Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1907 — THE OPPOSITION TOOK FLIGHT [ARTICLE]

THE OPPOSITION TOOK FLIGHT

Mammoth Drainage Proposition For Kankakee Country Now Almost Certain to Succeed. . _ With less than one-third of the witnesses examined in the remonstrance effort against the Kankakee drainage petition of Horlce Marble, et al, the attorneys add all the witnesses for the remonstrance, following the adjournment Thursday, took their doll rags and went home, forsaking the fight as a lost one, admitting that they did not have the necessary two-third resident fftnn pwnera on the remonstrance, and practically admitting their inability to forestall the improvement as begun by the Marble petition. Judge Hanley has referred the petition to drainage commissioners M. ■». Pries and D. w. Waymire, and on Friday, Dec. 6th, tire third oommissionei will be appointed. This cpmmissioner will be from one Ot4fco Other counties, either Lake er Porter, and when the appointment is made the recommendation of the effective land owners of these counties will be considered and the opposing attorneys will be given an opportunity to be present and concur in , the appointment

On Wednesday Judge Hanley overruled a plea in abatement re* specting the jurisdiction of this county based on frontage, and the next step will be as to whether the court had the right to.aßpoint commissioners under the law and prior to January Ist. As the appoint ment of a commissioner for this county will be made by the county commissioners in December and as D. W. Way mire will be again reappointed it would seem that the opposition is on its last legs unless it is able to secure a reversal of the proceedings on an appeal. * The proposed improvement begins at a river point between Jas per and Porter counties and three miles west of the Starke Jasper line, and continues west to Water Valley - on the, Jasper and Lake county line, a distance of about 24 miles. In the opinion of Attorney Halleck, who has engineered the case for the petitioners, the improvement will cost any where from $200,000 to $300,000. It will be the largest drainage scheme ever undertaken in Jasper or adjoining counties. The three miles in the east end of the county, connecting the Marble ditoh with the already completed work, is being petitioned for by Fred Hamanp, et al.