The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-02-18
PHELPS MAKES A REPLY
Water Company Will Accept Not
Less Than S445,OOO.
MAKES SEVERAL OFFERS
1t Wants an Amicable Adjustment With
the City Council-Ciaims to Have
Been Unfairly Treated-An In
dependent Plant Now.

Great Falls, Feb. 17.-Yesterday eve
ming the following proposition was
made by the Great Falls water works
to the special citizens committee, which
is laboring on the subject
To the honorable committee of the
city council of the city of Great Falls,
Observation-Disclosures: In reply to your
communication, stating that the COM
mittee rejected the offer of the Great
Falls water works to sell its plant
for such sum as the stockholders could
prove was invested, and your request
that a fiat sum be named your COM
mittee before Feb. 5, | desire, on behalf
of the company to say that no other or
better offer can be made: that, while
the stockholders are willing to give up
their profits from the date of their in
vestment, they are not prepared to do
more.
amount, in dollars, that the company's
offer would have made the plant cost
the city, will say that the sum would
have been $44o, 900.
While the company will not change
its offer, If your committee should,
within the next 30 days, submit to us
any of the following propositions, on
behalf of the stockholders / would no.
tify you that the same would be ac-
cepted:
terms and conditions originally offered,
or ii will accept the fiat sum of S445, 900,
which is the equivalent, and will take
in payment of the amount due it lover
and above the bonds outstanding) five
per cent. 20-year bonds of the city of
Great Falls. paying for them par, in
case the city can get no better bid at
the time of sale.
So that there may be no uncertainty
as to the earnings of the company |
will guarantee to the city the following
result:
Gross income, minimum. ...... s45, 900
Expense, If run by the city, max
lmum. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. $1,000
FRONT account ....................$ 5000
Note-Income is some $685. more at
this time than $45, 900, and steadily in
creasing; the expense account is fig
ured on past expense of the company,
and is the same as the company now
has. except as to taxes, license, etc,
which the city can avoid.
The saving to the city will be further
increased on May l, 1899 $1,000 a year;
this will be brought about by calling
in at that time, under the f0-year OPP
ton clause the water company's $780,
600 OF per cent. bonds, and replacing
them by the city's 5 per cent. bonds
This being done, / will personally
guarantee the city by a good and suffi-
eient bond that until May /, 1899, the
net earnings of the water plant will ex-
coed $4,000 a year, and for two years
thereafter that the net earnings will
exceed Sll, 900 a year; provided that a
board of control be appointed who shall
have charge of the water system and
serve without salary, that the president
or the water company be made its
chairman, and that his methods of
management, so far as expenses 60 be
carried out
If the above offer is accepted it will
be with the understanding on the
eity's part, that no other phase of the
water question be submitted to the
taxpayers at the election.
The company does not desire to sell
Its plant. II an amicable adjustment
can be made by which the city council
passes resolution agreeing that all
agitation of the water question be
dropped until the expiration of the
companys contract, the water COM
pany will deposit with the city treas
ufer, for the credit of the water fund, |
beginning on the 1st day of November,
1928, the annual sum of s2.6S2, payable |
semi-annually on the 1st days of May
and November of each year thereafter |
The only condition attached this this |
offer is that the city shall consent and |
request that the assessment on the |
present water plant be placed where it |
was In 1895, which sum is a fair valu- |
alton on plant that can be duplicated |
sition, taken in the recent water COM |
mittees report. The reason for enter |
ing into this agreement is that the |
water company considers its assess
ment too high as compared with other
personal property, there being nothing
right or equitable in an assessment /
that places the water works $4,000
higher, for instance, than that of the
silver smelter. Many other COMPARE
sons could be given to show that the
water company is unfairly treated. but |
in asking that the assessment be left
where it was before the agitation came
up seems the fairest way OF disposing
of the question.
The company understands that the
resolution would not bind future coun-
ellis to live up to the agreement but |
with clause inserted in the resolution
that in the event of any agitation on
the councils part. the company would |
be released from its agreement to de-
post the annual payment of S26S2,
seems to the water company suffi-
cient protection.
L. G. PHELPS. President
A member of the committee was seen
this morning and asked what the COM
mittee was likely to do with the propo-