Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-01-03
BOARD or ALDERMEN. {
Mayer ,Iiton's cenmsnscat.sa Rs~
 csiveA at First hsetint sf Year.

 members being present except Messrs Holmes, Tobin and Brophy.
 The following communication was received from his honor, the mayor:
 '.In submitting the reports of the various departments to your honorable board, I wish to state that present them in lieu of message from myself to the board
 The report of the city engineer is a very comprehensive one. and I hope that every member of your honorable board will read it carefully, as it is Il complete statement of the work out side of repairs that has been done in the city during the past year.
 ''The new year finds us facing sev. eral propositions. the most important of which is the disposal of our sewage. Steps have already been taken during the past year to bring together the va rious sewers of the city, with the idea of building trunk sewer to the sew age disposal plant.
 Certain property below the city has been secured for the purpose of sew age disposal, and still other property is to be secured in the near future.
 <AuUluCE NCIS dupOI tdhL pdII Ol tlC city's work is the building of better streets and roads. Your honorable board has favored us with liberal appropriation for paving and surface hardening this year. It is the inten- tion of the board of commissioners of public works to add also considerable amount of the appropriations for street repairs and maintenance, and outside roads, to permanent Improvements.
 .We are now operating at the Brook side home stone erusher and are se- curing a fair quality of stone for road making, which can be used on the roads in that part of the city with good economy. It may be necessary to buy n certain amount of trap rock for sur facing these roads, but we hope that our native stone will prove sufficiently hard for all purposes.
 ''There has been marked improve. ment in the streets and roads during the past year, and the improvement should be much more evident after the work of the present year is finished.
 .'1The extension of water pipes in the city has been the largest, with possi- bly, the exception of the year in which the Branch reservoir was built. of any year in the city's history. Expenditure in this line always appeals to the tax payer, for the reason that he can see a cash return almost immediately for every foot of pipe laid.
 ITO complete the high service water supply will require another small issue of bonds, say s50,O00 to $75,0O0. This to be used for pumping station and small distributing reservoir, and the piping contingent to same. The com pletion of a pumping station and dis tributing reservoir will add what is required to make our high service com plete and will permit ,ls to reserve an amount of water at the East Noun tain reservoir sufficient to provide for the needs of the city for several weeks in case of an Interruption of the Branch supply.
 Il trust that your honorable board and the commissioners of public works will deem it beneficial to continue this work during this year.
 ..J'he end of the year finds the police and fire departments in excellent con. dition, and the coming year should show an improvement in both depart mentsh from the addition of extra men and equipment.
 ''The work of the board of charities has been administered with good judg ment and economy. The physical con dition of the property at Brooksidc home has been greatly improved. The old almshouse has been partially re- moved and the whole group of build ings have been repaired and repainted. The most important change that has been made is the laying of a six-nch water pipe from the Watertown road to the Brookside home, and giving to the property an ample supply of water. both for domestic use and fire pur- poses, and in that way doing away with the necessity of pumping water, which should be d considerable saving expense in years to come.
 .With best wishes for new year. beg to remain.
 "Yors very truly,
 JOHN F. ELTON. Mayor
 Ti,e communication was read and ordered spread on the minutes.
 A communication was received from E. w. Mooring relative to the water QutStIOH. lt lCdu lhit i'iIo"T.
 "I hereby protest against the method you practice in your charge for water used through meters in this city.
 Ut is primarily cumbersome in its conception and execution. puzzling to the consumer. and attended with un- necessary labor in the making out of the bills. while it is grossly unjust and discriminating in favor of the large consumer to q degree that is out of al, proportion to any advantage or profit coming to the city by sucn fayoritism under the plea of increasing the city's revenue.
 "I protest not only from the convic- ton of the injustice thus practiced, but as well from the belief thai this in equality is wholly illegal and thlt you have no right to charge one taxpayer more for what he gets than another. even though the latter uses or coir sumes more of the city's utilities than the former
 Mir Mooring wanted to he hrar'l l'.. fore the board. but this was given Il deaf ear and the document Wis or. dered sent along to the board of public works, where a similar epistle from NIT yfooripg was relegatel to the grave oi oblivion in q most unceremonious man ner short time since.
 X big batch of petitions were ahaicd While these were oh Mr Beach said h, hoped some means would soon be de yise,l whereby the board could defer action on the collection of certain taxes instead of abatiDg them. II, was of the opiuiou that these account. should stand and he collected out ot