Waterbury Democrat., 1902-12-16
And Sliced Off Nearly $40, 900
 as a Result.
TAXES ARE ONE MILL LOWER

| Push IhrOugh-IhOSe in Favor Of Patrol Wagon Made Hot Fight for
 $5,OOO Appropriation Alderman Murray Made Some Pointed Re marks at Alderman Blakeslee.
 The action of the aldermen in cut ting into the appropriations recom- I mended by the different boards is re- garded by some people as very wise | course, while others look upon it as a 1 move in the wrong direction and hope It will be continued in future years. It IS certain that the average rate ! payer is pleased to learn that the rate 1 or taxation will be lower next year ! than they expected it would be, no matter how things fare in other ways. Something had to be done to make | good the promise that taxes would be lower with consolidation than under the old plan of government, but in order to do this many schemes had to be resorted to which can hardly be considered for the good of the city. Of course the department of public safety | is left in good shape, but the board of public works will find it difficult to take care of such things as will need attention. In fact. the aldermen real 1ze this and feel that everybody will | have to be satisfied with what the de- partment will be able to do with the funds at its disposal. The members | of the bureau of engineering will have to carry their instruments to and from their work instead of having the use of team, and when the board of p,l;;- lie works goes on an outing they will have to make their tour afoot or hitch a couple of the city horses to the old hack the board of health purchased during the smallpox epidemic.
 Considering the onslaught made upon the appropriations the department of education and the board of charities came out of the fray in fairly decent shape. Alderman Brophy wanted to re- duce the item of S1 POO for physicians to S1.C0O. In support of his contention he stated that if one'dcctcr were en- ployed instead of twelve no trcu'1lo would be experienced in getting cord physician to take the job for S1. coo a year. He made motion to this erfert but it was lost. Alderman Murra'' thought q little might be whitfield eff the $6,000 item for law. but Mir Kel- logg came to the rescue just on time to save it. .Ea' ..-.~ 4.
 One of the amusing features of the session was the thrust of Alderman Murray at MT Blakeslee about paving North Main street He wanted to know who does all the heavy trucking on that street and remarked that he was late for church the other Sunday while waiting to let lot of the alder mans coal carts pass him by
 Before the meeting was called to order Chairman Goss asked one of the members of the board of public works what was the matter with the Muicahy schcol building. and wanted to know whether the people would prefer to bave it built as at present located or allowed to remain over for another wear. He was informed that the school wae needed and that probably even with the conditions that have been ere ated it might be better to go ahead rather than run any risk of hampering the educational facilities of the dis trict. If this item had been cut ont altogether. and there are many who believe it should have been. the rate of taxation next year would be but lit- tie over F mills on the dollar
 At one time it looked as if the board would appropriate $5,O0O for a patrol
 
 of the board of public safety, drew a pitiful picture of drunken woman carted through the streets in an ex- press wagon with one officer holding her head, another sitting on her limbs and her feet sticking out in the end of the cart. He considered this an exhi- bitiOn which the wives and daughters of the citizens of Waterbury should not be obliged to look upon. MT Bro- phy thought the patrol wagon would insure better police protection in the outside districts and cited cases where officers hesitated about tackling gangs of toughs because they had no way of conveying them to the station.
 There's no need of cartfng woman through the streets in an express wagon" replied MT Filling Eff a wo- man is not able to walk and the officer wants to take her to the station, all he has to do is to. telephone from one of the boxes for hack. How many such cases occur in the rounds of the yeare 1t would be much cheaper to bring such cases to the station in hack than spend $5.0O0fora patrol wagon that you might not have occasion to use very often. It would be a nice thing to have if we could afford it. but there are things the city needs worse"
 Alderman Walker: "Who'll give you a hack for such purpose?"
 Alderman Blakeslee: Anybody that has one. I'm not aware that the owner of such vehicle could refuse without leaving himself liable to fine. Any way, I doubt if there is any business man in Waterbury who is not glad to take job from the city every time he gets a chance. Why didn't the board of finance recommend the purchase of a patrol wagon?'
 Chairman Goss: Because they felt it was something the city couldn't af- ford at the present time"
 When the question was put the dem ocrats and Aldermen Walker and Beach voted for it. but as it required eight votes it fell through.
 The pruning amounted to S3S,50O, S25, ,O0O of which was sliced from the department of public works. The tax rate next year as compared with that levied for 1901 will be two-ffths of mill less
 Tn answer to question from Alder man Filling as to why the Brooklyn nox,Iy e+roat uyac paf