Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-08-05

public will bear us out in our opinion.
2. We would, therefore. recommend
the abolition OF the tower system aud
adopt In its stead the low light system sus
pended upon wires as near the centre of
the intersection as possible, the lights to
be from twelve to twenty feet above the
street, as the council may determine.
3. We would recommend standard
lights of 1000 power, there be not less
than 100 or more than 120 lights, the
contract TO be for three years, any add
tional lights the council may order dur>
ing the first half of the contract period
shall be furnished at the same rate per
light as contract; any furnished during
the latter half of contract the price to be
tn at agreed upon by the council and the
company furnishing the light.
A. The number of lights assigned to
each ward to be apportioned by fair
and impartial committee comprised of one
alderman from each ward whose duty it
will be to study the map. and if neces-
sary go over the territory: the res, uire-
ments and sizes of wards to receive due
consideration and report to the council,
who will assign to each ward its fair and
equitable share.
5. The lights in each ward to be 10.
Gated by the aldermen of the ward. who
will confer with the aldermen from al
joining wards with reference to the Local
ton of joint lights. Whenever disputes
arise that cannot be settled amicably By
the aldermen the question is 10 be re-
ferred to the council. who will make the
location in dispute All locations will
be passed upon and adopted by the coun-
Gil, who will have list of locations pub
lished AS soon after letting as possible. to
give citizens who may feel aggrieved by
the locations an opportunity 20 file COM
plants aad have q hearing before the
council before the final locations are
adopted, the intent being to make as
near as possible a fair and impartial 10
cation of lights, to have lights placed
where they will best serve the public.
6. That the city clerk be authorized
to have the usual advertisements in the
daily papers OF this city and others if the
council thinks advisable for the legal
length of time, the letting to not be later
than the first meeting in September and
earlier if the council thinks advisable, the
city clerk with the assistance of the fire
and light committee to draw up the spec
ifications. conditions and stipulate the
amount of bond required rs soon as pos
sible for the information of bidders.
The question of municipal corporations
owning and manufacturing their own
electric light has received some lite cons
sideration by your committee on account
of their having been from time to time
considerable informal conversation with
members of the Brush Electric Light
company of this city with reference to
the sale of their plant TO the city. to be
placed in the waterworks building, where
a surplus of steam and engine power nee
essarY to operate the plant is supposed
to exist. But after careful examine
| ton in company with experts well versed
in steam and machine power, we came
to the conclusion that for steam power
and boiler capacity we had abundanc; but
as to engine power we had none to spare
except the old pumping engines, which
were considered of too slow motion for
an electric light engine, and could not be
successfully speeded up 10 give us any
encouragement to seriously consider the
matter further.
! There is still another i'm portant poin,
in connection with this question that we
! must not lose sight of. that is the city's
liability to incur any more indebtness.
either temporary or bonded. You all
/ fully understand that the city has nc
| available cash to make this purchase. II
made you must adopt ole of the two re-
naming plsns. either to make temporary
loans or issue electric light bonds We
are of the opinion there can be no legal
| objections To our mourning temporary in
debtedness providing we keep within
reasonable bounds But we will admit
this is only our individual opinion We
have not submitted this question Ia our
legal advisor for an opinion. which we
would do should the matter receive
further serious consideration
And as our bonded Indebtedness is now
far beyond the limit allowed by state la "
unless in emergencies, which we believe
would require special legislation in each
individual case, in this case we are of the
opinion it could be considered an emer-
gency.
We have also CLEANED a few facts and
figures from the experience of cities who
furnish their own light and we must I'D
NIT in most all cases they appear to be
satisfactory. Some points from our
limited information we did not fully un-
derstand. the wide difference in the cost
per light of lighting two cities of about
equal population and number of lights in
the same section of country. And upon
the whole it is our opinion that mum
CAPABILITIES can operate and manufacture
their own light cheaper and give better
satisfaction than by contract if properly
managed and kept out of politics But
electricity not having attained that high
state of perfection that all electricians
admit must be developed in the near fu
ture that will make the system as near
perfection and permanent as can be hoped
To obtain for generation. We under,
stood successful experiments are being
perfected which will revoutionize the
present system reducing the cost per
light from one to two hundred per cent
Therefore, gentlemen, while We belic We
1t would be economy for the city to run
and furnish its own light, when we con-
slider al the points we do not believe the
time is favorable to make any radical
changes. We woulc therefore recon-
city for three years not according to what
is known the Philadelphia schedule,
which we have tried for several years,
which has proved very unsatisfactory;
we would recommend in future all con-
tracts be let for all dark nights, lights to
be lit before dark and continue until day.
light. Respectfully submitted this 4th
day of August, 1890.
DAN CoRKEN, VIM. F. SCHROEDER,
M. BUNCHER. w. p. TINDALL,
G. F. BLADEL. G. L. EVANS.
Committee.
The clerk read a communication from
the Brush Electric company as follows:
GENTLEMEN-Referri to the late ac-
ton of your board, in relation to light.
ing the streets of the city. we would re-
spectfully call your attention to the clause