The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-07-28
THE TOWN AND CITY DEBTS.
CONFERENCES or TH6 SPEOIA0
 AUDITING CoMMITnEE.

ACDAlIN@ COMAiThEE.
 hsvisw of the Bills of Eleven rsass-Aro-s
 Discussion About Busters, Brooms and
 Heating Bins-Four ftems Not Fully Ea-
 piained-Bcaver Ponds Real Esnsss.
 The special joint committee Of the city and town on auditing held an important and interesting meeting in the oity hall yesterday afternoon. Those present. were Aldermen Gallagher and Hillet, councllmen Parish and Klenke and seleotmen Pohlman and stahl. ThS principal business considered was ths alleged debt of sl2.ooo due by tho town to the city. and while the meeting waG in progress many interesting dovoeyps ments were made.
 The meeting was called to order bg Alderman Gallagher. acting a chairs man, while Selectman Pohlman ofllci. ated as secretary. The only witness ol the day was ex-Town Agent Reynolds, now @ county commissioner, who waa town agent during the time that tha bills were contracted for and patd by the oity to the amount of s2<,0oo Of this amount the city claims that ones half. s12,000. is still due the cfty by tho town.
 City Auditor Lake was also on hand. all ready with his vouchers of payment, and ex-Town Agent Reynolds was also prepared with some official memoranda. At the request of Chairman Gallagher the city auditors books were produced and the committee went thoroughly over the itemized accounts of 1883, dur ing which year the disputed debt was contracted. Nearly all the items were agreed upon as being correct, though in several instances the items were tho cause of considerable astonishment and in consequence were not approved.
 Among these disputed items were ssvs eral which read as follows and vera specified at intervals of about threa months: "$21 for half dozen dusters" "brooms, $S a dozen." and "brooms, $13.40 for two dozen." These items eH. cited considerable comment and the committee could not understand how any such quantity of broorns and dust- CTS could be used in quarter of a year, The only way that 1t could possibly ba accounted for was the fact that during the year in question there was only one janitor for both the city and town por- tons of the city hall, and in oonse- quence an unusually large number oA brooms and dusters might have been necessary with which to do the double work.
 Finally after the members of the com mitte had carefully examined all tho other accounts and had thought over the matter of the brooras and dustera, they decided that perhaps after all tho charges were not exorbitant, and thereA fore thought best to approve all the items, especially as the vouchers of payment were produced by the citN auditor and declared correct by the enS town agent.
 Then came another hitch in the proe ceedings, and indeed it was the only serious hitch of the afternoon. It all occurred over four bills for supplies to heat the city hall. The quartet of bills amounted to $1, 400 and were all paid by the city. Ex-Town Agent Reynolds was not able to remember about these bills and in consequence could not say whether they were correct or not. But City Auditor Lake claims that the town government still owes $7O0 of this sum. The committee discussed these items for over an hour, but were able to reach no decision, and the matter was left open until the next meeting of the oom4 mittee, when another attempt will be made to arrive at some conclusion in reference to them
 The committee then decided to ad~ journ until next Tuesday afternoon. when the question will again be dis4 cussed and probably some.report fornu- lated.
 After the adjournment of this meet> ing Selectmeh Pohlman and Stahl hied themselves down stairs to the town agents office. where they met seaeotman Forbes, and an executive session was held for the purpose of hearing Select- man Pohlman's report on the value of lands in Beaver Pond district, which it IS proposed to purchase for papk pur- poses. The report showed that no esti- mate had been received from owners of the property above Munson street. and in consequence the whole matter went over.
 Another meeting of this committees will be held In the near future, subjeoH however, to the call of the chairman.