Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-12-27
CLEANING THE SLATE
So That Incoming Boards May Have Smooth
 Sailing

The board of public works is en- deavoring to clean up all the sewer work undertaken during the past two years before it goes out of office. It is all right, for the commissioners that handled 1t up to this time can lay the assessments more equitably than new men. One of the worst mistakes the former board of public works made was in not disposing of the sewer mat ter on Porter street, from Bank street to South Leonard street, before their term of office expired. It was built to relieve the storm water conditions that cropped up in connection with the brewery brook conduit, not because of any need of sewer, the two houses in the street had sewer connections into Bank street, and with the assur- ance to the property owners that they would not be assessed anything for 1t until they wanted to connect with it, but in order to put the city on the safe side the work was done in the regular way, so as to preclude any possibility of the city being beaten out of the as sessment It was late in the season when the work was undertaken and as
 
 over to the new administration. While there was nothing at all new in the way the thing had been done, still the business administration, notwithstand- ing the fullest explanations as to the why and the wherefore of the whole matter, came on with the assessments just the same as if the work had been done for the benefit of the abutting property owners. and billed them ill the usual way. Father Gleeson of St Patrick's parish was the biggest suf ferer. his bill amounting to something in the neighborhood of $400. None of the commissioners knew anything about it, and. unfortunately, the en- gineer, although he was present when the board agreed how it should be done, forgot all about it and the prop erty owners had to come down with the dust Of course Father Gleeson felt hurt.
 It frequently happens that the city wants a sewer some place for which it wouldn't be fair to assess abutting property until such time as the owners of the land want to use it, and then they have to settle. For example, when the sewer was built from Bald- win street to the Mulcahy school 1t abutted on both sides for nearly the en- tire distance Oh property of the Tracy Bros, but the company was not as- sessed, and there was no reason why they should have been. The same thing was done with the Scovill Co.'S property on Ashley street. when sewer was laid from Walnut street to the Walsh school building. All this property will pay in time, but the con ditions that exist at present would not warrant an assessment. The Porter street people had stronger case be- | cause the sewer was constructed for storm water outlet, but that made no difference; the records showed that sewer had been constructed there and the board held them down to the letter of the law. as they had right to do. The former board meant to be fair to the Porter street people while at the same time securing the city, and it is but fair to assume that the present board acted from honest motives, so that the wrong done was due to the | fact that one board did the work and l the other did the assessment. The city couldn't collect the money by process of law, but the property owners pre- | ferred to suffer rather than go to court.