Austin News, The (Newspaper) - December 1, 1965, Chicago, Illinois Panic Fighters to Ask OK of Page 3 COMMUNITY ADS 7 Papers for the Of 1 Minimum JES FHE AUSTIN NEWS Branch Banking Drive Unmasked See Editorial Vol 26 No 38 4906 W Chicago Ave WEDNESDAY DECEMBER I 1965 This Issue Consists of 1 Pages At Newsstands lOc a copy By Mall 50 a Year Ceiling of once ornate Symphony theater 4935 wall to create opening large enough to Chicago dangles in pieces Monday held only in crane with traditional wreckers ball at- by iron framework as wrecking crews start Total project is expected to be razing Roof is expected to be removed by the inside of six weeks to two months end of this week with work turning to the east Staff Photo Workmen Start Razing Old Symphony Theater An Austin New campaign to get an Austin eyesore cleaned up or demolished reached its this week as workmen started destruction of the phony theater at 4935 Chicago Monday unseen workmen sent chunks of plaster and tal reverberating to the con- crete floor as they enlarged the gaping hole in the roof started last week The roof should be ly removed by the end of this week according to Scott Moore foreman of the tion crew Then the wall on the east side of the brick structure will be leveled The entire job Moore said should be completed within six weeks to two months de- pending on the weather Workmen arrived on the scene last Tuesday and placed a barricade in front of the building preparatory to starting actual demolition work Whether razing of the theater will bring an end to the court litigation that has gone on for the past three years remained uncertain When the demolition crews arrived Dave Pielet building owner said he had an injunction to stop the work ter however he said he would sue the city for damages As of Monday city officials had not heard of any new court action initiated by Pielet The theater vacant since the early had long been a source of complaints to the Willie lumn both as to its condition and as a hangout for young hoodlums V At one time Austin district police commander John rauter ordered special tion of the premises at regular intervals to keep undesirables from gathering there Last ril 3 a number of bricks from a side wall fell from the building and damaged a car parked be- low Early in 1962 the city filed suit against the Symphony as a dangerous building open to When Pielet agreed to board up the building and re- move an overhanging fire cape the case dismissed An inspection conducted by city building inspectors in the fall of 1964 however showed that the building previously listed as only 8 per cent depreciated was now 56 per cent depreciated They found the inside had been gutted and entry was available to vandals through a large en window and a door As a result of this inspection a suit for demolition was filed last March A demolition order was issued by Judge Richard Napolitano April 20 in Housing court However after Pielet appealed that he intended to fix up the building Judge tano agreed to lift the order if such action was taken On Nov 10 of last months after the demolition der had first been politano ruled that work done by Pielet had amounted to just about nothing and mitted the demolition decree to stand As the city had already taken bids for the demolition work last summer all it had to do after the Nov 10 ruling was tell the low bidder to start work Improvements made by et during the six months the demolition decree was hanging over his head included tion of a new aluminum and glass facade at the ground i vel cleaning the upper portion of the front installation of a concrete floor and of the exterior He had failed to produce a tenant Neighbors and civic groups backed the campaign to re- Contmued on Page 4 Mayor's Plan For Elevated Expressway Approved Here After months of study city state and highway engineers yesterday proposed a route for the north-south expressway suggested three years ago by Cong Dan Ronan then man of the ward as the one that would disrupt the least number of homes and provide the greatest amount of tional service The ed over the Belt Line and three other supported editorially by Community lications when Ronan first gested it then was kicked around by officials at every level before yesterday's an- by Mayor Daley that it represents the best thinking of highway engineers Both Edwin McMahon present ward alderman and Thomas Casey ward alderman were quick to endorse the route It is an excellent said McMahon Fewer people will be displaced There will be little disruption of industry or business fewer structures will be displaced than if the highway were to go down Cicero Casey also endorsed the route as less tive The highway would cut through portions of the ward but none of the Approval of the route was also voiced by Rev James White chairman of the Austin Community organization ning committee which held a controversial public rally on the issue a year ago and had been outspoken m its stand that Austin should not be divided by a highway Hailing the announcement as a victory for the people of tin Rev White said Mayor Daley has now kept a promise made to an AGO group that Austin would not be cut up by an expressway We are happy to back the Mayor's he ued The need for a south expressway has long been discussed The proposed route a most happy compromise between the community's needs and tion demands Gerald W Cavanagh dent of the Chicago Motor Club praised the announcement as welcome news culminating a campaign started by the Motor club in 1960 He said the in- Named Manager Carfield Park Health Fair Opens Today at Purcell Something for everyone is the aim of the Garfield Park Health fair which begins today in Purcell hall 4300 ton Five turkeys and other prizes will be given away each of the three days of the fair door prues Free influenza are available to all them Fair officials also hope to idc immunizations for i such as o diptheria and x-ray unit will make rr clust x-rays to detect bei from the office will explain fns available under the Medicare program and ID t to receive them 1 he Illinois division of tic N control will present films and lectures on dope addiction at 2 p.m today and at a m tomorrow At Friday Msgr Ignatius head of the Catholic Charities tion and educational will conduct a panel on alcoholism and family Throughout the three days CARL STOCKHOLM the Chicago board of health will present films on venereal disease Fair are unlil p m from lo 30 a m until 8 iO p m and clav from 10 am to 3 p m The fair is sponsored by the RO board of health and the field Park Health Fair tee Other exhibits with free are maintained by the Chicago board of health go board of education Mental Health society Cook County Tuberculosis institute tional College of Surgeons American Cancer society cago Heart association go Dental society Illinois Epi- leptic league and Chicago Di- association t At of the exhibits will be on hand to discuss the particular health problems of their organizations Carl Stockholm West Side civic leader is chairman of the fair committee and Rev seph Kelly St Mel's church and Leo Goltz president of the Garfield Park Chamber of 1 Commerce are co-chairmen Other committee members are Leonard Foster Garfield Park Chamber of James Rich Street club H Landwehr managing editor Community tions Joseph Madigan Jr vice president and Dr Joseph A Tobm Chicago board of health JOHN S The appointment of John S as general manager of Community Inc was announced Friday by Bruce Sagan publisher replaces Robert Shless who has been general manager for the past year and will take over new duties in connection with the solicitation of national advertising for the entire group owned by Sagan the second largest weekly chain in the country joined Community Publications where he has been advertising manager of the Northwest Journal in 1962 after the ter of which he had been ager for 15 years suspended publication Born and raised on the Northwest Side has been active in the ford Chamber of Commerce of which he is a past president and executive secretary He is also a member of the west Lions club Set Rites for Auto Victim provement would benefit the entire metropolitan area While the highway would be built almost entirely on air rights the amount of property to be acquired in each area will not be known until the cation and number of ramps for entrance and exit are mined Yesterday's report made no mention of ramps and it is understood this will not be determined until after public hearings are completed X The first public hearing has been set by the Plan sion for p.m Dec 15 in the City council chambers A second will be held Jan 5 After Plan commission proval the project will go be- fore the City council whose traffic committee also probably will hold a public hearing It will then go to the county and the state before final sion to the federal government Mayor Daley presented the proposal as an introduction of a preliminary study and re- commendation of the ment of development and ning The route would extend from the junction of Kennedy and Edens ways on the north to 7500 south then east over a railroad to connect with the Dan Ryan expressway In addition to the Belt Line railroads involved would be the North Western Wabash and Chicago waukee and St Paul The road would be six to eight lanes wide 98 per cent elevated with a clearance of 23 feet above the tracks The only portion would be a small stretch at the south end Without knowing the exact number of properties to be af- until the ramp locations are determined the report that 470 residential 135 industrial and 80 cial properties would be in- in some degree Not all properties would be ished the report said ing that in many cases only a part of the property would be needed or construction could go over the property Daley said he expects no op- position to the project from the federal government which may indicate that it has been cleared with federal officials A main argument raised against an elevated road in previous discussions of the proposal has been a contention that the eral bureau of roads would turn down a completely ed project as too costly to build and requiring too steep grades for ramps The cost was estimated at between 300 and 500 million dollars again depending upon the number of ramps Of the amount 90 per cent would be paid by the federal government and the other 10 per cent shared by the city county and state All of the money would come from motor fuel taxes Property acquisition for the highway is not to start until after Jan 1 1967 with com- scheduled for the end of 1972 the deadline date set by Congress for completion of the interstate highway tem The elevated highway would be a first for Chicago Daley said explaining that this would be the first expressway built over a railroad right-of-way He said it would handle 000 vehicles a day reduce by 15 per cent relieve local streets within a two-mile radius and cut the cost of vel from 15 to 7 cents per mile The Cicero ave bus route would not be disturbed he ed the elevated construction would prove less noisy to rounding areas and the con- struction would blend in with adjacent industrial land uses The tax base he also sized would be disturbed less than if a ground level route were adopted services are uled ifor Friday for a youth killed Sunday in an auto dent to allow for the possibility of a brother serving in Viet Nam to come home Dead is Charles Caputo 18 of 5110 Fullerton who died in a collision of two cars at North and LeClaire Inquest was scheduled for yesterday in the Rago Brothers chapel 5120 Fullerton Four other youths were in- jured in the Sunday night dent Two were reported in fair condition yesterday and two were reported as pretty good Taken to St Anne's hospital were Dennis Vito 19 of 4815 Fullerton driver of the car in fair condition his brother Donald 18 a passenger listed as pretty good John thy 20 of 1759 N Latrobe driver of the other car was also listed as pretty good Michael Werschkul 19 of 5001 Grand in the Vito car was reported fair in St Anne's hospital Funeral service for Charles will start at 9 a m in the Rago chapel with a mass set for St Genevieve's church The funeral was delayed ing the possible arrival home of Charles brother Victor serving in the Army in Viet Nam The accident reportedly curred when the car driven by Dennis Vito westbound in North ave hit the car driven by Timothy that was stopped in North ave at LeClaire Corcoran Place Street Signs Finally Co Up City Expanding War on Rodents Buildings in the West field park area where rodent and insect infestation has been reported are expected to be in line for extermination efforts under the city's newly rodent control program Six crews en- gaged m the clean-up serviced more than 500 buildings in the Woodlawn and Lawndale areas m the first 10 days of the program launched early in November Building owners are being billed for the work at the rate of per man hour with the total cost varying from to per building In one case the crew worked for eight hours exterminating a ment building The city operated program was undertaken because of ure by building owners and the tenants themselves to take per measures to rid the ings of rats and disease ing vermin The program under the di- rection of the board of health with the department of ings and department of tion participating Building inspectors ny the crews to check for tional code violations and tation inspectors treat the cent streets and alleys for rats and vermin as has been done in the past Tribute was paid to the man credited with elevating the Lake st rapid transit line west of Laramie last week as city crews raised new street signs bearing the name Corcoran pi The new designation covering only the diagonal parking area in the south branch of Lake from Pine to Austin honors the late ward alderman Paul Corcoran who died in March 1964 An ordinance proposed by Mayor Daley in June 1964 enteen months ago and passed by the City Council called for the south branch of Lake si it- self to be renamed Corcoran dr from 5500 west at Pine lo the city limits at Austin Objections to this step were raised by businessmen along the south branch of Lake who stated that a change in the street name would costly tures in changing their counts stationery and related items Designating the parking area service drive as Corcoran pi was then proposed by State Sen Thomas A McGloon ward committeeman as a com- promise solution still in ing with the purpose of putting the alderman's name on his most meaningful project Commonwealth Edison and the Reuben H Donnelly Co have both been acknowledging the June 1964 council action in renaming Lake st itself pite the fact that the city had nol unlil last week erected the signs Customers living along the side of Lake st have been receiving bills since August 1964 listing their address as Corcoran dr X A Commonwealth Edison spokesman explained that the company followed through in changing its re- cords when informed by its City hall liaison man of the new ordinance The Donnelly company in the Red Book telephone tory which it publishes lists Corcoran dr in its street guide existing at 200 N in postal zone 44 Customers however have their addresses listed Lake st A spokesman with the dept of streets and sanitation responsible for erecting the changed street signs was questioned on the 17 month delay by Community tions a week prior to erection of the new signs He ex- that the department's sign shop was a bit behind in its work John Daly 336 N Menard inspects newly installed street signs designating parking area service drive in south branch of Lake st as Corcoran pi The late Aid Corcoran most from time of his first election in 1955 had turned his efforts toward removing the old ground level rapid tracks to the adjacent railroad a move which involved six ate and private agencies The first transit cars ran the Chicago North road bed in October 1962 stopping at modern steel glass and brick stations at tral Austin and points in Oak Park A year the widening of the south branch of Lake st underway not to be completed until several months after Aid Corcoran's death Involved in the project was widening the street by five feet allowing its to two-way traffic establishing r median strip to separate the strip parking facilities on the site of the old ground level tracks and new street lighting Capping the many year ject was the million chase bv the CTA of 180 air conditioned elevated cars re- placing all of the cars on the Lake st line STILL PLAN PAINTING OF RETAINING WALL A final Mop in beautifying the south hi cinch of Lake st by the Austin News is reported still under State Sen Thomas A Gloon ward Democratic committeeman said several have been asked to submit estimates on the job of painting the railroad retaining wall adjacent to the parking area The Chicago and ern Railroad which has com- repairs to the wall mated the work would cost 000 according to Sen McGloon We've got an estimate as low as so he added which is still a lot of money If we could come up with a bid as low as or there would be no problem
