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Show TRUTH. Water Deal Discussion. of the water bond sociation and said the city had never had any trouble with the contracts ThAe,f1rI submitted by the that with the farmers under the Parleys in stating persist d proposi-criticisecouncil's canyon system he did not state the the mayor and no other plan is sug-Se- d facts. In the discussions in the counof which is cil anent those troubles two or three place of it, all fSSion pure and simple. John B. years ago, when the city nearly lost and the Parleys canyon water, Fernstrom the Rear Estate association 1 had the most to a proposl-.submitted say in the discussions, hare all was and and prophesying the dire calamiif adopted by the mayor that would result if the farmers S will go through with scarcely ties would get their hatchets out, and he vote. a dissenting used the serious condition that existTlst for one million ed to advocate his mattress factory Bontheity dollars, as deal. He used these Parleys troubles or a million and a quarter as an argument in favor, of his resermay be needed. to be voir scheme. We mention these 2nd. Pledge the bond issue and a viaduct things that the people may know that used solely for building when Fernstrom advocates a propohiivins water. for offered sition it is well to "look a little out. 3rd Buy water as it is Truth thinks that for the good of without land as may sale, and with or tax payers who are struggling to the be necessary. no protect homes already burdened with 4th. Have it a gravity system, taxes, for the citys welfare and fupumping. ture that the proposed plan should peoto the submitted If this plan is We it. vote be for changed to a straight buy or be ple we think they will believe any other plan will and ought voted down. may-SSSU- cn X S S Water Can to be voted down. Some Objections. The people should set their faces If against any trading proposition.. adopted it will breed trouble, expense and almost endless An investigation litigation. of the mayor and councils plan brings out the following: 1st That it exhausts the city's bonding limit. That it does not buy the right to one drop of water. 2nd. a trading and pumping proposition combined, either one of which is objectionable. 5th. That it necessitates the building of an expensive pumping plant, which is wholly unnecessary, as a gravity system can be built saving for the costly pumping expenseis every year hereafter. 6th. That it requires the rebuilding of thirteen miles of canal which is not necessary if the straight buying proposition be adopted. 7th. That after the money is expended the only thing in sight for the city as a return for the spending of 1850,000 will be a conduit, and if the mayor and council are to be believed neither one of them; has any definite idea of the size the conduit should be or its approximate cost And $500,-00- 0 will have been spent for little but a lot of unfair contracts with the 4th. That it is farmers. 8th That the exchange contracts the city proposes to make are unreas- onable and unbusinesslike in their terms. Totally unfair to the city, and leaving It without any protection whatever, subject to the whines and extortionate ideas of the farmers. 9th. That the plan puts the city at the mercy of the elements. Two dry years, such as we had three years ago, will wipe out the citys rights, and leave it helpless. 10th. Because if from any cause the city could not carry out the burdens imposed by these unjust contracts it has no loop hole of escape left, its bonded limit will have been Passed and it will be without a dollar to protect its life blood, water k Because of the way this plan , nas been concocted, the mysterious se-cre- sy that has surrounded it, the gross misrepresentations of some of those pushing it, the evident want of a fair derstanding of the proposition by ciincIl the members of which JF al ways and on all sides, and axe all sorts of propositions and arguments. rm,ecord Pu,,ed on Fernstrom. sum 11 p our objections. When uncilman Fernstrom stood up in the meeting with the Real Estate as Be Bought. guments or facts which are at all convincing to sustain their contention in that regard. No great or abnormal Increase in reveneus from the water department is anticipated even by those favorable to the proposed scheme. All those water revenues, amounting to about $100,000 a year, have disappeared. If it has taken all that money heretofore to maintain the water system and other municipal undertakings, it is a moral certainty that those revenues would fall far short of meeting the additional expenses which the plan submitted would entail. The shortage would have to be made up by additional taxation. Several mills would have to be added to the present rate. Theste are facts and it is only reasonable and right that the pecple should know them and know just what to expect. The sentiment In favor of increasing the citys supply of water is almost unanimous. The people are willing to pay for more water, but they want to get the water. They are not going off on any doubtful and uncertain scheme like that proposed. The Real Estate association, we believe, took a very sensible and businesslike view of the matter. No class of citizens are more interested in the growth and prosperity of the city than the real estate owners and brokers. They, to a man, want to see the water supply augmented, but they dont and as business men of ordinary prudence, could not approve of the plan as sub: mitted by the committee of the city council and the mayor. They stated their objections very clearly, which are identically the same as those urged by Truth from the time the proposed plan was made public. d. )ort has been passed by the council t develops that there is considerable opposition to tbe Spring Creek proposition and with a wave of the hand it is wiped off the board and in the ad- dress to the people it is treated as an almost unthought of proposition. The Excuse Given. excuse The given for the eliminating of this part of the plan is that possibly the waters of Spring creek might not be kept pure and there was a possibility of a flaw In the title to the water. The original report, as passed by the council, says in respect to analysis, that all samples gave good results and the water is pronounced suitable or a city supply for all purposes. That from Spring creek is described as of excellent quality. A comparison by Chemist Harms shows these waters to be somewhat better than our present supply from City creek and Parleys canyon. Extract from supplemental report of the city engineer, after it was decided to ostensibly drop Spring creek, says hat careful examination may disclose the fact that a satisfactory lncontes-tibl- e title to these waters is not obtainable. Notwithstanding the satis- factory showing which appears from City Chemist Harms analysis of this water, as to its present conditon, It is the purity questionable whether shown can be permanetly maintained. In this manner is the wind tempered to the shorn lamb. Spring creek is dropped and an item of $215,000 wiped off the original report but, to our surprise, we find the address to the citizens still calls for the original expenditure of $850,-00- 0 A Taxpayers View. for water. Let us make a comEditor Truth: parison and see where it comes in. I want to say a few words to the Original Report. people of Salt Lake in regard to the Summary of proposed expenditures: proposition now before them for in- Purchase of Spring creek water creasing the citys supply of water $135,000 and for the issuance of $1,000,000 in Spring Creek pumping plant bonds to defray the cost of the pro80,000 and pipe line to city reand posed plan. for Bonuses exchange There is no disputing the fact that pairs to Jordan and Salt were it not for existing conditions Salt 50,000 Lake City canal Lake City would be the greatest city Big Cottonwood conduit .... 350,000 between Omaha and San Francisco. Parleys canyon conduit 40,000 One of the principal conditions acting Additions to city mains 100,000 as a drag and preventing our advance- Purchase and extinguishment ment is the much discussed problem of power rights, bonuses to of water supply. For the purpose of be paid on exchange of adtaxditional canal water and remedying this condition I, as a under miscellaneous expenses ... 95,000 would, proper conditions, payer, utto bonds of the urge the issuing most limit. $850,000 Are conditions proper when we are Address to Citizens. asked to vote a bond issue of $1,000, Summary of proposed expenditures. 000 when there is no definite state- Conduit from Cottonwood to ment of the manner in which this $350,000 Parleys beto be is 40,000 expended placed money Parleys power plant who . . I claim that a citzen fore us? 200,000 Development of Utah lake would vote for an issue under such Repairs on city canal 20,000 conditions would be direlect in his Improvements to distribution 100,000 system duty both to himself and his fellow citizens. I feel safe from intelligent Money consideration in ex50,000 contradiction when I say that neither change for water of committee of power the report of the special Extinguishment 50,000 and incidentals the council, as presented to the coun rights and to issued the address or the people Engineering preliminaries cil, 40,000 supervision by that special committee in conjunc citizens commit tion with a $850,000 tee, present anything definite. In fact, 1 am of the belief that all who have A Lightning Change. Of the $215,000 saved through dropgiven this matter careful consideration will agee that if these reports are ping Spring creek we find $200,000 not the creation of incompetency they passed along for development work at Utah lake. I am willing to admit are, to an extent, a subterfuge. The special committee of the coun that money spent at that point is well cil claims to have given this matter spent. But what becomes of the other The sum of $15,000, of careful thought and consideration. In $15,000? fact, after five months of careful study course, is a meager, petty amount, a and intelligent consideration they mere bagatelle to the affluent mempresent to, and railroad through the bers of the councils special commitcouncil, a report the very meat of tee, but to me, a poor ordinary taxwhich is Spring Creek water and a payer it is a considerable amount. pumping plant, together with some Where is it? An expert accountant water from Big Cottonwood creek. To tried to unravel the mystery for ine, quote from the original report as pre but the only explanation he could give sented to the council (see page 16). it was that, perhaps, it had been dropis proposed to confine the expendi- ped into that pit of extinguishments tures at the present time to the cost and bonuses, or mayhap when this ot securing Big Cottonwood creek and amount was turned loose it was disSpring creek water. But after this re- covered that the engineering expense Some wise man says, you cannot buy all of which is tommy rot. Of course some of these Cottonwood farmers are up in the air now, dreaming that their water is a veritable gold mine and their water rights worth about $5,000 an acre. If the city dads will get out of the air themselves and resolve for once to do water business upon business principles, ?nd these farmers discover that the city is not going to run after them with barrels of money, they will get down to earth also, and "the city will have no trouble buying all the water it wants at the same price that other people pay when they buy Cottonwood farms. The Herald says, vote the bonds without knowing what is the plan on which the million dollars will be spent. Give the money to the administration to expend as it sees fit. Is that good advice? We think not. With an administration like the present it wont commend itself to the people. Taxes Would Be Raised. There is one thing the taxpayers may take for a certainty, that is, that if issuance of the proposed million dollars of water bonds is authorized and the present proposed scheme is adopted, therte will be a big raise in taxes. The several specific amounts set down in the estimate for the conduit, the water exchange, the sewer and so forth will scarcely be sufficient for the expenses of those several items. Besides that there will be a vast amount of other things to be done which are either not mentioned in the estimate or the cost of which A gifeat deal of is to have be spent on the would money water from the canal which brings Utah lake and and which it is proposed to exchange for Cottonwood water. New ditches and flumes to distribute the water to the farmers would have to be constructed, many changes and additions to the pipe system in the city would have to be made, smaller pipes in some places would have to be replaced by larger ones, so as to make the distribution of the increased amount of water possible. These things would be absolutely necessary and would cost money. The revenue from the water department which has all been used up every year for betterments to the system and otherwise would not begin to cover the increased expenses and pay the interest on the bonds. Those who are pushing the scheme as laid before the public by the city administration claim that the revenues from the water department would cover all those additional expenditures, but they dont give any ar 1 under-estimate- 3 so-calle- d . |