| Show PETITION FOR SQUARE I Railroad Communication to the City Council I I 1 T E GIBBONS REQUEST Citizens Committee Also Represented at the Meeting When Los Angeles I Proposition Came Up Protests Also Tiled by Opponents of Grant Referred to Council Committees Fireman Got on Wrong Road When CaflccIr Ross Clarks Statement Gibbon Leaves Today for the Enst j The session of the City Council was again enlivened last l evening by tho presentation of the Salt Lake Los Angeles railway proposition The following communication was read Salt Lake City Utah Sept J5 1000 To the Honorable the Mayor and City 1 I Council Gentlemen Representing a company of gentlemen at whoso head la I Senator W A Clark of Montana and including in-cluding tho original stockholders of tho LOA Angeles Terminal Railway company who proposu to organize it corporation for tho purpose of establishing a lino of railway rail-way between the harbor San Pedro and the city of Los Angeles In southern California Cali-fornia and Suit Lnko City Utah 1 have tho honor to request that you will grint to tho promoters of this enterprise depot facilities in your city consisting of tho Hl designated upon your city maps as Pioneer iuure and also tho necessary franchises over your streets to give tho proposed railway an entrance Into your cityThe The corporation has not yet been organized or-ganized and cannot bo for a short time tor tim reason that wo havo not yet fully collected certain data necessary < or us to have before organizing same For that reason should this application meet with your approval I havo to auggest that tho depot Kilo desired shall bo granted to the two principal promoters of the enterprise enter-prise to 1tScnatorV A Clark of Montana and Honorable JR C Kerens of St Louis Mo and their assigns for tho uso of corporation tobc promoted by them which shall establish and operate tho proposed railway as an Independent line Inasmuch as wo desire this accommodation accommoda-tion only In consideration of the line being be-ing established and operated as an Independent Inde-pendent line of railway I would suggest that If you shall decide to make tho grant It shall be formulated as to become cf fcctlvo only upon this condition being I complied with That Is I that you require tho organization of tho proposed company com-pany thu completion of a certain amount of tho proposed Hue of railway before tho deed which pending this may be held In escrow shnll bo delivered and that the title shall express that it Is granted upon those conditions and for the purpose oC there being maintained on the ground a railway station These however are matters mat-ters of detail which 1 assume can bo worked out for the full protection of tho city If you shall decided grant our request re-quest Wo also request Ihat If you aro disposed to grant our application action may be taken In that behalf at as aGate a-Gate as Is practicable Inasmuch ns the action of your honorable body will In some ways affect the matter of tho proposed pro-posed organization of our corporation As to tho franchises which It will bo f necessary for us to have over somo of > our streets In order to enter your city I will suggest that final action bo deferred I until our proposed company can be Incorporated Incor-porated and our engineer can meet With I appropriate committees of your hon oniblo body and decide upon tho route which will be of least disadvantage to I your citizens and city compatible with tho accommodations which wo will require I re-quire It being our dcslro to as far as is I consistent with the ofllclcnt operation of tho proposed railway consult tho Interest Inter-est of individual citizens and also the boat Interests of your city at large I have further to say that should you dccldo to grant this application with reference ref-erence to depot facilities wo aro Informed In-formed by our attorneys that lie first step necessary looking to accomplishment accomplish-ment of that matter will bo the forma abandonment by ordinance of Pioneer square as a public park which we arc advised ourC Council has power to do I remain very respectfully T E GIBBON George A Lowe chairman of the cltlzens committee represented that the committee appointed by them consisting con-sisting of C S Varlan TV H Dick son and H G WhItney to meet with the Council Committee on Public Laws for the purpose of formulating an ordinance or-dinance granting the franchises asked for had failed to come together and asked that the communication above be referred to an appropriate committee commit-tee and that the citizens committee be given opportunity to meet and confer con-fer with such committee relative to statements made In the communication communica-tion PROTESTS PRESENTED Following on the heels of this came a protest signed by I W B Preston and 120 others protesting against the donation dona-tion of the Pioneer square to the proposed pro-posed railway company or to anybody elsp and asking that it be reserved for the use to which it was dedicated The petitioners called attention to the statements made that the streets of the city to a large area are used unlawfully by railroad companies for switch yards and various other purposes which make the property near there decidedly undesirable for residence purposes without any compensation for the loss In value because thereof and that the square referred to Is the only breathing spot that the people and the children have in the entire section of the city I lying west of Main street Also that in the district lying contiguous to the square property is assessed as high and In some casts even higher than some of the property In the most desirable de-sirable portion of the city The petition peti-tion then goes on to state that the argument ar-gument that the property surrounding the square will in the very near future be used entirely for warehouses railway rail-way shops etc IB contradicted by the fact that the laboring classes will always al-ways reside In that portion of the town The petitioners say they realize that the building of the new road would mean much to the city that the people peo-ple of the western part of the city want the road built arc anxious for it and are willing to do their part to I obtain ob-tain such advantages as will result but they will not consent to the donation of pioneer square for any purpose other oth-er than that for which it was dedicated dedi-cated and will light the proposition until un-til all legal means have been exhausted Among the principal signers are W B Preston L S Hills Joseph F Smith S M Barratt John T Caine E A Smith Groesbeck W S Burton John Wells RR Anderson N V Jones Thomas Hull George D herB her-B T Lloyd D A Swan W P Nebe ker D M McAllister John Clark H P Richards W J Newman John F Howells A F Barnes H S Young E S Woodruff John Felt Albert S Reiser Isaac Barton and O H Petllt Alice Butte wolth and tyIlve others also sent In a protest These Claim that at the present market price the square Is worth at least 100000 and further that It cannot be legally I disposed of any way They cite tho veto of the appropriation made by the city for the benefit of the Scoileld sufferers I suf-ferers as a sample of good law In dealIng I deal-Ing with the citys property and funds While strenuously objecting to the transfer of tho old square to anybody they say there Is plenty of ground to the vest of the city on which good terminal facilities may bo had and then offer to do what they can individually indi-vidually and collectively trj secure tho same or such other site as the proposed company may need to enable It to enter en-ter and do business In this city There was some little discussion as to what should bo done with these various vari-ous communications hut It was finally settled that they should all go to the Committees on Laws Public Grounds and Streets with the City Attorney as sedated they to meet on October 1th I at the Council chamber and that tho citizens should be Invited to be present I |
