of Big Turkish Detachment Be. ported Yesterday Is Denied To. day. London, Feb. 6. Bombardment of Adrlauople was resumed today but so far dispatches indicate that there is no serious damage wrought since the Hist effect. There Is no confirmation of the report that General Savoff has captured thousand s of Turks who made a sortie- from the beleaguered city. Advice from Rome and Contan tlnople say fierce'. lighting was resum ed this morning at the Galllllpli pen insula, where a force of Bulgars and Serbs, aided by the Greek fleet, were attempting the flank the Turkish forc es and open the Dardanelles to a naval attack on Constantinople. Albanians Attack I'Hknp. Constantinople, Feb. 6. Thirty thousand Albanians are advancing toward Uskup which the Servians held since the beginning of the war, according to advices here. The Con stantinople correspondent to the Lon don Standard is conducting a sue- cessful campaign. E I MM N CITY'S NEXT BELIEF PLAN i Steps to condemn the strip of land along K street on and in which the! city's main sewer rests and which , was ordered cleared by ejectment by a circuit court Jury verdict yester day, have been commenced by the city through Its attorney, Jerry Rusk. This step is deemed the most plaus ible one to take In effort to avoid the ejectment order by the Jury as a con sequence of the J. H. Peare suit against the city. The condemnation would affect on ly that strip of land which is used by the people and would have no ef fect on the balance of the highway. Then It follows, that the city would be required to pay Mr. Peare a sum of money sufficient to reimburse him for the damage done to his property by leaving the pipe line where It Is. This sum would necessarily have to be fixed by a fair and Impartial Jury, and the suit which has aready been commenced has this in view. If the final condemnation is accomplshed. by the process outlned by the city. The city will not be required to move the pipe but can get around such an expensive project by an out lay of cash, the amount for which must be determined by a Jury. This proposition will probably come up in E. 0. TEL CO. PETITION IS ID FOR FRANCHISE COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO HEAR PROPOSITION FROM COM PANT HEADS. Various Improvement Bond Ordinaae. es and ImproTemoat Ordinances Passed Noted Gasoline Ordinance Killed at 'Final Reading Meeting Lasts Till Midnight Details Are Many. Initial moves to get a foothold in La Grande thereby "connecting all cities in the valley," was made last night by the Eastern Oregon Co-operative Telephone company of Elgin, at a regular first of the month session of the city council a session punctu ated with considerable, rou'lne busi ness but little out of ihe ordinary Irr Importance. . Appointment of officials to fill the vacancies now existing through the deadlock between the council and the mayor, to ' wit. -the water and street superintendents, was not enacted because the mayor was absent from the city. The recess ap pointments by which Mr. Hoyt anJ Mr. Stoner held these two offices th? past two weeks were renewed this morning and will now bold office un til the next meeting of the council. All councilmen were present, and President of the Council Campbell presided In the absence of the mayor. FriMhU Petition Hrd. Petltions asking for a franchise i the next term meantime, the of court and in the whole matter stands status qutrt. Typographical errors yesterday gave the impression Mr. Peare was to get $175,000. The figure should have been (175.00. . "Condemnation proceedings should have been instituted three years ago" says Mr. (Rusk, "as the city has no right to construct a barrier in front of any man's property and the coun ty court, has no right, as laid down by the supreme court, to permit a franchise where a superstructure of this kind is built By condemnation proceedings, the right of way could have been obtained by paying dam ages accruing and the title would have been forever In the hands of the olty." Milton Wins at Union. The Columbia college of Milton which won from La Grande two dayi ago was victor at Union last night over the high school there by the score of 24 to 14. Funeral neld Tomorrow. The funeral of Lou Remlllard, who died suddenly yesterday afternoon. Is to bo held tomorrow at 2:30 p. m. from the Catholic church. HARD COUNCIL BUSINESS BIG permitting1 the use or streets and al leys for poles, wires and conduits, were presented by the officials of the Eastern Oregon Co-Operativo Tele phone company, with headquarters In Elgin. The petition la short, asking, primarily, that a committee of the council be appointed to meet and confer- with a committee of the telephone company to devise what protection the city Is deemed entitled to In the letting of such a franchise. No fran cbase price, or anything of that sort, is discussed In the petition, this being presumably left to the Informal meet ing of the two committees. Some dis cussion arose as to which committee should handle the matter for the council, but it finally went to the street committee composed of Sargent, Haisten, Wlrlght and Chairman Davis, and as no date was set out for the meeting a mutually understood ' day will no doubt be agreed upon at once. This committee can report back a week hence at a special meeting to be held then or may not be acted on until the next regular meeting, lw. weeks hence. The street committee has a petition in hand from Julius Roesch, relative to payment of Improvement assess ments on certain blocks In Chaplin's addition, coming under conditions similar to the ones which J. H. Chtlds presented a few weeks ago and final acton will be recommended by that committee. ' The financial report of the city In considerable detail as ptvparnd by City Auditor Mansager, wan read and p'acr.ti on file. It will not be publish ed unless the council reconsiders Its- action of last evening. Puhlit,tiU'.n of the city's monthly finances .was ur g:t.tly requested In the nnyoi'a Ini tial message. A petition ' from Roy rtibbs to .be appointed poundniaster ws read and placed on file. A petition to obtain iule prices of the old hook and ladder waiwn. was presented by Roy Clapp ami placed on file. , Hoyt tttecites Actl"n. Charges have been maMe. svs a lengthy communication sont to the council last night by Waer Superin tendent L. M. Hoyt. that the present superintendent naa not u.aci3 eien- 'n wnen oraereu iu u taken other steps not within nis Juris- diction. To prove every order from Cash on hand . .$ 4,045.19 the council had been carried out Vxs Water Fund the purpose of the communication. Warrants out referring to specific extensions and ', standing to orders covering same. Among o'.h-, Cash on hand . . S.680.85 ers the communication explains the running of a pipe line Into the fair grounds, an act for which Mr. Hoyt has been freely criticised. In ex plaining this the communication ,y he was ordered by Mayor Church to do so as the fair board needed water quickly and couldn't wait for a coun cil meeting, and the mayor acted on the advice of a majority of the coun cil. The matter was referred. Salary Bills Held up. For the first time In several years, the salary bills to employes of the city will not be paid until after the sec ond meeting In the month. It has been the precedent that all bills pre sented at the first of the month be re ferred to committees and acted on at the second meeting, with the excep tion of salary warrants which have always been ordered drawn immedi ately after the first month, being scrutinized by committees Informally, Councilman Fitzgerald last night mov ed that these bills be held over like all other Bills and thereby created s stormy debate, in which Councilman Lincoln pleaded for the workmen and officials of the city who have to take "a warrant not worth 100 cents on the dollar, nearer 90 In fact, and wait 19 days In February foj the January pay." A loud ripple of applause from the crowded auditorium greeted the statement. However, the first teal rote came on an amendment to the (Continued on Pago 8) IM FOB GITV" "AFFAIRS SPECIAL MESSAGE TO THE COU3. CIL POINTS NEED OF COMMISSION FINANCIAL jTATUS B!3 Not Only Does Finances Need Atten tion Says Mesage, but It Is Neces sary That The Council Take Steps to Bring About an Improvement Over Present Municipal Govern ' ment Method '' Calling attention to what be terms urgent need of a commission form of government in this city Immediate- . ly, and setting clearly before the council and the public a summarised epitome of the city's financial condi tion, Mayor TS. K. Hall last night sent a special message to the council urging the new form of government and asking that something be done with the bonded Indebtedness. Tjhe message In foto follows: To the, Members of the City Council: Inasmuch as neither the finance committee of the council, nor other officers have seen fit. to prepare and publish a statement of the financial condition of the city at the beginning of the year, as required by the char ter, the mayor feels that it is Incum bent upon him to do so. The condition of the different funds at the beginning of the year was as follows: General Fund ,Br...u standing out- 89.925.S4 17,898.61 Imp. Fund Warrants out standing .. Cash on hand . . 117,718.81 5,000.00 $12,736.04 $225,542.71 ' The floating Indebtedness of tho city is limited by the charter to $59. 000. It will therefore be seen that the city has exceeded the legal limit by $162(816.71. Deducting the $117. 718.61 Issued in payment of street im provements there is still an excess of floating Indebtedness of $45,098.13, be ing 90 per cent over and above what the charter allows, against the gen eral and water funds alone. It seems to me that this Is a mat ter that should occupy the attention of not only the members of this coun cil, but .of the property owners at large In this city. There can be no doubt that It Is the duty of this coun cil to seek a remedy for this condi tion of things at once. The surplus Indebtedness in the general fund and in the water fund may be eliminated in two ways, viz., by an Increased levy, and by the practice of economy. It Is beyond the power of this council to Increase the levy this year, but it Is within their power to practice economy. Tho im provement fund Is the one that pre sents the greatest difficulties. Under the method of letting contracts In (Continued on Page Eight.) M URGES MAYOR
