El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-12-24
AND CHIEF CONNORS SMILES.
The City Council Decides to Have a
Paid Fire Department

| AMI OONNO10O ACOs
The City Council Decides to Have a
| Paid Fire Department.
The city council held an Interesting
session last night, when business of
| Importance was transacted. The
clerk was able to revel only in one set
as be is sporting a fe'on in his right
thumb as big as q carpet sack, and the
throbbing within is like the exhaust of
q big s. P. engine pulling q heavy
train up the Strauss grade.
Mr.. Burton for the police committee
reported adversely on the petition OF
George A. Brown for variety theatre
in this city; the report was approved.
| Mr.. Clifford for the finance commit
sewer commissioner amounting to S15.-
10. tha pay roll of the street commits
sioner for S31.95, G. W. Davis for
plum bling and repairs at $3.50. end
interest on the sewer bonds at $492.57,
and expenses for judges of election ag-
gregatinR, $50. Bills approved. The
report of the city clerk on baildirg per-
mits referred to the finance committee
and q report from the tax collector was
referred 1read.
The feature of the evening then came
up In the,shaI OF the rec IN meudations
of the special citizens committee on To-
cal municipal administ- alton. The
clerk read it as follows betwe n agoniz-
| ing jerks of the felou on his thumb:
Ell PASO, Texas. Dec. ID. 1897.
To the Honorable Mayor and Council
of the City of Ell Paso, Texas:
Gentlemen-Your committee ap-
pointed by a resolution of your body on
the 3Oth of September, 1897, for the
purpose of making recommendations
relating to the general affairs OF the
city, respectfully report as follows:
In order to comply with your request
we have gone over the expenditures OF
the several departments of the city for
the past six months, beginning April
nished US by the city clerk. We fiud,
in our opinion, that most of them have
been conducted on an economical
| basis, aud there Is but little, if any.
room for retrencbment. We therefore
consider it unne cessary to refer to
these and will only suggest for your
consideration such subjects as we
think, by. close Investigation, as you
may be able to improve upon.
First-The amount expended by
the city for street lighting seems large,
but we see no way to reduce the
amount while your present contract ts
in force, except that you decrease the
humber of lights in places where they
are lesst useful and not increase them
until you can get a lower rate and
there is q real necessity for them. We
too econ to invite competitive bids for
this service at the expiration of the
present contract
Secoud-We think street sprinkling
a necessity on account OF health, COM
fort, and as q measure best calculated
to preserve the streets, but it seems to
US that we are paying too much for
water for this purpose, since the by
draDts for. which we pay upwards OF
we are informed, have not been used
exceeding fifteen times during the
year.
Third-We think the fees allowed
the city engineer for surveying lots
should be considerably reduced, and
that all fees over the amount of So, OOO.-
90 per annum, including his salary,
should go into the city treasury. In
this case the owners of property will
their lines rather than pay the fee now
allowed by the city.
Fourth-We find that the expense
Of the fire department during the last
tx months were 90, 1884, or in twelve
months it would amount to Sl2 676.88
We are classed by the insurance COM
panies as q city between the first and
second class, and the basis rate of in
surauce is 81. 90. In order to come un-
der the fret class rate the city is re-
CURED TO have full paid fl Q depart
men. ms cad of q department Ms at
present constituted. We have given
this subject special and mature ST.
deration and now beg 70 recommend
that the council establish q full paid
department. for the city of Ell Psso.
We arrived at this conclusion for the
following reasoos: The cost of q full
paid fire department would not be any
more. and probably less, than: our
present expenses, as will be shown by
the following fgures:, - -
Cost of one chief u 25 per
month. 49,; .......;.. s15oo.oo
One engineer, who can also =
act as assistant chief at
$500 per month. ..... 900 90
Ten men at 100 each per
month. ................ 10000
Horse feed and shoeing