Tacoma Bets Its Streets on Brick and Bonds
The council approves bonded paving for Pacific Avenue — Tacoma's first block of hard pavement — while quietly asking whether the mayor still legally holds his office.
TACOMA, June 15.—At the special meeting of the council this afternoon the resolution for the paving of Pacific Avenue was passed. The paving is to be on the bonding plan, the bonds to draw not to exceed 6 per cent interest. The ordinance for doing the work will be presented at the regular session Saturday. First-class brick on a concrete foundation is the style of pavement adopted.
At the meeting today a resolution was also passed directing the city attorney to present an opinion on the legality of [the mayor] holding over in his present office after his one-year term has expired. His term ended April 17, but the mayor has yet failed to name a successor. An effort is to be made to have the office declared vacant.
“First-class brick on a concrete foundation is the style of pavement adopted.”
Pacific Avenue's brick was buried under generations of asphalt and rail, but the question Tacoma voted on in 1895 — whether to borrow money to rebuild a main street — is the same one every Puget Sound city argues over at budget time. So is the second item on the agenda: what happens when the person in charge simply refuses to leave.
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