McCORMICK FIELD Thirty-five acres of land cornering at the intersection of Valley Street and Biltmore Avenue were purchased for development as a park and athletic field. The cost of this land and the modern baseball stands and diamond built on it amounted to $250,000.

ATHLETIC STADIUM A stadium is now being completed on the same tract on which McCormick Field is located and provided with a football field and cinder track, designed to accommodate collegiate and scholastic sports, the cost being $100,000.

RECREATION PARK A fifty-six acre lake was impounded on the site of the old waterworks plant by the installation of a concrete dam, spanned by a handsome concrete bridge, with an electrical power plant under the south abutment. And here was developed the Asheville Recreation Park, provided with a modern zoo and steam-heated animal house, a large sanitary concrete swimming pool and bath  house, boats, gardens, driveways, pavilions for dancing and roller skating and varied equipment for the...

MUNICIPAL GOLF COURSE ^{One hundred and twenty acres of land located on the Swannanoa . River were purchased for an 18-hole golf course, which was built under the supervision of Donald Ross, and together with the cost of an attractive club house, involved an outlay of $200,000.}

PACK LIBRARY A-new Pack Memorial Library building was erected on South Pack Square at a cost of $125,000. The third floor of this building was set aside as the home of the O. Henry Memorial Library.

NEW CITY MARKET A modern and handsome building was erected to house the public market, and city police and fire departments, the cost of which was $550,000.

CITY GARAGE A fireproof city garage was built on Valley Street at a cost of $75,000.

NEW PARK AREA A tract consisting of ninety acres and located on the French Broad River at the mouth of Hominy Creek, was purchased for development as a park.

SCHOOL PLAYGROUNDS The sum of $125,000 was expended in the improvement of the playgrounds connected with public schools of the city.

SCHOOLS COMPLETED The Claxton, Vance, Newton and Stephens-Lee schools were brought to completion.

SCHOOL ADDITIONS Six class rooms were added to the Claxton School, costing $75,000, and two class rooms and an .auditorium were added to the Mont-ford School, costing $18,000,

SCHOOLS BUILT The Eugene Rankin Grammar School and the Hall Fletcher High School, costing $125, 000 and $375,000 respectively, were built in ,West Asheville, and a twelve-room colored school on Mountain Street was built at a cost of $18,000.

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL A bond issue of $1,500,000 for school purposes was approved by the voters of Asheville, and $750,000 of this sum will be used to build a Senior High and Trade School, to be located on a forty-six acre tract acquired by the city at a cost of $192,000. It is planned later to build a Junior College on this tract, .thus providing a handsome educational center, equipped with all necessary playgrounds and with ample room for any expansion that the future may require.

FURTHER ADDITIONS The balance remaining from the bond issue referred to under the preceding item was provided to add twelve class rooms to the Eugene Rankin Grammar School, six class rooms to Vance School, eight class rooms to Burton Street Colored School, an auditorium and two class rooms to Park Avenue School, and four class rooms to Livingston Street Colored School.

STONE QUARRY Twenty-seven were purchased to the large needs of the City. This property was sold for $15,000 and the additional consideration of contract to furnish stone to the City at a price which saved $48,000.

WATER SALVAGE Under a contract with the Petometer Company, at a cost of $6,000, numerous unknown and corrected. A single leak which was found by-covered the cost of the survey of the entire system...

WEST ASHEVILLE SEWER An entirely new outlet was provided for the West Asheville section.

PINK BEDS. SURVEY The sum of $35,000 was expended in a survey or the rink Beds or Pisgah National Forest, to determine the capacity and utility of this area for use as a watershed.

CHESTNUT VIADUCT A contract was let for the construction of a viaduct to connect Chestnut and West Chestnut Streets, the cost being $41,000.

BEAUCATCHER TUNNEL A Joint Project between the City of Asheville and the County of Buncombe /, to drive a tunnel highway through Beaucatcher Mountain was entered into, the entire cost being estimated at $390,000, and the purpose of this tunnel being to form a connection with an extension of Woodfin Street to College Street and thence by county highway to State Highway No. 10.

McDQWELL STREET The city extended McDowell Street from Southside Avenue southward to the Southern Railway yards, providing thereby another through street parallel with Biltmore Avenue and leading directly to the location of the new freight depot which will be built by the Southern Railway.

BILTMORE VIADUCT A Joint project was undertaken by the City, County of Buncombe and State Highway Commission for the construction of a viaduct,

BEE TREE RESERVOIR An impounding reservoir of a capacity of six hundred and ninety million gallons of water was built at the foot of the Bee Tree Watershed. This reservoir has the highest earth dam located east of the Mississippi River. A new 24-inch water-main was laid from the Bee Tree Reservoir to a new eleven-million gallon reservoir built on the top of Beaucatcher Mountain in the edge of the city. This project involved a cost of approximately $1,750,000.

NEW WATERSHEDS Title to forty-five hundred acres of land was acquired by condemnation, this area being added to the North Fork Watershed, the same costing about $450,000. This purchase brought the total area of protected watershed owned by the City of Asheville to twenty-four thousand acres. In addition, a perpetual lease was secured from the United States Government for the Pink Beds of Pisgah National Forest, which, when developed to its full capacity, will supply about thirty million gallons of water per day, and this supply, combined with the present and potential supply from city-owned watersheds, assures to Asheville and Buncombe County at least fifty million gallons of water per day.

MUNICIPAL CEMETERY A tract of one hundred and eighty acres of land was purchased for the establishment

NEW CITY HALL The City of Asheville is bringing to completion a municipal home of distinguished architecture and substantial construction which it is hoped will prove an attraction to visitors and a pride to residents. The cost of the new City Hall was $750,000.

THE CIVIC CENTER' Land was purchased at a cost of nearly half a million dollars to secure a broad and pleasing setting for the City Hall, County Court House and other public buildings which may be centered around this locality. Adequately landscaped and beautiful, Asheville's civic center will fully justify its cost.

STREETS WIDENED Among the streets widened were Woodfin between Broadway and Charlotte, Market between Pack Square and Hilliard Avenue, Oak between Woodfin and College, College between Spruce and Oak, Valley between Biltmore Avenue and College, South Spruce- between College and Eagle, Marjorie between Spruce and Valley, Davidson between College and Eagle, Biltmore Avenue from Valley Street to Oakhurst Avenue and from Victoria to South line of Normal School property, Coxe between Patton and Southside Avenues, and roadways around Pack Square.

STREETS EXTENDED These were Southside Avenue from Biltmore Avenue to Valley, Clingman Avenue from Patton Avenue to West Haywood, South Liberty from Orange to Chestnut.

STREET PAVING More than forty miles of streets were  paved and over five hundred thousand square yards of hard surfaces were laid down. A considerable street paving program requires also a large outlay for engineering work and utilities such as water . mains, sanitary and storm sewer lines, bridges, culverts and fire hydrants. The retiring city administration expended or authorized the outlay of over $4,500,000 on the streets of Asheville, including of course the utilities that must be provided or improved when streets are paved. Forty-four miles of water mains were included in this program, and thirty miles of sanitary sewers. The greater proportionate part of street paving was laid in West Asheville, as that section had very few surfaced N ; streets at the beginning of the administration. More than $2,000,000 of the street paving program was recovered to the City by assessments, and other assessments will accrue under the uncompleted portion of the work authorized.

FINANCIAL SUMMARY The gross bonded debt of the city, including $2,000,000 of bonds sold on April 9th, amounted to $16,983,975 at the close of the administration. Deducting sinking fund, water bond debt, electric light and power bonds and un-. collected street assessments, these items being proper deductions as defined by State law, the net debt of the City of Asheville was $10,350,718.69. The gross bonded debt brought forward from the previous administration was $4,175,000.00. The 1923 valuation of property subject to taxation in Asheville was $85,093,203.42. The re-valuation of...