Minutes 07/13/1937 - Laserfiche WebLink

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57 City Manager: - NEW BUSINESS The following petition was read, and on motion of Mr. Fox~ refer~red to the "The undersigned, who are property owners and voters~of the City, desire to submit the following situation to your Body for consideration and correction. The condition of Effingham Street, as compared to others is very bad. The buses of the Virginia Electric & Power Company which use said street as a route for T~xton and Piedmont Heights, has caus- ed the line to be detrimental to your petitioners; the street is largely made up of holes and ruts, and these when the buses come by, cause the houses to be Jarred; and the same to cause.plenty of dirt and dust thereby creating a nuisance. It is the hope and destre that the same be corrected at au early date. - Respectfully submitted, (Signed) J. W. Brown, 800 Scott The following letter was read: St., and sund~y others." City Council, City of portsmouth, Portsmouth, Va. ~21-30 Forty-fourth Roads July 1st, 1937. Long Island City, N.Y. Gentlemen: As a result of the existence of item #?~ of the ordinance imposing a license tax for the City for the year beginning May 1st, 1937, we Have been forced To remove from operation our vending equipment in the railroad station in your Cit~. When this law was passed it is apparent that your body was not properly in - formed as to the earning possibility of vending machines. From your own experience we believe that you~know that these machines are operated as much for the convenience of the public as for the profit that it is possible to obtaLu as a result of their operation. The profit resulting from their operation i~ not large enough to Justify the payment of a specific City license Tax. It is difficult to earn suf - ficient revenue to Justify the operation of machines in those States where the State exacts a small fee~ As it is always the intention of a taxing body to levy taxes for the purpose of producing revenue we wo~ld thank you to determine from your Treasurer's office the total amount of revenue secured by your City.as a res'~lt of. the passage of this particular portion of your Licensing Ordinance. We feel certain that this examination will disclose the fact that you have not produced any revenue for your City as a result of the inclusion of this item in your taxing ordinance. If our conclusion~ is correct, we would like to have the prlv~ ilege of continuing to operate our machines without the payment of this tax until such time as the Council may determine that it would be advisable ~o revoke this oarticular portion of your Licensing Ordinance. ~ We also wish to call your attention to the fact that by removing this equip- ment, we are not the only one who will lose the possible revenue from these machines. In ad- dition to the loss which we sustain the railroad, who are large taxpayers, lose .their portion of t.he revenue as does the ticket agent~ who is a citizen of your community. In addition to this, the public of your community are deprived of the convenience of these machines and as previously stated~ the City has not gained for it has not obtained any revenue. We do hope that you will appreciate the fairness of our request and grant us the p~ivilege of continuing to operate these machines. Very truly yours MILLS AUTOMATIC MERCHANDIBIMG CORPN. By EoV.Morava, Secretary."- Motion of Mr. Fox to refer-to the Oity Attorney, to bring in a corrected ordi- nmuce and that the City M~uager be authorized to issue a license for the said device at $5.00 per year, was.adopted. The following letter was read and ordered filed: "I shall appreciate it if you will read the following announcement at the next meeting of your Council, so that early arrangements can be made for as many of your officials as possible to attend the Lea~me Convention and the other group meet'ings held in connection therewith. Conventions t.his year will be held at Virginia Beach, as follows: League of Virginia Municipalities - Monday and Tuesday, September 2Oth and 21st. Virginia Police Executives' Association - Wednesday and Thursday, September 22nd and 23rd Building Officials' Conference of Virginia - Wednesday, September 22nd Virginia Weights and Measures Association mud School combined- Wednesday and Thursday, September 22nd and 23rd Every effort is beLug made to make the League Convention this year of real value to every.official in attendance. It is our hope that all new councilmen as well as those re elected and as many of your municipal personnel as possible will plan now to be pres- ent. Suggestion is offered that if the dates set for any of these meetings conflict with regular council meetings arrangements be made to change the date for your council meeting in Septe~oer, to allow your officials to be present.