Takes Issue With Sawyer

TAKES ISSUE WITH SAWYER

On Matter of $18,000 Bridge and Culvert Fund

GENERAL LAW OF 1897

Permits City to Use the Fund for Repair of All Damaged Culverts

A well known local attorney, who is thoroughly conversant with the provisions of the city charter of Ann Arbor, says that City Attorney Sawyer is in error when he says that the city has no right to permit the use of the $18,000 bridge, culvert and crosswalk fund for repairs to the culverts damaged by the storm of a few weeks ago. Mr. Sawyer's premise was that the fund could only be used for the repair of the streets and such culverts as have been built in the streets that have been damaged. The attorney who takes issue with Mr. Sawyer said:

"The city attorney is very much astray when he says that this $18,000 fund cannot be used for the repair of all the damaged culverts. This fund was appropriated under the general law of 1897, section 3443, which grants the power to levy a tax for the repair of just such damages as occurred a few weeks ago. The law was enacted through the fact that a number of towns and villages in the state had been sued because of damages to property and individuals through occurrences in much along the same line as that of the big storm we had a few weeks ago. In most of these instances the towns and villages had pleaded that they had no funds to repair the damaged property. The legislature then gave them power to levy a tax not exceeding five mills on the dollar for the purpose of making repairs. It was under this law that the fund of $18,000, which we now have, was raised, and it can now be used for fixing up the culverts and all the city property which has recently been destroyed here."