Omaha daily bee., 1895-05-07
THEY ouARRELED ABOUT IT
Police t'oard and Water Company Dincr
on the Ellelener Of Mntrr IIxdrnnts.

ph hHt OF Nhter ttyurNntS
The Fire and Police commissioners wran-
gled with the representatives Of the Amer
ican Water Works company last night 1t
lasted over two hours and was caused by the
dispute over the condition of the fire hydrant
at Twenty-second and Davenport streets at
the time Of the recent fire. when It is claimed
four men were unable to turn the water on
after the connections had been made The
only result obtained at that time was the
breaking of the wrench.
The superintendent of the American Water
Works company, Mr. Hunt, had men at the
meeting to prove that the hydrant was in
good working order the next day after the
fire, and that one man was able to open the
hydrant without much difficulty. The hy-
drant was afterward taken up and found to
be in good working order and in the opinion
of the men employed by the company 1t was
the fault Of the iremen who, in trying to
turn on the water had turned the wrong
way. This was disputed very emphatically
by Chief Redell who stated that he. in COM
pany with one Of the firemen, had tried the
hydrant after the fire had been extinguished,
and found ii impossible to open it. He had
also tried 1t the next day with the same re-
suit. Superintendent Hunt claimed that
Redell was not fair with the company and
had given it the worst OF K in many of his
reports. which had given rise to the opinion
that the entire plant was worthless to the
IL l.
This the chief denied but took the oppor-
tunity to express himself on the subject and
stated that much of the property should be
condemned and the superintendent along
with it.
Mayor Bemis then took a turn at the water
works company and said that in his opinion
the plant was not being run in the manner in
which 1t Should be- and directly against the
interests of the people who were its patrons,
There are 1000 hydrants in this city" said
the mayor, (Which the city is paying rent for
unjustly and which, perhaps, are not in good
condition as the contract calls for, yet the
company gets nearly $50, 900 rental from the
city. | have had three years of 1t, and | am
of the opinion it is an outrage. The city has
had to incur an additional expense of be-
tween 100000 and $40 900 per year in supply
ing fire protection, all en- account of the poor
pressure furnished by the water works COM
pany"
In answer to a question put to him by the
mayor, Mr. Hunt stated that the company
had already laid about two miles of twelve
inch water mains this year, and had contem-
plated laying five miles of twenty-four inch
pipe and between two and three miles Of
twelve-inch pipe. but owing to the manner in
which the company had been treated by the
city the contract for the pipe had been can
celed and the company had laid all the mains
that it intended to this year and would not
lay any more until the city paid the company
what it owned and what justly belonged to it,
The members of the board expressed them
selves as being in favor of arranging for the
inspection of the water hydrants at least once
a month so that they could be depended
upon in case of a fire. Mr.. Hunt, on behalf
of the company he represented, offered to fur
nsh one man to make the inspection and
also horse and buggy in case the board ar
ranged TO have man accompany the en-
plOye of the company and see that the in
speCtiOn was properly made and that the
hydrants were all in good condition. The
board empowered the chief to appoint one of
his men TO make the tour Of inspection as
proposed by Mr.. Hunt and suggested that
the work be begun soon possible.