"Why R. H. Parker Circulated a Peti
tion Against Paving the Streets.”
I read an article in the Independent
of the issue of March 19, under the
above heading, signed by R. H. Parker,
in which he gives some pretended fig
ures as to the cost of pavng District
No. 1 of O’Neill as organized by the
property owners thereof, and I note
his reasons for opposing paving.
He states that “the city is $8,000.00
in debt for sewer bonds, and $4,000.00
in debt for city warrants;” that may be
true as I have not taken the time to
look it up, and if it is true, that is no
argument against paving, because that
amount of debt is very insignificant
for /& town the size of O’Neill. He
states that “the standpipe in O’Neill
is all in and that we need a new one.”
Assuming that that fact is true, that
is no argument against paving. An
erection of a larger standpipe, or a
new standpipe needed for a larger sup
ply of water for fire protection, that
expense could be taken care of by an
increase water charge for the con
sumer. The present charge is much
too low to take care of the expense of
pumping and supplying the city with
water, the cost of labor, fuel, machin
ery, pumps and equipment of all kind
necessary io pump the water has ad
vanced with everything else, and the
city is furnishing water at the old
price.
He states that “the streets in O’Neill
are 99 feet wide, and that the proposed
paving is only 60 feet wide.” The facts
are that the entire street including the
walks are 99 feet, taking out the width
of the walks on both sides of the
street,and 60 feet for paving would in
clude the entire width of the street,
and if not, the remaining portion
would be thrown in for the purpose of
walks, or what is termed “parking.”
So there is nothing to that argument.
He states that “as near as he can
figure that paving would cost from
$360 to $600, or more per lot according
to the size of the lots.” The estimate
of the cost to pave has been advertised
and every property owner will know
exactly what it will cost to pave a lot
before or at the time the contract for
paving it let.
He states “that it used to cost $150
to $200 per lot to pave.” I assume
that he is only guessing at that for so
far as I know and so far as the records
of the city council will disclose, wehave
never had an official estimate of the
cost of paving. He states “that ce
ment, brick and labor are more than
double in price than formerly, and
that if prices drop 25 per cent to 40
per cent during the coming year,
people would feel as though they had
been stung $200 on each lot.” The
same thing might be said of every
thing that you buy at the present time,
including the price of land, and if it
should drop 25 to 40 per cent, of
course, the people that bought it would
be stung. The same thing may be true
of the purchase of city property, the
construction of business buildings, res
idences, building of bridges or con
struction of rbads. There is a large
amount of the latter being built by the
townships, county and state and Fed
eral government the present year. Be
sides, we have no assurance or no right
to believe that the price of any of
these materials, or the price of labor
will decline 25 to 40 per cent. We
have no assurance that prices will not
advance higher than they are now.
He says “that the total bill for
paving is about $131,486.20. This
would draw 7 per cent interest which
would be $9,204.03 interest a year, and
that if this $9,204.03 were spent on
grading up the streets every year that
every street in O’Neill would be graded
up and kept in dandy shape all over
town.” Is he not aware that the total
expense of paving, exclusive of inter
sections, will fall absolutely on the
property owners, and that there would
be no way in the world to get the in
terest from the properry owners that
they would pay on the paving to be
spent on grading up the streets in
dandy shape, as he suggests?
It is true that the tax payers of
O’Neill would have to pay for paving
the intersection and pay interest on
whatever bonds were required to de
fray that expense, but that is all the
interest that the taxpayers would be
required to pay. The rest would be
paid, both the taxes and principal, ab
solutely by the property owners and
with the elimination of repairing
yearly all of proposed District No. 1,
on which there is more traffic than any
other street in O’Neill, then the money
used annually on repairing said dis
trict, would be spent on outside streets
and largely in the residential section
of the town.
He states “that there will be a city
council meeting about April 1, and that
everybody should be at this meeting
and have their say and stop the paving
from going on.” No, everybody
should not be at this meeting to stop
the paving from going on, only those
who are against improvement and de
velopment of O’Neill should be at the
meeting to protest against this im
provement.
Any property owner who signed the
petition to pave, signed at a time and
with full knowledge that the price of
material and labor was high and there
has been no material advance in prices j
since that time. They have no valid
reason to withdraw their name at this
time from the petition, if they were in
favor of paving at that time, they
should be in favor of paving now.
O’Neill the county seat, is the
principal business and largest town in
the County. There is no reason that
O’Neill should delay making this badly
needed improvement. Many towns all
over the state that are smaller and in
significant as compared with O’Neill
have paved and are paving under ex
isting conditions, and if you want to
boost for O’Neill, we ought to be at
least willing to pave the main busi
ness and traffic streets of the city, and
pick the traffic up out of the mud, the
sand and the dust, and beautify and
improve, at least for the present, the
main business and traffic streets
thereof.
Why did Parker circulate the pro
test to the paving? The facts are
that he recently bought five business
lots abutting on to the proposed pav
ing district, two of them was owned
by Mrs. Wm. Gray and three of them
by Mrs Virgin, and no doubt, in nego
tating the purchase of this preperty
from the woman, they were in
fluenced largely in making a price to
him on account of being told that the
paving, which was sure to go through,
would cost them a large sum of money,
and that they had better sell the
property to him, and that he would
assume the paving obligation, and
therefore he was able to buy this
property for considerable less than its
real value.
After obtaining this property, he
immediately started out with a peti
tion of protest against the paving, and
represents to the property owners that
he is circulating this protest for their
benefit and that paving should be de
layed until such time as he can resell
this property and make a good profit
without putting any money in for the
benefit of the town and public. Why
invite all this trouble and expense of
buying these lots and assuming the
paving obligation? I am reliably in
formed that Mr. P. E. McKillip of the
Atlas Land Co., on learning that R. H.
Parker was opposed to paving on ac
count of having bought said lots, of
fered to take them off of his hands,
and pay him a profit of ten per cent,
and assume all paving obligations.
I will substantite Mr. McKillip’s prop
osition, and will at this time make the
same offer.
Last summer he advertised that he
had only been back from California
one week and had sold a farm. “Who
sold the H. O. Jackson ranch? Parker, ■
of course. Who sold the Manderville
place ? Parker, of course. I have sold
57 farms in one week, and 17 farms in
one day.” So on the sale of all this
property, which he admits he has sold,
it should not be a question of money II
with him, and since he has been for- I
tunate enough to be here in O’Neill
and have earned all this money as a II
result of living here, he should not II
take part in a movement to stop the ||
development of the town and com- I
munity which has helped him so much. I
No doubt, in all these other towns |j
which have paved throughout the I
state, which are smaller than O’Neill, II
they had their Parkers, but it is evi- ■■
dent in the towns that have paved I
that there were not enough Parkers, I
or men of that type to stop the II
progress and development of their II
town.
I hope that it cannot be said of II
O’Neill that with all its broadminded II
and substantial citizens and business II
men, that we are less progressive than I
these other towns. And I hope that it 11
will not be said that a man who does I
not live here and has no property in I
the town, as in the instance of Mr. I
McKillip, has more interest iq paving I
and building up the town and country I
than a resident property owner. Do I
we want Ainsworth to the west of us, II
Spencer to the north, Neligh to the j|
east, Albion to the south of us, all II
paved, which they have done and are II
doing, and O’Neill not paved ?
It is only a few years ago tht Mr. li
Parker enjoyed a very profitable real I
estate business at a very little ex- II
pense, and as soon as he had profited I
from his business in this town and in I
this county, and land sales fell off and I
business was dull, he skulked off to ||
California and to the Hawaiian Islands II
to spend his time enjoying life in the II
salty waters of the Pacific, to bask in I
the tropical sun of the Golden West, II
and to walk and drive in the fern 11
bound, and palm bedecked boulevards I
of California, paved, if you will. While I
the rest of us less fortunate citizens II
of O’Neill remained at home to stand
the cold and the blizzards of winter,
the heat and the sand and the dust of
the summer, and traded with our mer- I
chants, our hotels, our garages, and j
maintained our schools and our I
churches, bought the farmers grain, I
hcgs and produce, paid our taxes, bor- II
rowed money from our banks, invested I
in our land and property and adver- I
tised our country.
We expect the federal government II
(Continued on page seven.) II
. 1
Pennsylvania ||
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BUV WANSER’S
Bi<> Public Sale!
-1 Will Sell At My Yards In—r—
Page Nebraska
-ON
Saturday, April 3rd
Sale will commence at 1 o’clock
^_ •
185 Head of Cattle
125 head coming 2 and 3 year old steers; 55 head of cows and heifers; 5 good
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15 Head Horses and Mules
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Spanish Jack, 6 years old, weight 900.
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BVV WANSER
Stewart, Hamilton and Asher, Auctioneers. * E .H. Smith, Clerk.
i:,_ bzz-..:. : .vi’,, ■ , . ,^=
I have purchased the P. J. McManus Gro
cery Store, taking possession of the same last
Tuesday morning, and I am now prepared to
cater to your wants in the Grocery Line.
This is one of the oldest Grocery Stores in
the city and has always been noted for the
splendid lines of groceries that were handled
and the excellent service given its patrons.
It will be my ambition to keep the store up to
its present high standard and I assure you
you will continue to receive good treatment and
honest goods and they willibe sold at the low
est possible margin of profit, consistent with
good business.
The old customers of the store are cordi
ally invited to continue their patronage and I
assure them that / will at all times supply
them with the latest the market affords in the
grocery and fruit line. To those who have
not been patrons of this store we hereby ex
tend you a cordial invitation to visit our store,
get acquainted, inspect our goods and give us
an opportunity to supply you with groceries.
If quality, price and service count then we
know we can please you.
Make our store your headquarters when
in town. You will receive a hearty welcome.
T. -A». VITT
Groceries