Show WATER AND SEWERAGE mr pike presents a formidable arraignment of the policy pursued SALT sait ITY sep 1 aw editor deseret be news the howl that has been made fora for a year past for a system of sewerage for this city it seems without regard to the system whet whether lier it be the best or not so long ions as we have a system has at ai last culminated in the formation of a sewer district embracing the most valuable as well as the filth filthiest lest portion ol of town and the owners of realty in that portion are to have an opportunity of voting for sewerage or not as their best beat judgment shall dictate this thia seems all right for the parties interested te in that scheme but there are others who live quite a distance there from who are also interested but who will hove no opportunity to vote yes or no the district sewer it will be e conceded is of no use without a main sewer and neither is of any use without a good supply of water and that seems to be the first question thit that should be decided have we sufficient water tor for these sewers sewera without further robbing of some soine portion of the th citizens of their water tor for domestic use that have already been robbed almost as far as they can be and that merely to gratify a desire of the pur loiters to waste whatever they cannot we use the waste of water should be stopped at once by the two off officers leers the papers stated a while ago age had been appointed to look lock after this matter I 1 try to keep posted but I 1 have failed falle 1 to see one solitary instance of an offender being made to answer for his waste of precious water it if these officers cannot or will not do the duty required of them let lei them say they cannot or will not and let some one else be appointed who will do his or their duty it is a fact evident to all who travel over our city dad and have the use of their eyes or ears or both that water is being Nan wantonly tonly wasted every day clay to the great injury ol of those who are daily suffering tor for want of it in this con connection lection I 1 desire to call your attention to a water ordinance passed by the city council of this city april 21 24 1888 and published in your evening issue of april 27 IMS though very short it pro provides videe for perpetrating an outrage ou on possibly tour four fifths ol of the inhabitants of this city and I 1 am surprised that none of the daily papers of this city have shown up the injustice intended to be done to so large a portion of the citizens I 1 think the ordinance should be entitled an ordinance providing revenue for newspaper companies at the expense of the taxpayers instead of providing for toe the extension of the waterworks water works system this ordin ordinance ante it appears was sickly when boru and it only lived till J june une 12 when another was passed which took nearly it not all of the little life it had bad in it away and this other one is not a whit better save in the name it is entitled an ordinance prescribing the form and mode of local assess ments published in the EVENING niwo of june 13 1888 it certainly does doea what its title says and very little more we have the assessments but very little extension of the water works system the corporation has made but three or four extensions but few of the assessments have been collected and the financial bobbin Is ia wound up after paying about ten and no more extensions are to be made until taxes are ace paid la in the meantime petit petitions ians keep pouring in and are acted upon but no mains and no water when the wate mains were laid first they were paid for out of toe the city treasury without direct authority of law until a few of the wealthiest of the city were supplied free of cost afterwards with a steady increase of the city revenues the city council claimed they could not make any more extensions unless the people asking for them advanced three fourths of the cost which was done for a long time until it became the habit and custom of the council to order the ext extension ensign of the mains I 1 believe in every case where tae three fourths of the cost was paid in the winter of 1877 and 1870 1878 the city council thought they had pro ceedee tar far enough without authority so they asked the legislature then in session to amend the charter by giving the che necessary power which they promptly did and took into consideration the then existing conditions and provided how the blunder that had been made could be justly remedied in fact the principle of the law was vas lust all through tais amendment tae to tae charter was wad approved feb 22 1878 78 at this tint tiba another city couric council I 1 believe had bad been elected and although quite a sprinkling of the old mem members rs were left they appointed a city attorney among other officers and whether he was asked for an opinion oo on the law I 1 do not know but anyway he be presented city out one evening along a long legal opinion on tn amendment to 0 the charter caim uv that the council rould could not prow I 1 under it for reasons that begale lie gave ai an which will be found in the files of the NEWS at that time the council accepted this opinion instead of proceeding under the law and if any one was aggrieved and applied to the courts and succeeded in obtaining an liD injunction junction then that would have been beed sufficient cause to stop them the same law was amended some two years afterwards in 1880 and ever since has remained a dead statute no action has ever been taken under it mayhe maybe the different city councils have not known anything about it however it provided for local assessments for water works and strange as it may seem with all this power behind the council they preferred to wait un till tiM 1888 when the legislature gave etym tor for the first time in history the power to do what they had been several years doing without authority viz to pay for extending the water males mains by a general tax on all the property IL the city or by local assessments or bl b both as the city council may con 11 1 lo 10 and behold the council all at once comes to the conclusion that it would be the just thing to do this work by local assessments instead of from the general treasury as they have been doing for fifteen years about now after the city council have e expended bended fended about half a million dollafa dollars from rom the city treasury without local assessments for the making of the reservoirs and laying over 20 miles of main pipe to toe the wealthy portions of this city and supplying about one fifth of the citizens with water free during all this time the poorer portions of the citizens have been paying pay ing their proportion of the revenue have been deprived of the privilege of the water from the mains the benefit derived from gas lamps practically the pr protection 01 lection of ef the police the benefit of sprinkled streets and the full benefit 0 of fire protection in fact they have had bad ln nothing otting but on an the contrary what little water they did have a right to has been stopped from flowing into their ditches they made at great expense from thirty to thirty five years ago and have since enjoyed ithe abe use of ef the water until the dam of the water works system was built above their ditches and not a drop is permitted to pass this dam that can be crowded into and esedor used or was wasted in the water works system to add further injury to all these in juries that have been borne in the past the city council now propose to make the people pay four mills on the square foot before they can even have the privilege of a water pipe ipe laid no metter matter whether there will be any water in it at this season of the year or not it has been suggested that it has been done to solve the water problem and cut the gordian knot that has puzzled the city council for many years and that they hoped they would not be troubled with extension of the water mains it if the people had to pay for the luxury it if this is the case and any member of the council entertains this idea he be should retire from a tion that he is unqualified to fill I 1 have already said more than I 1 in tended to but half ol of the truth has not yet been told about this outrageous measure I 1 would like some one to devise a remedy that we could all unite in adopting for the benefit of the poorer classes respectfully johw JOHN N PIKE |