St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1905-10-11


official call of the trustees and the invita-
tion ofthat little flyer" thrown so quietl,
into the front entries, and came out tt
the special village meeting on Monda,
night to discuss the water question
There were others present who woult
have been glad to assist in viva voc
vote, or drop ballot in the good old
fashioned, go.as-you-please way, wher
it came to deciding the matter one way
or the other; but the wise insistence OF
the Use of check list cut off their oppot
tunitits and gave those who were enti
tied to vote iair chance to say what
they did or did not want.
Clerk Weeks called the meeting to order
and John c. Clark was elected president
pro TEN. The business on hand was
To see ii the village would vote to con.
struct water system to obtain a supply
OF pure water; to see il it would vote to
construct filter system; to see if it
would vote to borrow money to pay for
the same, and ii so, how much.
A bulletin containing the latest analy-
ses OF river and pond waters was tackled
up IN plain view, so that anybody who
could read and was ''up" in that sort of
thing could figure on the quality of his
| domestic drink.
{. A. Stanley, for the trustees, said the
meeting was called at the request of fif.
teen legal voters. He disclaimed any
particular responsibility on the part of
the board for the calling of the meeting,
but said THAT so long as it was to be
held they had secured the presence and
expert assistance of Prot. Clark of Bos-
ton, man thoroughly competent to tell
about filters and their effect.
W. S. Boynton, after few preliminary
remarks concerning the extent to which
the water question had been agitated in
past years, introduced and moved the
adoption of resolution directing the
trustees to establish plant for the FL
tratlon of Passumpsc river water, at a
cost not to exceed $4,000.
The motion was seconded by Elisha
May, and was thus fairly before tue
house for treatment.
Ii. N. Turner spoke at some length
not only as representative of the Fair.
banks Company and the Aqueduct Com
pany, but also as an individual taxpayer
he referred to the large amount OF
money paid out by the village on account
OF its water supply in years past and the
comparatively small receipts the1efrom
Taxes here-a rate of $23 SO on the
thousand-are already high; every body
| knows this, even the man who pays but
| poll tax. He said that Stiles pond
water had never been condemned; so far
as he knew there never had been a case
of typhoid fever on account of it. Re.
ferring to his statements at a previous
meeting, none OF which had since been
controverted, he said he had seen no
reason to change his views. He could not
guarantee the water against vegetable
growth. Nobody could do that. In.
discriminate talk among our own clti-
zens about an impure water supply
has hurt the towns interests, in
respect to its Academy and otherwise.
There had been criticism that the
Aqueduct Company was not doing all it
| could to improve the water. 1t has
spent about $500 in investigating, and
recently has had an expert on the
ground. He finds discoloration and
| disagreeable taste in the water. He
| finds also watershed six miles square
and full OF springs, that has no equal for
volume and quality of water. Mr.. Tur.
ner explained how conta mination had
been found in Russell's pond and spoke
OF his amlcable arrangement with the
owners OF the property for its purchase
and abandonment. and said he believed
the main cause OF the trouble had been
found and removed and that the water
would be better. Speaking of the analy.
SEES shown, ne said nobody could tell
whether the water analysed was from
Stiles pond or Russell's pond. The
water OF the latter could only be gotten
rid OF by passing it through the former,
and that had been done. He would
guarantee that the water of Stiles pond
was not unhealthiul, unsafe, or injurious.
He thought conference OF the trustees
and the Aqueduct company might have
saved the village considerable expense
and proved helpful to all concerned, and
mildly criticised the loose manner in
which the whole subject had been handl-
ed. he did not believe the village needed
to go to this increased expense ana bur
| den the taxpayers. Incidentally the
speaker reminded the village that the
Aqueduct Company was an asset of the
E. & I. Fairbanks Company; that the
latter was this year putting 100000
into this community and making special
effort to increase the volume OF its bust
ness; that nearly one.half the stock of
the corporation was owned in Vermont,
and about 40 per cent of it in St. Johns
bury, and that consequently St. Johns
bury practically owned the Aqueduct
company; that the corporation he rep.
resented was always glad to pay its
full share towards village expenses;
that its present tax was heavy one,
and that there was limit beyond which
neither that nor any other concern could
pay. Filtration, he maintained, would
be costly.
DIR. T. R. Stiles advocated the filtra-
ton OF the river water. He had been
asked by the trustees to make a state
ment on behalf of the State Board of
Health, as to filtration, ard this he
proceeded to do. He cited numerous
cases where filtration had been success.
fully inaugurated, in the larger and small
er cities of this country and Europe. and
wondered why anybody should object
TO that method of getting better water.
ne quoted the expense as ranging from
$4,000 to SIC, 1000, and thought that for
the latter sum St. Johnsbury could get
plant that would do the work properly.
His remarks indicated a belief in the
possibility of making Passumpsc fluid
mt Tor any domestic use, and be urgently