St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1894-03-08
SPECIAL VILLAGE MEETING.
The Water Question Referred TO a Com
mittee who will Report in Two Weeks.

Town Hall Monday afternoon was
one Of the largest ever held. Ger
tainly it was one of the most i'm
portant, for all admit that we are
in a perilous condition today and
both water systems are INSULT
cient to meet the wants of the viii
lage.
The call was read by the clerk,
after which President N NJ. John
son thanked the voters for choosing
him for such a high office and the
business of the meeting was then
taken up.
c. H. Stevens, chairman of the
board of trustees, called upon w. P.
Stafford to read the proposed con-
tract between the village and the
Aqueduct Company and with which
our readers are more or less familiar.
After the contract was read Harry
Blodgett offered the following reso-
luton to bring the matter before
the meeting for discussion:
| The village of St. Johnsbury. in village
! meeting assem- mbled for that purpose, haV-
| ing heard the foregoing proposed con-
tract with the St. Johnsbury Aqueduct
| Company read do hereby accept of the
provisions of the same and become a
party thereto, and do hereby authorize
and empower its board of trustees, or a
majority of its said board, to make, exc
cute, complete and deliver said contract
on the part of the village, and to sign
said contract with the corporate name
of the village for and in behalf of said
village.
After the contract was read Mr..
Stevens was interrogated by the
citizens. Asked if the trustees had
tried to buy Stiles pond, he replied
that the village had never author
lied them to take such a step. He
said the new system contemplat ted
larger and better hydrants all over
the village.
Mr.. Gowing of New York, the en-
gineer of the Aqueduct Company,
then spoke very clearly upon water
pressure. He said the proposed sys.
: tenn would give static head of las
feet opposite the CALEDoNIAN office,
, which meant that water would rise
to that height in a pipe of any size
From one hose stream would be
/ thrown at least 100 feet high at this
l point and six or eight fire streams
, would give better service than thi:
village has ever had before, though
the streams would not be quite sc
l high as if there was only one stream
/ Eight streams could be used for Il
consecutive hours before exhaustine
the supply at Stiles pond, and in hi:
opinion fire could be controlled il
, that time, or else it would be such {
Il serious conhagration that water
y. could never control it.
:, John Mcdonald made one of hi
q characteristic speeches in which h,
hoped there would be no guessworl
= here today. He said the citizens haC
been mesmerized 16 years ago anC
d they wanted to be set right now.
: DR.. Bullard asked if a gravit,
: system was the best, a the enginee
had just stated, why all the bis
cities used fire engines and pumped
k water into hose?
Mr.. Gowing replied that every cit,
O. preferred a gravity system, but il
? many cases could not get heat
, enough from the water to give sui
y ticient pressure for fire purposes
d This was notably true of New York
where the water from the Crotol
k reservoir did not have head enough
s. to reach the fourth story of an,
o down town business block.
= H. N. Turner said that everybod,
admitted that the village of St
t Johnsbury was in peril today anC
f that something must be done a
t once. He had been informed tha
e there was no fire protection last Fri
# day from the village system, and b
d then informed his hearers that tn
II filters of the Aqueduct Compan
e broke down at Stiles pond the da
following and were still in a broker
condition. The Aqueduct Com
panv's system was detective and it
supply was brought to the village i
of a "stove-pipe main" He asked tn
k people of Sum mmerville if they wer
t satisfied with the fire protection the
T, had from four hydrants cOnnecte,
with a 'stove-pipe main" Referring
to the Goss Hollow and Joe's pom
projects he said the scale compau
. would be unable to use water in thei
1t boilers from either of these source
is because OF the hardness OF the water
ID Mr.. Turner then took up the f
nancial side of the question and sal
- that since the village water syster
a. was started in 1877 it had cost th
lie village $4,000 a year. As E. & I
x Fairbanks & Co. paid one-hfth {
1t the taxes, this corporation had cor
tributed $1,000 year for 16 year
2. that St. Johnsbury might have
t, water system with rates so low tha
,g it ran behind every single year.
tx Mr.. Turner then took up til
IS question of water rates. He read
table of rates in about twenty town
nt and cities in New England. Takin
- the rate Of the first faucet. the wa te