Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1907 — WANTED- A DITCH COMMISSIONER [ARTICLE]

WANTED- A DITCH COMMISSIONER

This Is the Form of Advertisement Likely to Be Employed In Kankakee Case. A conference was held in Rensselaer yesterday by Horace Marble, of Wheatfield; BJhStraus of Ligonier, F. W. Powers, W. ri. Potter and Albert Goslee, of Lafayette, with A. Hallock, the counsel of the Kankakee ditch petitioners. Mr. Marble headed the petition and Mr. Straus is president, and the Lafayette gentlemen are all members of the Northern Indiana Land Co., who have such a great body of land northeast

of DeMotte. It was the members of this company that fathered and secured the passage of Representative Meeker’s drainage bill last year. The bill was presumably drafted by Lawyer Darroch, of LaPorte, and was vetoed by Governor Hanly, who claimed it to be unconstitutional.

Mr. Marble and- Attorney Halleck were the most bitter eiemies of the bill and gave it several hard bumps as it went thru the two houses before passage. Mr. Marble realized that the widening and deepening of the Kankakee channel was inevitable and he thought he might *as well take the lead in the movement as to trail in afterwards, so he lead the petition for the present improvement and found the Northern Indiana Land Co. ready to help any movement that would drain their large acreage. This combination has proven more than the opposition in the counties to the north could stand and Attorney Halleck has practically routed all the schemes of the remonstrators.

Now a rather peculiar difficulty confronts them, but not a very serious one. It is that of selecting a third commissioner for the construction work. Two of the commissioners come from this county and and Judge Hanley appointed County Surveyor Price and County Ditch Commissioner D. W. Waymire. The third commissioner must come from one of the other counties, either Porter, Lake or Newton, and must be a resident land owner in one of the townships effected but must not be the owner -of land es fected, and must not be related even remotely to the owner of any land effecte 1 by the proposed drainage scheme. Judge Hanley has set Friday, Dec. 6th, as the day for meeting to discuss the proposition of the third commissioner and the meeting j ust held was to try to find the man. It is desired to make the appointment from Porter county and from either Boone or Pleasant townships, but it is hard to find a qualified man who meets up to all the requirements of the law. The meeting just held is said not to have been prolific of results so far as determining upon an acceptable man for the place.