St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-01-03
SPECIAL VILLAGE MEETING.
The Electric Light Contract Ratified by
Vote of 5OI TO So.


Vote of 5oI TO SO.
The special village meeting on
Thursday evening brought out one
of the largest gathering of voters
ever seen AT such a meeting. County
Clerk Nichols as president of the vii
lage read the call and awaited a mo-
ton.
Harry BlOdgett then presented the
: following resolution and moved its
adoption:
Resolved, That the written contract dated
Nov. Z, 1883. made by the village of St.
Johnsbury by it's trustees with the Thomson
Houston company, for lighting the streets of
the village of St Johnsbury with electricity,
be and is hereby accepted, ratified and adopt
ed by the said village of st. Johnsbury.
Judge Ross opened the discussion
with an address in which he referred
to the past history of our village and
outlined his reasons for bringing the
Injunction.
1 come here, he said, with no =
.Ps against the trustees nor to
e them with purposcly acting
;FTlv. They have simply ex-
'wer voted them at the
/. The history of our
ici;s for the last 10 years
. VIC ought to move slowly
-, =. In 1876 the watcrworks
brought tax of 75 cents on the dol
lar. Since that time our village has
grown very slowly and business en-
tcrpriscs are seldom started here
Summerville has doubled its popula-
ton in the meantime because people
cannot afford to live in our village
and pay its high taxes. Today we
have an $4,000 waterwOrks plant
which must either be thrown away
or else continually v repaired. Typhoid
fever has come into the families
where this water was used. (H1SScS)
Mr.. John a. Moore told me that DR..
Nelson said he had 10 cases and in
every case the village water was used
in the house. This is not strange
|
Lyndons, the Centre and part of
Paddock village empty directly into
the river. Every other village and
city taxes abuttcrS for sidewalks and
sewers The village never has done
this. The way the village has been
run lately would give one the impress
| ,1<>
| thing. The taxpayers never make
appropriations as in places but
trust to the wisdom of the trustees
| come here entirely in my own name
as a taxpayer to protest against
such things. | protest against this
! alleged contract with Thomson-
Houston Co. 1t is really perpetual
contract. A request for ratifying is
a virtual confession that the trustees
have 4 faulty contract. They have
not yet bound the village because
they have not signed it as trustees of
| the village of st. JOhnsbury. If this
contract is not ratified there is no
| danger of the Thoms0n-Houston
company bringing suit against the
village because | have another in
junction enjoining them against SUI
ing the village. | have thus protect
ed the village at my expense and en-
t1rely on my own account. Neither
can any damage come to the trus-
tees. The most serious ground
against the contract is that two of
the trustees own each One-fifth inter
contract stipulates shall be used by
the ThOmsOn-HOustOn company.
The latter company pays $500 an
nuallv for 10 years for this power, Il
very large rental. The Standard
electric company were only asked to
pay $1,000 annually. The village
will have to pay the $500 difference
and now is the time to protest
against such action. The trustees
could not act impartially in making
this contract. They had no more
right to act in this matter than has
an executor to buy in property with
which he is entrusted. In closing,
Judge Ross read the following state
mcnt from E. T. & H. X Ide:
Having large surplus of water power to
dispose of and never having been asked by
the trustees to furnish power for the electric
lights for this village, we make the owing
offer: We will furnish all the lights needed in
the streets of the village of st. Johnsbury as
follows. viz. 20 arc lights of nominal 2OOO
candle power each for $1,000 per year. All
further lamps needed to properly light the
streets at $40 each. per year. The light gen
Grated to be equal in every respect to the
light of the Thomson-H Houston company of
same capacity called. The contract to
run not less than three years. The time and
manner of running the lights to be the same
called for in the alleged contract between
the trustees and ThomsOn-H ouston compa-
ny If 81 lamps needed will furnish
them all for the first year for $1,000 We are
prepared furnish suitable bond if contract
is awarded us
Col. T. c. Fletcher said the trus-
tees were here to answer for every
act and every step they had taken in
the whole matter. They had acted
i'll good faith, had their papers made
out by lawyers and supposed every
thing was all right. The trustees
still believed it was. The speaker
said he fully appreciated what Judge
Ross said about high taxation. The
present board of trustees have run
the village for % cents on the dollar
and when they came in it was 40
cents on the dollar. All the steps in