Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-10-04

The board of aldermen held two meetings last night. one special session to consider the recommendation of the board of finance, which was followed
 by the regular October meeting. Chair man Blakeslee presided and all the members were present except Messrs Callan, Brophy and Tobin.
 When the report of the board of
 finance was read asking for special
 appfopriation of $10.O0O for storm
 water drainage and sewage disposal,
 MT Murray said it was a big thing to
 vote on at moments notice. He
 wanted to know when the $14,OO0 Ii. cense money which made up the un- appropriated revenues came in. The clerk said a short time before the first of last January Well, then,' contin- ued the alderman from he fourth, ! 'how is that? Last March, two
 months after the money was received,
 when this board was asked to make
 a special appropriation of $1O,OOO for sewage disposal, we asked the comp
 he could find cent Of it. Now he tells us that he has discovered over
 $14,OO0 Won't somebody please ex- plain what this means?"
 Nobody volunteered an explanation, and after some remarks by Aldermen
 Beach and Hewitt in favor of tho recommendation, MT Murray moved
 that the matter be laid on the atable
 for week. The motion was lost by
 a party vote, the republics opposing it and the democrats voting "yes." The roll was then called, but as 1t re- quired ten votes to pass it the recon
 mendation fell short two, the eight re, publicans answering s'yes' and the 1 five democrats registering mo-" 1t
 will come up at the next meeting and
 no doubt will be passed.
 The recommendation of the board of public works relative to the petition of the telephone company to lay conduits in certain streets was passed with an
 amendment offered by MT Hewitt. which, according to MT Filings mo-
 ton, practically killed the clause pro viding for the burying of the wires,
 inasmuch as it would give the com pany permission to maintain poles
 used by the city and other corpora
 tions Alderman Stanley said if 1t
 went that way no pole ever woula
 come down, but the amendment was passed just the same Later the board
 recollected that a mistake had been
 made and on motion of MT Murray rescinded the previous action and passed the report of the board of pub ! lie works as submitted. After this
 had been done MT Holmes suggested that the vote taken relative to the
 SIG, GOO be rescinded, too, but Mir Mur- ray would not yield. He was not op- posed to the work, but he objected to the method. When the matter was UP
 for discussion before Mir Holmes said that MT Murray might win some ap-
 plause in certain quarters by keeping
 back the funds, but added that the
 work would go on just the same.
 A communication was read from
 property owners on West Main street
 regarding the matter of benefits and damages arising from the widening of | the. street near the car barns. offering to settle offf certain terms. but they were snuffed out and the original re- port Of the committee taken from the table and adopted. John Gilmour, who was awarded $500, would settle for S75O; E c. Wood, awarded $22S,
 would settle for S520; Dr Robbins. whose award was $60, would drop the
 case if paid the sum of $450; B. O..
 Tomlinson would take $760. He was awarded S4OO. The communication
 was received and placed on file. After whispering match which lasted until
 somebody wanted to know if the board was in session, MT Murray moved that each of the property owners directly affected by the change be awarded
 33 1-3 in addition to the amounts set opposite their names by the bureau of assessment MT Murray said he didn't think this would do justice to all
 of them, but it might prevent law suit, MT Holmes didn't see any equi.. lity in this because the estate of Israel Holmes already had been awarded
 enough and didn't want more, While in his Judgment MT Gilmo'r and the
 property owner next to him ought to
 have more than the awards made by the bureau of assessment. Mir Filling, who is a member of the bureau of as'
 sessment said that perhaps the par
 ties would have been given more Ii they had asked reasonable damages at the outset, but he didn't t>see what any body could think of man who want
 ed S2.5O0 and in few days came
 down to $750. MT Murray's motion
 was lost the republicans voting 1t
 down MT Filling then called the re- port of the bureau of assessment COW ering this question from the table and
 moved 1t be adopted. The motion was carried by strict party vote, Sthe idea of those favoring 1t being that if the parties didn't like how they had been used by the city they could take the
 case into the courts. The layout and
 grade of West Main at the disputed
 point was then read and adopted.
 The next row occurred over the
 Baldwin street trolley, when Aldermen
 Bergen, Beach and Hewitt got after the company with sharp stick about the Baldwin street line, and Chairman
 Blakeslee took up the cudgel for the
 company, his attitude prompting MT ~r t~ orIy of a thought the city wrong at every turn, to which MT Blakeslee replied that he didn't want to be understood that way, but if anybody wanted to know his opinion on the question before the
 house he had no hesitation in stating
 that the city was in error. The fight
 got so hot as to whether the trolley or