And Now You Know: Young Men’s Committee discusses improvements to Orange 1912

Published 12:16 am Saturday, July 10, 2021

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Mike Louviere
And Now You Know

The Friday June 14, 1912, edition of the Daily Leader carried an article about improvements to Orange being discussed by the Young Men’s Committee. The committee seemed to be almost an extension or an auxiliary of the city commission.

The Young Men’s Committee had met the night before, Thursday, June 13. The meeting was well attended and there was a good bit of discussion about work that had been done and needed to be done in Orange.

The first business discussed was to donate $25 to defray expenses of the special committee that had worked on projects that had overseen the installation of sidewalks on Green Avenue.

The motion to donate to the committee “was highly commended and approved.”

W.B. Simmons, Jr. Chairman of the Advertising Committee reported that stickers advertising Orange had been placed in numerous sites including, 5,000 at Miller-Link Lumber Company, 5,000 at Lutcher and Moore Lumber Company, 5,000 at First National Bank, 5,000 at Orange National Bank, 5,000 at Yellow Pine Paper Mill, 5,000 at Wells Fargo Express Company, and 2,500 at United States Express Company. There were still 4,000 waiting to be placed where needed.

Simmons also reported that a rubber stamp had been made carrying the same advertising message and that Mr. Lasley, the postmaster was putting the stamp on all outgoing mail.

A motion was made and passed for a special committee be appointed to confer with Dr. Brown and Mr. Stark in reference to cleaning up, moving the house, and generally improving the appearance of the lot on the corner of Fifth and Division Streets, and for the committee to further confer with Professor Cohn regarding band concerts one night each week. The committee would then report back to Chairman Dullahan, who would then call a meeting of the Young Men’s Committee to take such action as the case would require. The special committee consisted of W. B. Simmons, Jr., I. Werner, and J.A.S. Lasley.

H.Tucker and Frank McDonald were appointed as a committee to formulate some plans where a crossing could be constructed to connect the sidewalks on the corners of Fifth and Front Streets.

There was discussion of a plan to improve lighting on Green Avenue.

J.M. Dullahan, S.M. White and J.L. Joiner were appointed to confer with Mr. Trimble of the Electric Light Plant, the city council, and others to see if it would be possible to install small incandescent lights in large numbers to replace the arc lights currently in service.

There was considerable discussion given to additional sidewalk construction from Green Avenue on Eighth or Ninth Streets to the school building. However, no definite action was taken,

“Free and outspoken methods for extending the general lighting of the city was indulged in by everyone present”, reported the Leader. The result was a concerted movement to first get Pine Street in line. The plan was endorsed to contact everyone living on the corners of Pine Street and ask them to pay a portion of the expense necessary for the lighting.

Several members of the Young Men’s Club reported that Mr. Trimble was inclined to be “liberal in helping the movement along.”

The price offered was $1.50 flat for each light per month.

A proposed bond issue for the city was discussed. Chairman Dullahan stated the first work along this line should be additional school facilities. Mr. Frank Hatton agreed to make a proper investigation of the bonded position of the city to ascertain what should be done and report back to the Young Men’s Club.

Secretary Anderson called attention to conflicts to meeting on Thursday night, the current meeting night, and suggested a committee be appointed to determine if there was a better meeting time.

It seemed as though the Young Men’s Committee functioned as a committee to appoint committees to investigate projects for the betterment of Orange. Lighting and sidewalks were the projects that were in the forefront in those early years.

“And now you know.”