One Coal-Oil Dealer Is Holding Olympia's New Electric Railway Hostage for $10,000
The streetcar line is contracted, the rails are shipped and the crews are ready — but George Marvin Savage's outfit sits squarely in the middle of Main Street, and he will not budge for less than ten thousand dollars.
Further progress was made today toward the building of the new electric railway. The contract was awarded to I. Libermann for the grading, clearing, grubbing and bridging of the land where necessary. Everything is now in readiness save the location of the tracks by the city council, and as soon as the necessary outfit arrives, work will commence. Superintendent Shock says it will not be later than two or three days anyhow. Mr. Shock, with Engineer Miller, are now at the Olympia. The rails have been shipped by the Pennsylvania Steel company, and the ties, bridge timbers and all other necessaries are ordered.
Members of the street committee are now considering plans for the location of the tracks, but are encountering many difficulties. George Marvin Savage absolutely refuses to budge from the center of the street, even though the city bears the expense. He claims that he was located there by the city authorities and there he proposes to stay. He says he has no written instructions, but the verbal orders from the street committee he contends are enough to give him title to his present position.
The greatest difficulty is encountered at Main and Fourth streets, owing to the limited space for turning the corner. The west side line comes across the Fourth street bridge and turns at Main street, down Main street to Third. Then, with the Savage tracks in the center of the street, the disadvantage of a third track is obvious. Notwithstanding what has been said regarding the intentions of Savage to hold on for four or five years, it was authoritatively given out this morning that he would sell his rights and get out of the way for the sum of $10,000. He claims to be well heeled legally, and proposes to resist any efforts whatever to displace him. In fact, he is so confident of his rights in the premises that he is seriously considering the idea of attempting to prevent the new road from having any portion of the street. Mr. Savage is simply acting as an obstacle to public improvements, and the sooner his coal oil outfit is relegated to another land the better for Olympia.
Superintendent Shock and Engineer Miller want the west side of Main street for its track.
“He claims that he was located there by the city authorities and there he proposes to stay.”
Olympia's first electric railway had to thread the tight corner where Main Street met Fourth, and one coal-oil dealer decided his patch of roadway was worth $10,000. Every generation of local infrastructure — streetcars then, transit and street rebuilds now — runs into somebody who owns the obstruction. The city's language in 1892 was blunt: an obstacle to public improvement. The negotiation has not changed much since.
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