| Show so decided the tax payers last night CITY COUNCIL TO PROCEED WITH ITS construction AT ONCE the selling of the west half of the courthouse Court honse block ventilated pursuant co the action of the city council at its session last thursday evening a mass meeting of llie taxpayers of provo city was held in alie courthouse last evening pursuant to the call of the mayor for the purpose of considering the advisability of building a cita hall mayor dusenberry acted as chairman and mr james H wallis on motion of mr W 11 brown was elected secretary The Mayor in stating the object of the meeting said the city council WAS anxious to get at the ideas of the people of this municipality regarding the city cooperating with the county court to construct a vault for storing alio records of the county and city the members of tho council had been approached by a committee from the county court in relation to building such a vault and the city had appointed a like committee to co operate in the matter but at the last session of the council it was decided to leave it to the people the question has finally assumed alie eliapo that provo needs a city hall if them tans would justify the action mid the matter now resolves itself would it it not be a good idea for the city to erect a wing on the west of the courthouse similar to that building and both city and county co onerato in building a central building to join the two wings with a vault placed in it for the uses of not only the county and city but also for the district court which nee led a vault as badly as either the county or city in answer to a question by mr W D roberts the chair stated that alie question of selling the west front say one hundred feet of the east square could come up at this mee eting if the taxpayers saw fit but the meeting was not called ajr that purpose the means for the construction ot the city hall if tins land was not sold would have to come from direct tax or the revenue of the city mr W D roberta then cent to the the following resolutions which were read and seconded by mr win H king WHEREAS the increase of city business has made the present accommodations inadequate to the requirements of the city making it necessary to build a city hall and WHEREAS the revenue of the city is insufficient to build a hall of sufficient size to meet the wants of our growing city and WHEREAS the west half of the block belongs to the city from which the citizens receive no benefit therefore be it resolved that it is the sense of this meeting that the city council sell the west part of said block if possible at bricea as follows for the northwest corner not less than per front foot and for the remainder not less than per front foot running east not more than feet provided however that the deeds for all land sold shall stipulate that no business such as the manufacturing or selling of liquor gambling houses or houses of ill fame etc etc shall be established thereon and that all buildings shall be fireproof and not less than two stories high mr roberta gave liis reasons tor presenting theao resolutions ho believed the selling of this property would be the best policy to adopt if the city was determined ter mined to undertake the erection of a hall at a cost of but he thought the first thing to be decided was are we ready to erect such a building if so shall we dispose of this property to effect that purpose if not how are we going to build it he understood there were some taxpayers present who would oppose such an action if the land was to ba used for the erection of saloons gambling houses etc and hence he biad consulted lawyers to see if provisions could not be made in the deeda prohibiting puch businesses being cairies on chev had stated that the city in deeding the property could stipulate what manner of buildings shoula be erected on this property hence liis incorporating in these resolutions a prohibiting clause covering this objection mr jacques wanted to know if it did not tako a majority of taxpayers to say whether this property should be sold the chair stated that that it most decidedly did not mr jacques then asked if the city did not own one sixth interest in the present courthouse if so was the county couert prepared to say what it would give for that interest afdera few moments silence judge dusenberry offered the following amendment that the city council be authorized to proceed with the erection of a city hall and also join with the county court in the construction of a building mr myron tanner opposed the selling of the west half of the square he wanted to see the city use that for its exclusive purposes for a city hall for a jail and a boarding house for alie prisoners let the county do what it liked with its own property and let the city do alie same provo is destined to become a great city and it will need alie of its property on this block and more the cresent county courthouse was built at a cost of but at alie time it was built lumber was high labor was high brick was high in fact lie same building could now be built for hence alie city in a couple of years would be so financially fixed that it could erect a similar building for its own use for then the east pond would be drained and the revenue from the sale of liquor would replenish the treasury everybody here wanted to know what the question was the mayor wanted to know if anybody had seconded judge motion the judge replied no mr george sutherland dropped into tha meeting at this juncture and judge dusenberry asked the gentleman if he would not second the amendment he had offered mr sutherland moat readily assented and the judge then restated his motion for thal benefit of mr sutherland judge dusenberry showed the necessity for the construction of a county and city vault and of the inconsistency of placing one in the present building mr S S joep did not approve of the idea of erecting a city hall of alie same size and style as the courthouse let us have fco different something in keeping with our name and reputation provo was the third largest city in utah and certainly ahe should have a city hall consistent with her importance he did not approve of selling the west front of the courthouse block iio did not see any particular necessity for selling this land any how the increase of our city will justify abc some time eliat piece of land being tastefully laid out in gardens and ornamental walks for tho recreation and pleasure of alie people and the ornamentation of the city then the question is how are wo going to raise the funds to build a city hall he wanted those present not to be subjected to such shameful treatment as was perpetrated by tho school trustees in the matter of the central in this instance the people were told that euca a building would not cost baht has already cost and is not ilni shed yet if the cita aall v as to cost or 30 jsu JS 1 let us know it but dont tell us we can build it for 15 and then in a year or so leave us to find that it will cost some hated the idea of bonding the city for public improvement so far as he could see he was not of that opinion he was satisfied eliat the city would take a wise step if they asa to decide to raise money in that way mr J B keeler opposed the selling of the west half of alie east square for any purpose whatever he was satisfied that if it was sold the people who would buy it would do so for speculation and nothing else ifa city hall was absolutely needed and the city could not do without it let it be economically built say at a cost bot to exceed such a building could be erected and would answer the purposes of the city until aliey could afford a better mr V II 11 kine believed that provo needed waterworks water works more than a city hall he conceded alie fact that provo needed a hall but he believed that alie onward progress and development of provo lay in a system of water works he believed lucli an improvement would cost a great amount of money but our posterity could better afford to carry a debt for water works than it could for a city hall pure water gives us health and health brings us prosperity he believed when prevo did build a city hall that it should be a specimen of more architectural beauty alian a building similar to the courthouse in reference to alie principle of bonding lie did not look at it in such a prejudicial light as some did if bonding was resorted to lie did not believe it would hurt provo but let us first have fresh water then the speaker would willingly cast his vote in favor of a city hall mr isaac bullock opposed selling any city property provo could not afford to do it she will need all the land she has some day for the benefit of the people he did not approve of the city helping the county doing anything mr geo sutherland said a good many had objections to selling the west half of alie square buc what these objections were lie could not readily see if some objected to its sale on the grounds that t ie purchasers would erect salo onson it let it be sold on alie conditions that no such business shall be carried on there such stipulations would be perfectly legitimate some objected to its sale on the grounds that provo needed it for a park the land certainly could not be fora park it was not large enough some in the west end of town did not want the land sold because it would induce the business to centralize in the cast part of provo some had suggested that instead of raising weeds there that fine green lucern be sown just think of raising lucern on a piece of property worth why you could buy up all the property in the west end of ton for that money laughter it was poor economy to keep property when the city needed valuable improvements it was time provo up she haq not more than an overgrown village there was nothing here only dust aud it takes three months to sink a well to get gatei from it to sprinkle the streets with he certainly was in I 1 favor of the establishment of a good tarn of waterworks water works the reason is obvious we are not insured against fire A fire might acme along any and burn the whole town down let us first have water works then a system of sewerage and then a city hall mr jacques had been a citizen of provo for thirty six years and he had longed for the time to come when alie west side of tho housa block and west of judge Dusenberry a residence would cease to be a hog wallow he certainly would give the present council credit for having accomplished this but he wanted to see further improvements made he would not favor selling any land we need more than we have got let the city be bonded and let the whisky pay the interest and let the council see it does pay it let ns have waterworks water works and let us have the fire engine behind them judge dusenberry would certainly oppose alie erection of a city hall apart from the county courthouse experience had taught larger cities than provo that it was more convenient to have both buildings in one imagine a person paying his county taxes in one part of town and alien having to travel a mile to pay liis city taxes let both city and county offices be under one roof ajr aled smoot here arose and moved to adjourn but on judge jones requesting mr smoot to withdraw draw his motion for a few minutes while he made a few remarks that gentleman did so with the understanding that the judge made an american speech judge jones alien rehearsed what had been said by judge dusenberry that more room was absolutely needed for county and city purposes and that tho preservation of the records now piled up in the celiar of alie courthouse subject at any time to firc was of more value to the citizens than a little bit of land mr reed smoot was heartily in favor of buildings buil dins a city hall but lie was not in favor of bonding the city for the purpose it had valuable land that it could dispose of mr john G jones in consideration of so few of the taxpayers being pie sent suggested that the question of building a city hall be not pressed as if such an action was taken there certainly would be a remonstrance rem from the property owners the probable cost of the building had not been stated and he thought it unfair for such things to be done in the daik there were hundreds of poor people in town who were not able to pay their present taxes let alone raise money for the erection of a city hall judge amendment was finally put to the meeting and a division vote being called 1 orthe result was declared to be 41 in favor and 25 against the amendment aie chairman announced the motion carried f mr geo sutherland then moved that alie city council be authorized to sell alie west liala of the courthouse block if they deem it necessary alie motion was seconded by judge dusenberry but was not put to the meeting as about half of those present broke out into motions to adjourn When alie motion to adjourn was put a rising vote was called for A count being made it was discovered that there were 49 for adjournment and 17 against N the meeting thereupon adjourned |
