Ballard Sees Its Future in a Dredged Salmon Bay — but the Bonds Can't Wait
Councilman Keane presses Ballard to claim the Lake Washington canal right-of-way through Salmon Bay, while two Populist members skip town to block a quorum on the water and electric bonds.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Councilman John Keane addressed the Ballard city council at length on Tuesday night on the necessity of taking some action in the interest of Ballard in securing the right-of-way for the canal through Salmon Bay. He had consulted all the mill owners except one, and they were all in favor of having the $25,000 appropriated by congress expended in dredging out the bay, and were willing to stand any damage they might sustain by raising the present level of high tide. It seemed, he said, as if the various committees in Seattle were disposed to ignore the city of Ballard, and he suggested that a committee of three be appointed to confer with the committee appointed by the mayor of Seattle and the county commissioners. Mayor Edmund Peters was authorized to appoint a committee of three citizens for this purpose.
The Populist members, A. McDonald and Thomas Winsor, were conspicuous by their absence. They are both opposed to bonding the town for water and electric lights, and it is supposed their absence is due to a desire to prevent a quorum and delay the advertisement and sale of the bonds. At the previous session, when this question came up, Winsor, without permission from the mayor, abruptly left the council chamber, leaving the council without a quorum. The minutes of the previous meeting were corrected to show that Winsor's precipitate departure was taken after the canvass of the votes authorizing the sale of the bonds had been made. The clerk was instructed to advertise for bids for the bonds in a half dozen papers.
A protest signed by the Stimson Mill Company and 240 others against the violation of the fire ordinance was received and allowed. The protest was called forth by a petition from W. L. Forrester asking permission to erect a frame building on Ballard avenue. Mr. Forrester withdrew his petition.
The salary of $15 a month paid to the chief of the fire department for the past two years was ordered stopped for the future.
An ordinance regulating the use of streets and prohibiting the depositing of rubbish thereon was adopted.
A communication from F. D. Fowler, threatening to sue the city for the payment of street warrants, was received and placed on file.
A letter from Eugene Riecksecker, secretary of the Puget and Crescent Company, asking that the assessment of its holdings in the city be reduced from eight acres to seven and twenty-hundredths acres, was referred to the finance committee.
Mayor Peters informed the council that the committee of the whole would meet the tide land appraisers Thursday morning at 10 o'clock.
“It seemed as if the various committees in Seattle were disposed to ignore the city of Ballard.”
Ballard's gamble on the canal paid off spectacularly: the Lake Washington Ship Canal and the Ballard Locks, completed in 1917, still define the neighborhood and its economy. But the fight over bonding the town for water and electric service anticipated a century of Seattle-area arguments over public utilities and who pays for infrastructure.
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