Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-12-30
WORK OF YEAR
Coming to a Close For Board of
 Public Works.

The department of public works will hold meeting this evening to receive proposals for the completion of the abandoned McGovern contract and other portions of the outfall sew ] CT
 It is probable that this will be the last meeting of the board. It did vast amount of work, most of which was routine, and contrary to expecta- tion, took the initiative in nothing of importance, the high water service and the sewage disposal matters being well under way when they came into l power Composed as it is of promin- ent business men, a great deal was expected of the present board of pub lie works, but after they got down to business and looked over the ground thoroughly they found that it was much easier to criticise the efforts of public men than to improve upon them, and if one could get the indi- yidual opinion of each it is safe to predict that it would be handsome indorsement of the work of the differ- ent officials that have preceded them. l It is difficult board to serve upon, and the work that comes to the com missioners requires the best judgment of the soundest minds in the commun- ity. It is hard to get some people to think so, but it didn't take the present board long to realize the importance l of their positions.
 The chairman of the board, his hon. or, Mayor Elton, presided at most of the meetings. The general opinion re- garding MT Elton is that such mis. deeds as are chargeable tQ his admin istration will have to be sought in the work of some of his boards rather than in his own conduct, though, to be sure, whatever there is of good or bad in his boards may rightfully be charged to him, that is, provided they were of his own choosing, which ap- pears to be doubted in some quarters, but supposing others had a hand in naming them, the mayors offense would be still greater than if he exer- cised his own best judgment and hap pened to select a few men who failed to come up to his own expectation. But what matter about that. Mayor Elton is better known now and has a wider circle of friends and admirers than he had when he was nominated for the office two years ago.
 It was charged at the outset and kept up to the present. time that May ! isol " h. eral with private corporations and bartered away without reasonable com pensation therefor the use of the streets to corporations who wanted to make money out of them. It was in- tended to be non-paItisan, but it had not been long at the helm when it be- came apparent that 1t was bound to make a record of being one of the sharpest political administrations that ever acted for the city, and the meas ures put through the legislature, to say nothing of the ones that failed of passage. furnish abundant proof that there was some foundation for the ru- nor that was set afioat in the early days of the business administration
 It's tampering with the police and fire departments, and, worse still, the confusion that existed in the schools during the past two years, shocked most good citizens and they seized the first opportunity to diyest the men en- gagged in the business of the power they had entrusted to them.
 The majority representation on the board consisted of H. L. Wade, E. 0. Goss and Charles L. Holmes. ! When Mir Wade assumed office he felt his way like one travelling upon a quagmire, but in time he became more confident and towards the end of his term he was quite bold, on one occa- sion coming out flat-footed and declar- ing that the system of selling water in this city was in need of revision and expressing his willingness to move for what almost everybody except the large consumers has been clamoring for, a fiat rate.
 c. l.. Holmes took deep interest In the doings of the board until his health commenced to fail. For the past half year or so little has been heard from him. He was a stickler for order and with Commissioner Jackson had some lively tits with Superinten-, dent Hotchkiss of the street depart ment He never could get over the idea of Mir Hotchkiss raising the mems pay without a vote to that effect from the board.
 E. O. Goss Is an old war hrose in the business and inasmuch as he Is coming back into the city government as an alderman and probably will he recognized on one of MT Thoms's boards, it wouldn't be fair to discuss his good and bad points at this tune But it is no harm to remark that he is past master in the art of municipal government and when things don't suit him he takes the bull by the horns in a most effective way.
 The minority representation was composed of Thomas F. Jackson a.sd Frederick J. Brown. Mir Brown was not specially active. but Mir Jackson more than made up for anything Mir Brown lacked in this respect.
 In this connection a word or two may not be out of place about Super intendent Hotchkiss of the street de partment and Mir Johnson of the water works. Mir Hotchkiss was roughly handled last winter for allowing the snow to accumulate on the streets. but as a matter of fact he was not to blame for this. for when he started to clean it of he was ordered to leave it there and let the sun take care of it. l but if had fo he carted away finally