The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1900-07-12
CITY LOSES MONEY,
Water Commissioners Discover That
Plumbers Have Not Been Max
ing Proper Returns.
LICENSES TO BE REVOKED.
city water Has Been Placed in Many
Houses ana no Report Of the Same
Made TO the Engineer.

At the next meeting Of the Common
Council the Board of Water Commits
sioners of the city will present report
to the city asking that the licenses of
many plumbers be revoked on account
of the fact that scarcely any of them are
complying with the rules under which
the license is issued.
Recently the Water Commissioners
began an investigation of the custom
ers of the water company and have
found strange facts in regard to the
matter One of them which is causing
trouble at PRESENT. is the fact that there
are hundreds of the consumers of the
city water who are not paying one
single cent to the city for the water
consumed. They are located in all
parts of the city and among the list is
included not only private residences,
but factories and other plants using
large amounts of the city water. It is
impossible to estimate the loss to the
city on account of the remissness. How
long it has been going on, in many
cases, the uperintendent of the water
works is not able to tell and until the
Commissioners can make some check
Of the users of the citywater they have
no way to find out the financial loss
that is daily accruing to the city. But
they know this much-that it is a con-
stant1y increasing loss and that the
city has already lost a large sum of
money.
Almost every plumber is to blame
for the loss. The city mains have been
tapped in many instances and no re-
ports of the connections have been
made. This has been going on for
some time. House after house has
been added to the drain upon the sup
ply of the pump station without any
commensurate increase in the revenues
of the department.
The city Council has granted licenses
to plumbers on the understanding that
they report connections to the Super
intendent of the water works within
forty-eight hours after the connection,
but these rules have been ruth1ess1y
disregarded, and whether from neg1i-
gence or for private gain, no reports
of many connections have been made
to the city officials.
The Superintendent of the water
works and the Commissioners have
taken the matter in hand, and the
farther they go with the investigation
the larger the number of people using
the city water without money and
without price becomes. It is no fault
Of the Commissioners, as time and
time again the plumbers have been
notified to make the reports to the
Superintendent, but they have stated
that they had no reports to make
In one place it was discovered that
plumber had added another meter in
factory which had used over a million
gallons of water, but no report had
been made to the city, and for this
reason no money was received for the
water used. There are some of the
plumbers who have utterly disregarded
the law, while some of the cases are
apparently the result of negligence on
the part of the men interested in
the plumbing work.
The Commissioners are determined
that the matter shall end here, and the
Council will be asked to revoke the
licenses of the plumbers who seem to
be the most cu1pab1e in the matter.