El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-12-24
THE COMMITTEE REPORT.
And They Call this Retrenchment in
City Affairs.

City Affairs.
I have read and studied the report of
the citizens committee appointed by
the city council to formulate plans for
running the city government during the
ensuing year. 1t was expected that they
would recommend some plan of re-
trenchment that would bring the re-
cepipts and disbursements to an
equilibrium, but instead of this they
recommend paid fire department.
not full one that would do efficient
only, as there is not an old fireman In
FL Paso that does not know that
twelve men cannot possibly handle a
fire in this city, nor possibly cover as
much territory as that covered by the
city of Ell Paso.
1 do not want to be put down as op-
posing a paid fire department., but I do
want to be put down as opposing q
play paid fire department that will
show up we'll on parade, but would be
useless at q real fire, and 1 know that
twelve men could not possibly do them
selves or the city Justice aud 1 doubt
very seriously whether the insurance
companies would reduce tn" rate of in
surance in FL Paso one iota If the re-
commentators of the committee were
adopted and twelve men paid fire
department we're initiated, because
insurance companies are sbrewd
enough to see that the recommends
tions of the committee is only q hobby
otreOme one that wants to see q paid
fire department in Ell Paso, ard the
insurance companies will know that
such department would be useless in
case of a fire OF any consequence in
any part of the city and that with
such department their risks would
be grea'e than they are at present
with q half pay and half volunteer de-
partmnnt. ~--
~, IS ~ the cost of the paid de-
partm mt as RI commended by the COM
mit.ee. Their to'al recommendation
of costs reaches the cum total of SILL
400 per year. They recommend paid
chief st 1925 per month or $500 per
year: they recommend an engineer or
assistant chief at $75 per month or
500 per year; they recommend 10 men
at $50 per month or 81 200 per year;
they figure on keeping nine horses at
800 per mouth or 81, 200 per year and
have an incident expense of $50 per
month or $500 per year and they cal!
this retrencbmeut.
Now for little table showing just
what it will cost the city of Ell PasO to
adopt full paid department. so that
CTS "Ou'o = ~ OoO OOuChC vi q
81 90 rate of insurance instead of the
81. 10 Ell Paso now has with the half
psy and half volunteer fire department.
1t is as follows and the figures are TAX
en- from the Revised Tariff of Minimum
Rates adopted by the Texas Fire I'm
derwriter's association. It is q book of
instructions to local fire insurance
agents showing just what it would re-
quire to bring Ell Paso up to a first
~ ~h 81
following are the requirements OF all
cities graded as first class by the as
ISOLATION:
"Paved or macadamiZed streets in
business portion; an inexhaustible wa
ter supply, ard efficient system of pub
lie water works, a full paid fire
department In God working order. cb ief
to devote bis who'e time to the duties
Of his Off e, q sufficient number of
steamers, not less than one for every
$1,000 pcpulaiiOn, hose reels or wagons
with ade quate supply OF approved hose,
including shut off MOBILES, hook and
ladder truck, chemical engine, all
drawn by horses belonging to the de-
partment and used for no other pur-
pose, an approved electric fire alarm
system and efficient police protection"
The city would have to come up 20
the above requirements b. fore it would
U0 pun VI d uT-U GLASS Ot6ISs NOW tu0
committee in their report are short in
their recommendations as follows:
One new steamer, engine
for every 10 900 population "a, 900
Electric fire alarm. 49,. 49,. 1000
chemical engine COM
plete. $500
2 horses for engine. ...... 300
Total. 1880
This mu"h was left out in the calcu-
latiOn of the committee aid should be
added to their amount of the cost of
eduiping and running a first class fire
Now if there is really desire to
adopt paid department why not fol-
low in the # OF steps of other cities and
gradually adopt the paid department
system. The following sugge stion is
good one and would come n Aarer put
ting the city Cd a drst class basis than
that recommended by the committee
and at the same time the department
would get i'd of that dress parade
element who are in the department to
escape jury duty. The following is
the suggestion:
Make the chief of police chief of the
fire department. make his assistant a
fire man whose duty it is to stay at the
deps rtmert like otNe- paid hreneu,