Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-06-03
1te Ea,,fastcr 1ntrlligcufe,,
LANCASTER, JUNE 8. 1856
The MayOr's Message.

Inc mdyOT mcssuSts |
The first annual message of Mayor Nor
ton is of such conciseness and substance
that the general reader, taxpayer and
voter, can very well afford to give it atten-
tion. 1t goes directly to matters of NUM-
cipal concern, which are invested with no
partisan color, and about which all who
have an interest in good administration
can proitably consider if they cannot come
to a common conclusion.
Following the precedents the mayor |
gives first place to the financial condition |
of the city. This is satisfactory so far as |
it appears that the proper additions to the |
sinking fund ,as required by law, have been
made during the past twelve month. The
permanent Indebtedness of the municipality |
has been decreased by the addition
to the sinking fund of sl2 800. This is, |
however, balanced by certain deficiencies
arising from an overdrawing of the current
yearly appropriations. These, the mayor
already has bills to show, will amount To
nearly $4,000 and may far exceed that
amount. Instead of living within its in
come and keeping the bills contracted and
obligations incurred below the limits of
the current appropriations, the city,
through councils and their committees,
overdraw the balances. The street CON-
mittee, for instance, exhausts its balance
on March and has to run three months
in violation of sound system and indeed
of the express restriction of the law,-on
the anticipation of the next years approp-
ration. BY some miscalculation. the
pay of the police department ex-
ceeds the appropriation for it 10y
nearly thousand dollars; the water de-
partment is in considerable arrears, and so
is the lighting of the city, and a large
amount has to be paid for street damages
out of the new appropriation, Thus the city
starts every fiscal year heavily handicapped.
1t is neither good housekeeping nor good
bookkeeping. The councils propose in
the appropriation ordinance passed to
provide for some deficiency in the water and
lighting departments; but make no provis-
ion for the other deficiencies; certainly, as
the mayor suggests, they should all be pro-
vided for and the city ought to start its
new fiscal year with the appropriations for
it intact.
Neither is it wise system which trades
upon the future so far as to eXpend in each
year the water rents for the coming year.
The individual who would follow that pol
icy would always be year behind; and so
is the city to this considerable extent. The
error has been so long pursued that the
prospect of a change is well nigh hopeless.
But the mayor does well to point out the
disadvantages of practice which must
strike every good financier as reprehensi-
BILE one.
The executive message recurs to the all
important water and sewerage question as
having strong claim on public attention.
We agree with his idea that an in
tercepting sewer along the creek is
a better system than conduit
to tap the creek at higher point
for fresh water or the removal of the
works. The latter is too costly to be prac-
ticable at the present time the intercept
ing sewer will not in itself cost more than
the conduit; while the latter would in
yOlve the city in damages for destruction
of water rights and rob our supply of the
advantages of several good springs that
pour into the creek between the City mill
and the Conestoga bridge. An early survey
ought to afford some idea of the respective
cost of these different plans and also of
the outlay required for additional storage
facilities. When plan for these needed
improvements has been formulated and it
is figured out that the resulting increase of
water rents would far more than pay the
interest on the necessary cost of the work
to be done, We believe our citizens will
cheerfully authorize it by popular vote.
The vast increase in the duties of the po-
lice force since it was fixed at its present
number certainly justifies the request for a
house sergeant, to take the place of the reg
ular member withdrawn at every hour of
the day from one ward or another. In.
deed it may be well questioned whether the
present distribution of the force by wards
is fair and practicable one. Certainly
wards like the Sixth and Eighth, and even
to the Seventh and Ninth, require far more
supervision than inside wards SO restricted
in extent as the First and Third.
->~y~a heso oohc Wy ouS
gestions about the fire department, pre-,
cIncting the city, the expense of lighting
the streets, and especially the necessity OF
having the maeadamizing of the highways
done IN DETER form the four squares Ia
which he refers do not exhibit good Jobs OF
turnpiking, and single tracks are already
cut through them, because their surface
was not properly finished, and the stone
not well broken.
The administration of the law de,art
ment of the city government, under Solici
tor j. w. johnson, comes in for well de
served rebuke for a failure to make quar-
terly settlements of moneys collected fo
the city as the law directs, and for neglec
even up to this time, long after the expir;
tion OF his term, to turn the same into Il
city treasury. We understand the finanC
committee has assurance of settlemeI
py july there is no manner of excui
ior such delay. 1t might fifty have bee
suggested In this same connection tn.
snefo ought TO be better understandir
S"the dusiss Of city solicitors, ex. an