Waggener High School - RingBrothersHistory.com

The Voice of St. Matthews, January 12, 1956: Not Altogether Suburban After 1955St. Matthews Not Altogether Suburban After 1955Mayor Noland’s party had the support of nearly all the businesses of St. Matthews, plus the many citizens who appreciatedthe Mayor’s successful fight to keep St. Matthews from being annexed to Louisville unless the larger City showed itselfwilling and able to assume our liabilities and give immediate City services.In a heavy vote, about 2,000 of St. Matthews 3,300 eligible voters went to the polls, and the result was a resounding 2-to-1victory for Mayor Noland and his Party. With this mandate to govern and with this tribute to his won personal prestige, theMayor faced 1955 with the knowledge tht the overwhelming majority of the people were behind him and his council.Their problems of course, are not over.Two of the Community Party candidates for Council, Frank Stallings and “Buck” Tharp, had earlier filed a suit charging St.Matthews with collecting 1954 property taxes improperly. In June, 1955, Circuit Judge Macaulay Smith ruled against St.Matthews, saying the City had used improper assessment dates. The final decision is awaiting judgment by the court ofappeals.Two new sixth-class cities were incorporated here during the year—Woodlawn Park and Brownsboro Village.St. Matthews had earlier passed an ordinance proposing to annex the area between itself and Louisville. Brownsboro Villagewas in this area. But the people there wanted their own City and in January applied to Circuit Court for the right toincorporate.St. Matthews adhering to its policy of not annexing any territory where a majority of the people were unwilling, turnedBrownsboro loose, and incorporation was completed in February. Mortimer Goldsmith was elected Mayor by the Board ofTrustees.The same month, Woodlawn Park was incorporated. The little City lies between Westport Road and the L & N railroadtracks, east of Hubbards Lane. Appointed trustees were Burns Speer, Phil Perkins, John M. Owen, Woolsey Cavr, andJohn Kaster. The trustees elected Mr. Speer Mayor.An important development in February was final organization of the Jefferson County Municipal Conference, embracing27 Cities in the County, and the election as chairman of Mayor Earl Otis of Norbourne Estates.The Conference was the brain child of the St. Matthews Committee of Commerce, and its purpose was to find areas ofagreement between all the Cities in regard to common problems. The Conference came up with a six-point program to reformproperty tax collecting to produce about $2 million dollars extra in taxes without raising rates or assessments.The Conference’s revelation that these taxes were being lost annually in the City and County governments and the twoschool systems was damaging to the campaign to raise school taxes by 50 cents. Many voters thought that all taxes shouldbe collected before any new ones were levied.The attention of the Conference and of everyone else was turned in August to the sewer problem. A. P. Bell of the CitycountyHealth Department said that 48,000 homes in the County were using septic tanks. He warned that sewers wereneeded for these homes, for “septic tanks are not a permanent sewer disposal method,” but were only “temporary.” Hecalled present conditions a “health hazard,” and said in Beechwood Village, septic tanks effluent was running into the stormsewers.The problem was a tough one. The St. Matthews sewer district was serving more than 4,000 homes, and could not extendits lines eastward. The district announced it could not service Beechwood and other areas. Neither could the MetropolitanSewer District. By the end of the year, Beechwood was considering the possibility of building its own sanitary sewer system,but the cost will be so great, the project may be impractical.The local Government Improvement Committee suggested in December that Louisville annex all the urbanized areas of theCounty and that the Metropolitan Sewer District build sanitary sewers for those areas. A bill to allow the people to vote onthese issues is slated to be introduced in the 1956 session of the State legislature.Politically, St. Matthews displayed an attitude entirely opposed to that of the rest of the County and the state. Fifteen precinctsin the heart of the St. Matthews area voted for the school tax while the rest of the County rejected it.Happy Chandler won the democratic nomination for Governor but St. Matthews area Democrats voted against him. Mr.Chandler won the general election in the State by a record margin, and carried Jefferson County, but greater St. Matthewsgave his opponent Edward Denney a 9,226 to 5,047 majority.Only one Republican was elected to the Legislature. He was Representative Henry Heyburn of St. Matthews, who defeatedhis Democratic opponent, Clarence Hampton, 11,824 to 3,735.On the light side: