The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-12-16
THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN
VERY IMPORTANT MEETING
HELD LAST ETENTNG.

| Water Contract decentralization Lost
by a Tie Vote-PetItion OF Winchester
Avenue Street Railway to Double
Track Congress Avenue VefOed-Na-
/ tlOnaI Wire aud Ready Bits Corpora
lions Must Pay for Fire Protection
! Fuel Committees Report.
! The board of aldermen held a special
meeting last evening and considered
several important matters. The first
was the petition submitted by President
Wallace containing brief synopsis of
the various water contracts entered in
to by this city. In it was embodied
series of questions to be answered by
the corporation counsel as to the valid
ity o. the present contract This was
referred to the corporation counsel.
President Wallace presented another
petition which stated that as the board
Of finance had included $4,000 for es-
tablishing public bathhouse he moved
that the committee having the matter
in charge be instructed to procure es-
Inmates at once This was adopted.
! Alderman Trueman presented petit
ton asking that the corporation counsel
be authorized to prepare and present
to the legislature an act to establish
local option in the use OF the initiative
and referendum.
1t was to the effect that if 5000 legal
voters Cor per cent. of the total vote
cast at the last municipal election) ask
the adoption of a specific charter
amendment in city in this state that
it should be submitted to the voters at
the next municipal election following,
and if approved by the majority Of the
electors it shall become part of the
charter or organic law governing the
municipality. 1t provides that the cor
poration counsel present this matter to
the next legislature. This was voted to
be referred to the committee on legisla-
ton.
The motion offered at last nights
meeting by Alderman Trueman to re-
consider the water contract was lost by
vote of II to IL, President Wallace not
voting to dissolve the tie.
The following report was received by
the committee on fuel and after much
discussion it was amended to read so
as to appropriate $4,000 instead of $1O,-
900; tabled for printing, and also to be
referred to the board of finance.
To the Honorable Board of Aldermen
of the City of New Haven:
Your committee appointed by this
honorable board to take into consid-
Grafton the matter of obtaining suita-
hla S1,nplyy eO1, tho nitizanc of New
Haven beg leave to call the attention
of the board to their former report,
and at that time your committee rec
commended that no further action be
taken by this committee until it was
ascertained whether the resumption of
work of the striking miners would re-
lieve the present condition of coal fam
inc in the city of New Haven, and from
that time to the present time your COM
mttee has waited patiently, hoping
that the present intense suffering of the
citizens Of New Haven might be re-
lieved through the ordinary channels of
coal supply, but no such relief has
come; and we find from the evidence
before us that the suffering now is
much greater and more imminent than
1t was at the time of the last report,
and a worse feature of the present sit
uation Is that there is no immediate
prospect of relief for the next two or
three months owing to the very small
amount of coal on hand at the present
time and owing to the extreme diff
Guilty of water navigation during the
Indictment months and we see no chance
% ALT 90 Cos, h.
ing public until at least the middle of
March
We have ascertained that a good
quality of foreign coal can be obtained
in New York by giving an order suff1-
GENTLY long enough before hand to in
sure its delivery here in New Haven
and that cargoes may be purchased
ranging from two to five thousand tons
in steamers which could be directed to
New Haven and unloaded, but it is
necessary in order to procure such coal
to give the order thirty days at least
before the coal can be expected to ar
rive as 1t requires ten days for loading
the vessel on the other side and twenty
days this season OF the year for cross
ing the Atlantic, and had we been per-
mitted to have given orders for coal
at the time of the making of the last
report an abundant supply of such coal
could now have been on hand for de-
livery in New Haven, but owing to the
strong feeling which was manifest in
some quarters against any action being
taken by the city government to relieve
the distressed situation we forbore to
make a further report until the situa-
ton became so grave that we deemed
it our duty to again bring this matter
to the attention of your honorable
board. We also find that practically no
domestic coal can be purchased for the
purpose of relieving the present situa-
ton, and in fact practically all the coal
dealers in the city of New Haven ad-
init that they can do nothing to re-
lieve the present distress and declare
that they are unable to procure coal so
as to make any adequate supply for the
citizens at the present time. We also
find that similar action to that advo-
Gated by your committee has been
taken in other cities, notably in the
city of New York, where the board of
aldermen has recently appropriated the
sum of one hundred thousand dollars
for the purpose of purchasing coal, the
same to be distributed under the direc-