The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-02-13
WATER CONTRACT REPORTS
MAJORITY AND MINORITY RE- FORTS HAVE BEEN PREPARED.

MAJORITY AND MINORITY RE-
 FORTS HAVE BEEN PREPARED.
 Both Win be Considered by Aldermen
 and CounciImen at Adjourned ses-
 sIons to be Held To-night-MaJorIty
 Contract While the Minority Report
 Recommends Ten Year Contract.
 The majority and minority reports of the special committee on water con- tract have been printed in pamphlet , form and yesterday were distributed to the aldermen and councilmen. The majority report is signed by Aldermen Wright and w. F Walsh and Council man Mason. This report recommends the adoption of the contract known as proposition number three, with some slight modification from the form as submitted by the Water company. This is the contract known as the continu- ing contract and provides among other things that the contract shall continue for all time except that if at any time the work of the company shall prove inadequate the city may annul the con- tract, that the city shall have all water for public uses free of cost, that the city shall save the company harmless from such part of any franchise or other tax, except upon tangible property, as shall be measured by the ratio of the gross revenue received from consumers within the city of New Haven to the gross revenue of said company from all it's consumers or in case the city does not save the company so harmless then the city shall pay the company twenty dollars year for every hydrant and lowest meter rates to private con- sumers less 25 per cent. discount for water used for all other purposes, that the city may purchase the property of the Water company at the end of twenty five years and at the end of every twenty-five years thereafter.
 The majority report contains the fol- lowing: In view of the large increase in the use of water since the present contract was entered into, it is probable that if the proposal of the Water com pany to renew said contract at the rate of $20,000 per annum is not accepted, and resort to arbitration is had upon the question as to what the city should pay for water, it might result in the award of a larger annual sum than $ now being paid, leaving unchanged, ex- cept so far as the Water company may hereafter voluntarily modify the same, the rates to private consumers.
 These facts should be seriously con- sidered before renewal of the present contract is determined upon. Your committee have been unable to secure from the representatives of the Water company any modification of this con- tract or the rates referred to therein. except the provision that the rates shall not be increased beyond what are charged at the present time.
 If there was a fair probability that the city would in the near future pur chase the property and franchises of the Water company, then your com mittee would recommend the renewal of the present contract, which reserves the right to purchase at any time. The fact, however, that there exists so much f uncertainty as to when the city may acquire the property and rights of the ! water company, anu as to whether | such purchase may be made within a 1 period of even twenty or thirty years, | justifies a very careful consideration of l the advantages offered the city under what was known as contract number i three or the continuing contract, with the important notifications thereto which your committee have been able | to secure These modifcat ions have re- moved many of the objections hereto | fore raised to a long, term contract. The | most important of them as follows:
 The reduction of the stated periods of [ time fixed for the purchasing privilege from thirty to twenty-five years.
 Among the notifications is the thir- teenth section, by which the city agrees