Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-07-24


the situation at the pumping station,
to say that the water works officials
are directly responsible for the lament
able condition of affairs which has con-
tinued for two days." said a prominent
citizen last night, "'but / know sufi-
cient to justify censure of the Off
Gals. The principal criticism should
no doubt be applied to the condition
of affairs which made possible the
water famine from which the city of
Wheeling has suffered. Nevertheless,
the members of the Water Board, and
the practical men employed by them,
are presumed to know their business.
In this view, / cannot understand why
they did not exercise sufficient judg-
ment to foresee what has happened,
and to make some sort of provision for
furnishing relief The accidents which
have happened during the work of max
ing connections with the new force
main, are such as might have been pre-
vented if the officials who superintend-
ed the work had proper knowledge of
the pressure of the water, the power
to resist this pressure, and other things
bearing On the question"
This was a conservative expression
of opinion, and was in substance the
view of a majority who talked about
the water famine last night. Every
body talked about it, of course, and
some were very radical in their views,
blaming the Water Board for the en-
tire trouble. 1t was the one subject
of conversations on the streets, in the
business houses-everywhere, because
everybody was affected by the scarcity
of water. Very few persons made ex-
cuses for the water works officials, the
number who blamed them absolutely
being probably ten times as large.
A criticism frequently made was that
the Water Board in its published no.
tice to consumers, should have afford
ed an opportunity to them to draw a
reasonable supply of water, instead Of
asking them to use it sparingly.
Many persons were inclined to think
that the officials, with the knowledge
of the power of water and heavy press
ure which they ought 10 have, should
have foreseen and taken measures to
prevent the accident 10 the valve in
the new force main.
Explanations by officials.
Mr.. Henry F. Jones, president of the
Water Board, was not pleased when
told by Register reporter of the criti-
cisms which were being made by the
citizens.
People who criticize the Water
Board and it's employees simply furnish
proof that they don't know what they
are talking about. aoIf We had gone be-
fore the people with a proposition to
issue 100000 worth of bonds to make
such needed improvements as would
have prevented this water famine, it
would have been voted down. Supt.
Oliver and his men are doing the very
best they can under the circumstances.
The people cannot say they were not
forewarned. The Board has called at
tention to the ipadequacy of the facil-
tiles for furnishing water supply to
the people Of Wheeling.
What We need is another force
main, and new reservoir. The pres
ent reservoir has a capacity of 4,250,000
gallons. We went SO far as to pre-
pare estimates and select location for
a new reservoir with a capacity of
100000000 gallons of water, but the
matter was not seriously considered.
We found it was impossible to pump
sufficient water with the old facilities,
and we purchased a new pump out OF
the revenues of the department. We
were making connections with this
pump and the force main when these
unforeseen accidents occurred.
There has been some criticism of
the Board for abari'oning the old sta
ton at the foot OF eighth street and
selling the pumps. One Maxwell pump
we sold to the Riverside. We could
not use it if we had it now. The other
pump was practically fallen to pieces
when We disposed of it as junk. If
the old station was still il existence it
could not be used, without a number
of changes in the entire system"
Mr. John Schellhase, secretary of the
Water Board, said: The Board has
been spending about 65 or 70 per cent
of its revenues upon improvements,
and l presume the next improvement
will be a duplicate force main. 1t is
certainly badly needed. With but
one force main, and the existence Of a
necessity for making the connections
with the new pump, there was no pos
sible way to prevent the trouble