Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1900-07-06
That Hard to Beat" Council.


following, from Pocahontas:
The out going Council has made a
record that is hard TO beat, notwithstan-
ding the "cussln they received and
the manner in which they were "snow.
ed under on election day. When they
took charge two years ago there was q
debt of $4,000. 90 han ging over the
town. In the two years they have been
IN office they have, not only paid the
running expenses of the town, includ.
ing about $3.50, of the debt incurred by
the old Council, which tie present
Council had to pay, but they have re-
duced the debt of Sic, zoo. 90, referred to
above, to $4,000. Two years more of
such management would practically
free the town from the debt. And the
above work was accomplished without
the necessity of paying an Auditor $40
for about ten days services and the fur
ther expense of paying a town attorney
10 per cent. of the fines collected for
doing portion of the work that a Po-
lice Justice is paid a salary to do"
The above, which believe was writ
ten by one of the Council that was
defeated, is very misleading, and
attempts to compare the record of the
previous Council with the one just de-
feated, to the detriment of the former
Council. The facts are these:
The Council of which 1 was a mem
ber, found debt against the town of
S25,000, scattered all over the country.
We collected and classified that debt and
put it in a shape where it was handled
by financial institutions of standing and
placed the town finance on a better
basis than they had ever been.
When we turned over the town to the
Council, whose term has just expired,
and concerning whom this laudatory
article was written, we turned over a
debt of S16, ,O95 90, a reduction OF so 900
in two years, as against their claim OF
reduce the debt over 1000. Circum-
stances during our two years must also
be taken into consideration. We had
our first prolonged fight with small pox
that cost us over $1,000, and every dol
lar was paid by the Council of which l
was a member. We came into power
just In the middle of the greatest strike
4 these coal fields have known, and we
had to take care oil the extra expense
entailed upon us during that time.
Another charge perierred by your
correspondent is that we employed an
Auditor at a cost of $340, for about ten
days work. We employed anAuditor, but
the charge that he did the word in ten
days is not supported by the record, and
as your correspondent has access to the
record, think he should state it cor
rectly. Our reason for employing an
Auditor were good and sufficient. The
Many were lost by the fire. and to get
them up in good style required time
and money, besides there were one or
two officers accounts unsettled and
suits were being brought against the
town, and to go into court with our
business in the shape we found it, was
to become a laughing stock and loose
our cause. No Councilman had the
time TO give to this aud it required
weeks and months to get this matter in
business shape. We did SO, and when
called on in the suits, we were able to
| give clear and definite statement OF
our financial condition. No tax payer
of this town ever complained of the
money spent in getting up this matter
until the author of the inspired praise
in the above article, as he says when
the COW goes dry. During this time we
compromised and otherwise arranged
for a multitude of debts against th'
town not made by our Council!
Another charge is that we hired an
attorney at 10 per cent. commission tc
do portion of the work Police Jus
tice is paid a salary to do. l deny tha
Police Justice is paid salary to dc
any such work, but he is elected to hear
and determine causes between Plaintiff
and defendant, and the Office is just a
Court and it is not his province to &C
as prosecutor 1t was to relieve TIN
Police Justice of just such cbarg
as this that it was deemed best to EN-
ploy an attorney. Did not the Council
he is trying to praise employ firm o
attorneys at Tazewell, and did not tn
town spend hundreds of dollars takin
witnesses to Tazewen Court House tha
might have been saved by employin
an attorney in Pocahontas? Further
more did not the town loose nealy ever
!, case taken by appeal? This was not tn
fault of their attorneys, but the fault o
their warrants and logical result {
@ paying Police Justice to do what
trained lawyer could hardly do fc
many of the charges arising in a tow
like this require careful pleading to brin
!, them under the terms of statutes, an
the result was that Pocanontas cases b,
/, came notorious at Tszewell, and Jude
@ and Juries regarded these mis6t wa
rants in the light of legal variet
\ show. The inevitable consequence Z