The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-02-20
MUST co SLOW.
Commercial Club Conservative
About the Waterworks.
Want an Engineer to Examine
the Plant.
NO RADICAL ACTION.
Favor Purchase by City When
Put in Good Condition.
What the Business Men Think
About 1t.
NO RADICAL ACTION.


Commercial club considered and adopted
rejected or laid over more resolutions
than a middle of the road Populist con-
vention. The Commercial club mem
bers INDUCED thems selves in oratory,
considerably. The tone of the meeting
was that the purchase of the water
plant is desirable-under restrictions.
Almost all the working membership of
the club was present although the
meeting had been called on short no
tice. Most of those present talked.
Here are some of the sentiments ex-
! pressed
Before the purchase of the water
works the city should apply to the fed
eral court for an order requiring the
receiver of the water company to place
the plant in condition to give the city
ample protection and adequate water
service for domestic purposes. The wa
ter company is not anxious to sell the
plant. If we refuse to purchase now
the water company gets a renewal of
its franchise for twenty years. g. G.
Clemens.
I'VE should buy the waterworks, but
before we purchase the company should
be required to demonstrate that the
plant is capable of performing the ser
vice promised under the former fran
chise. M. c. Holman.
1.-THE city ought to purchase fire en-
gines sufficient to protect it's property
in case the water plant fails again. We
ought to omit no details in assuring
our citizens protection" = Michael
Heery.
81 am inclined to think that the wa
ter company should have two mains
leading from the pumping station to
the city, one of which should be re-
served for use during fires. I do not be-
lieve our present main is adequate. =
w. A. S. Bird.
Fire engines capable of protecting
the city in any emergency should be
procured. Then we should tell the wa
ter company that we will be ready to
complete the purchase of the water
works as soon as they are in the con-
dition in which it was guaranteed they
should be maintained.''-A. A. GODDARD.
1.-THE city is in no way legally bound
to complete the transaction of purchas-
ing the water plant. The bonds are
ready and the city is authorized to
make the deal but there is nothing by
which we are bound to carry it out in
cahe we find it undesirable. City At
torney Charles f. Spencer.
These are a few of the things said
last night. Most of them were repeat
ed or added to by members of the
Commercial club. The proposition Of
Ier6Q Dy u. 4. clemens 10 DT1nSl Tie
leverage of the federal court to bear
in securing the repair of the water
pumping station was embodied in
resolution which was laid upon the ia
BILE. It was opposed by Judge T. F.
Carver, John r. Mulvane and others
who said that the less litigation enter
ed into the more desira BILE. The report
of the special committee of the Com
mercial club, advising that the city be
urged to secure the services of a by
t1n
dition of the water plant, was adopted.
At the next council meeting will be
presented a resolution by Samuel L.
Howe, providing for the employment OF
an entirely disinterested engineer for
this purpose. Mr.. Howe had prepared
this resolution irrespective of the ac-
ton of the club but submitted it for its
consideration. It was endorsed.
The special committee appointed to
confer with members of the city coun-
Gil and to give such assistance as was
possible in transactions respecting the
purchase of the waterWorks, reported
to the club it's inability to give a reli-
able opinion on the present incompet-
ency of that institution. Its recommen-
dations are embodied in the following
resolution:
Resolved, That in the judgment of
the Commercial club the election au-
thorizing an issue of bonds of the city
of Topeka for the purchase of the plant
carried in favor of that proposition
upon the basis of the condition that
the plant was being maintained in ac-
cordance with the requirements of the
ordinance granting the franchise; that
the weakness of the plant and its in
capacity, as demonstrated during the
late fires, resulting from the damages
caused by the great floods of last May
or the result of some inherent weak
ness hitherto unknown has shown that
the plant the Topeka Water company
proposes to sell to the city is much less
valuable and complete and of much
less capacity than it was represented
to be at the time of the election. or
that it has been so seriously damaged
that it is not now in effective condition,
and that it is the duty of the city
council before completing the purchase
to cause a most careful examination to
be made by competent experts, and to
insist that the plant if bought shall be
the equal in every respect of the plant
the people voted. to buy; that we be-
lieve the city should act as would an
| individual under like circumstances.
| and we believe any prudent individual
would demand that the property be put
| in the same condition when the con-
tract is to be completed as it was rep
resented to be when the contract was
made.
Resolved, That the safety of the bus
mess interests of this city demand that
a steam fire engine of competent ca
pacity be purchased by the city pend
ing the rehabilitation of the water
| plant.
The resolution which will be present
ed by Councilman Howe at the next
council meeting viii be as follows:
| Whereas, There is much dissatisfac-
ton among the people of the city, grow
| ing out of the supposed inability of tbs
waterworks company to furnish suit
| able pressure so that property may be
| protected and saved from damage OF
! loss in case of fires, and.
/ Whereas, The contemplated early
| taking over Of the waterworks plant by
the city makes a thorough knowledge
of it's condition imperative therefore,
| Resolved, by the mayor and council