The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-03-17
CHAS. H. ROBERTS,
NJ CHRISTOPHERSON,

According to the above the bid &C
cepted was that of c. r. Mckay, the
contract price being $500.
The whole matter was arranged in
secret session. It is learned that Mr.
Christopherson refused point blank to
decide the question either one way or
the other He wanted Messrs. Geddes
and Roberts to fight it out. So they
did, County Attorney Whittemore act
ing as referee Mr.. Whittemore is a
man of some advanced ideas, at least
since he visited Chicago and New
York. He talked to Commissioner
Roberts in private and told him 1T
was no use to battle for the hydraulic
people any longer. Geddes stood firm
on the electric elevator proposition
and assured the other members he
wouldn't change his views until the
Great Salt Lake would freeze over and
if it did he would skate on the ice
and still faunt the Sprague banner.
While all this was going on Mr.. Chris
topherson simply Sawed wood"
Finally Mr.. Roberts saw the error of
his ways, came over and signed his
name to the resolution.
When the board met in the afternoon
Mr.. Whittemore delivered a somewhat
lengthy opinion on the point brought
meeting last Friday, whether the
county could proceed to use the steam
plant to run an elevator without com
pensating the city for the wear and
tear of the machinery. The county
attorney was of the opinion that it
could The building, he said, was
constructed co-jointly and one of the
municipalities could, independent of
the other, appropriate the power
plant for its own use, but that
either would be liable to the
other for any damage. He read
from the contract for the construction
of the building as follows:
1t is the intention of these specifica-
lions to provide three 75-horse power
improved water tube boilers, located
in the steam power building, at a dis
tance of about 600 feet from the point
in the joint city and county building,
at which a supply of steam has ITO be
furnished for the heating system in
that building; also for operating pas
senger elevator pumps, feed pumps,
and any other machinery for which
steam power may be required
From this he thought there could be
no question about the matter. The
plant was intended just for such pur-
poses and the county OF city. each in
dependent of the other, could use it,
'DelnS 1dple, however, IOr any NI31fl-
ages resulting from its use.
Mr.. Christopherson at this point
asked Mr.. Whittemcre if he thought
the county's financial condition would
warrant the expenditure, or purchase
of the elevator would bring the amount
beyond the total revenues for the
year.
The, county attorney replied that the
commissioners could not only expend
no al for a I@rrf
also create an Indebtedness equal to
the legal limit of 2 per cent of the
total assessed valuation is reached.
This removed the last doubt from
Mr.. Christopherson's mind. and the
resolution was unanimously adopted.
In the matter of the claim of ]. w
Farrell, the court agreed to pay him
$500 as settlement in full. Mr.. Far
rell and his attorney, Judge Dey, were
present and accepted the proposition.
not consider it a. just settlement, still
his client was in very bad circum-
stances and the amount would greatly
help him out. The amount of Mr.. Far
rell's original claim was SS,443.46.
At the morning session the follow
ing business was transacted:
John D. Spencer. tax collector, sub
mitted his report of tax collections for
1895. It was a complete settlement
with the county to January 1, 1896, and
in this respect is the earliest ever made
by any tax collector. The report shows
the total tax collections. including
school moneys, list of properties owned
by the various national banks on
which taxes were abated, uncollectable
items and the list of properties sold
Salt Lake county prior to 1895, which