Waterbury Democrat., 1902-06-19
MAYOR REFUSES TO SIGN
Application of Railway and
 Lighting Go Returned.

Mayor Kilduff Has Not Given His
 Reasons Publicity Yet-It Is Pretty
 Generally Understood That the
 Mayor Wants Better Protection for
 the City and Refuses to Sign the
 Document Unless It Is Given.
 Mayor Kilduff has returned City Clerk Ryan the application of the Con- necticut Railway SS Lighting Go for the extension of it's tracks from Oak vile to Watertown as passed by the aldermen at a meeting held a week ago last Monday night. This means that the mayor has vetoed the amended re- port of the board of public works so that the aldermen will have an oppor- tunity to correct the oversight they made in inserting an innocent appear ing amendment to the conditions recommended by the board of pulN c works which left all of them practical ly yalueless. Nothing could be learn ed as to what reasons the mayor gives for returning the application to the clerk, but it is safe to predict that they contain enough to satisfy all who want to look out for the city's interests in this question that the amendment giv7 ing the company the option to abandon the road in case it got licked in the courts was an unwise move and should be rescinded if the taxpayers are to be protected against having to pay the expense of this job. As stated herein before, the trolley people as we'll as others, admit that if the rails go down they'll never come up, and so long as this is considered q settled question it is nonsense to refer to it in the conditions. Those who think that in case the traction company might find it difficult to get permission to do the work if they lost in the courts should bear i'll mind that the railroad company is willing to have them do the work provided they bear all the expense They don't care to do this. Why should they if they cail throw the burden upon others? If the com pany cannot make good it's case against the railroad all it has to do is make application to the city for a grade and layout of the street at the Oakville bridge and it wouldn't take the city long to get things in shape so that they could go ahead. There is no op- DOSIllO1l u llit JIOIcy. IC pOlIL lo to fix things so that the cost of widen ing the street will be met by the rail- road people or the trolley company, the city officials don't care which, and as the aldermen are in position to do this there does not seem to be any reason why they should leave loop holes in the agreement.
 Let the bond and time limit stand without any qualifying conditions and then there can be no doubt about the expense, which is sure to come, being shouldered by others than the taXpay- CTS of Waterbury. This is very op- perfume time to talk on the project and members of the board of aldermen who may not be familiar with the why and the wherefore of the whole situation should get such information as they may desire before they vote on it again. And this information should be obtained from some one who is on the lookout for the city's side of the case. The trolley company will see that it is not caught mapping and no official need think that it will accept anything without knowing whether it is what it wants or not.