June 13, 1941 — Friday the thirteenth

Friday, June 13, 1941.

"Full fury of Friday, the 13th's proverbial bad luck swept the common council chamber last night."

— The La Crosse Tribune, June 14, 1941

The council voted to put the north side branch library at Kane and Gillette. Then it voted to put it at Sill and Avon. By the end of the evening it had done neither, and the options had gone back to committee.

James Durland moved that the city buy the Brieback property at Kane and Gillette. Earl Nelson seconded him. Warren Smith and Fred Kraft led the fight for Avon and Sill. Then Kempter, who had been at this for three years, amended the motion: take the five thousand dollars set aside for the Brieback property and put it instead toward the three privately owned parcels in the Logan high school block, and build the library on the school grounds — on the east lawn, he suggested.

Kempter's amendment was beaten 15 to 5. The school site was finished for good.

Then Durland's motion was put. The official count came back a 10-10 tie, and Mayor J. J. Verchota immediately voted no. Franklin Pamperin was absent, ill.

Several unofficial tabulations of the same show of hands recorded it 11 to 9 in favor. The official count had James Durland — who had made the motion — voting against his own proposal.

Before anyone realized what had happened, the aldermen, believing Kane and Gillette dead, voted 12 to 8 for Kraft's motion to buy Avon and Sill instead: two lots, one known as the Bollrud property and the other as the Robinson and Iverson property.

Then the error surfaced, and the evening came apart. Nelson moved to appropriate the five thousand for the Brieback property. It was argued that the proper course was to rescind Kraft's motion first. Verchota ruled Nelson out of order; City Attorney Fred E. Steele said afterwards the motion had been proper. On the re-vote Nelson's motion tied 10-10 as well, and the mayor voted no again. Nelson tried to have Durland's vote corrected from no to aye, which Durland said was how he had voted. Steele ruled that once a vote has been officially announced it cannot be challenged.

Smith, who had just won Avon and Sill, moved to rescind it. The council agreed unanimously. William P. Roellig moved to send the whole thing back to committee, and nobody objected.

The arguments, the Tribune noted, had been multitudinous: price, the size of the lots, where the population actually was, how near the schools, where people would park.