The Washington times. (Washington, D.C.) 1894-1895, 1895-06-09
Commissioners Cannot Entertain
Gas Companies Proposal.
STREET LIGHTING STATUS
Electric Lighting Bids VIII Be Again
Solicited-The Naphtha Contract
mplaints About the
Against Waste of Potomac Liquid.
Water Seryice-Citizens Warned


ually have its solution through the electric
channel or by the naphtha route and by aid
of Congress. The Pennsylvania Globe
Gaslight Company, with an improved lamp
OF its own devising, has obtained con-
tract, under order issued yesterday, with
the Commissioners for furnishing as many
street lights as the District may require,
from 1000 upward.
In all suburban localities and in certain
sections of the city these lamps may be en-
ployed Their Illuminating power is said
to be very superior for that class Of
lighting. Over II 600 OF the lamps are in
use in Philadelphia.
The Commissioners have also rejected the
offers OF the Washington and Georgetown
Gaslight Companies, respectively, sub
mitted June 3, for lighting the streets on
their own terms, with a view to further
negotiations, probably; and at the same
time they ordered a reimbursement for
electric service.
There is one point of difference, as was
explained yesterday, between the Com
missioners and the companies, which the
public seems TO have lost sight OF. The
price stated ny Congress for gas lighting
is not held by the Commissioners to be
an arbitrary figure that admits Of no
modification or change. They claim that
Congress fixed sos 80 per lamp as price
beyond which they may not go, not that
they shall pay that amount and no less,
while the contention .of the gas companies
is that the Commissioners are powerlcss
to fix any other price, and the companies
insist upon their own specifications of the
service.
There is q peculiar condition brought
about by two acts of legislation that rem
ders the monopolies masters OF the situa-
ton until Congress shall see fit TO inter-
pose One of these is the law forbidding
overhead wires, the other prohibiting the
further use OF the city streets by private
corporations.
SUITS THEM EXACTLY.
1t is asserted that had the gas companies
procured the enactment of these two laws,
they could not have made the situation more
to their liking. Any electric company that
existed prior to the adoption of these
measures has the privilege of laying under
ground wires, and is required 10 do SO, for
all extensions OF the service, but no oppoSi-
ton can come in. This, it is unde rstood, can
only be remedied by legislation.
In rejecting the offers made by the gas
companies the Commissioners merely leave
the question ut issue in exactly the position
it has been in for the past several years.
The street lighting by gas is done under
temporary agreement, dictated by the COM
panies. The contract expired, in fact, q
year ago. The companies, il so disposed,
could at any time refuse to order the lamps
lighted and, within the city limits, at least,
where naphtha lamps are not employed, the
streets would be in darkness.
The Commissioners, being powerless,
through lack of legislation and competition,
will, therefore, ii is alleged, be obliged to
make the best terms possible with the light
producers.
The needed legislation win doubtless be
matured before Congress conyenes. when
the Commissioners will include it in their
recommendations.
Complaints are again coming to the Com
missioners from every section of the city
of the failure of the water service to sup
ply the third stories of buildings. This is
due, it is said, to the unusual demand
arising from the heated term and to the
possible waste of water in sections.
The board requests the citizens of the
District TO observe the regulations against
waste, and attention is called TO the fact
| that exterior fountains and hose for water
ing pavements and parking can only be
used between the hours of and o'clock
a. M. and 8 and 8 o'clock p. m. The ut
most care is necessary, the Commissioners
say, to avoid q famine in the more ele-
waited regions.
SIDEWALKS AND SEWERS.
Orders were issued yesterday as follows:
That cement sidewalk be laid in front
of Nos. Oh and 90, New York avenue
northwest, under the permit system; also
| in front of No. 1906 Fourteenth street
northwest.
That sewer in Randolph street, to
serve lot H. block 9, lexington, be placed
on the provisional schedule of sewers to
! be constructed.
| trict with sand, gravel and broken stone,
made June by J. T. Summers, be ac-
cepted.
That proposals for constructing sewers,
| opened June 8, be accepted as to the
| following contractors Section A, con-
crete, TO Bolden & Wormley, bid 81 ,432. 46;
section B. pipe in Twelfth street, be-
| tween Massachusetts avenue and NJ street,
| to Lyons Bros, bid, 81, 231 so; section
@, pipe, North Capitol street, between o
and p streets, to Thomas Buckley, bid,
/ 81 ,632. 40; section d, pipe, in Sixth
street southwest, between G and II streets,
to Thomas Buckley, bid, 1864. SO; section
E pipe in street, between Third and Four
and a half streets southwest, and in I
street, crossing Four-and -a-balf street,
to Thomas Buckley bid, 81 $40; section F,
pipe, in II street southwest, between Four
! and half and Sixth streets, to Thomas
| Buckley. bid, $649 20; section G., in Vir-
GINA avenue between Twenty-first and
Twenty streets northwest to Lyons
Bros, bid, $1,4i1.50.
That Edward G. Emack chairman of the
sewer department, be promoted to be
rodman at $3.50 per day, and that F. P.
Metzger be appointed chairman in same
department at $2.25 per day.
VARIOUS MINOR MATTERS.
Permission was granted yesterday to
Archibald NJ. Bliss TO run coaches from the
junction of Eighth street and PennsyI-
vania avenue southeast along the avenue
to and across the bridge to East Wash
| ington Heights.
The expenditure of 81 900 from the ap-
| preparation for grading and regulating
Sherman avenue was authorized yesterday
for the purpose of protecting the parking
adjacent to Garfield Hospital and pre-
| venting the banks from falling into and
obstructing the street.
Joseph Curran was appointed an adj
ditional private on the Metropolitan police
force, for a period of three years, for duty
at the United States Naval Observatory.
Five deaths only were reported to the
health office for the twenty-four hours
ending at o'clock yesterday They were