The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-10-22
FIX WATER RATES
City board Announces q Few
Reductions.
Minimum Meter Charge VIII BE
Made 40 Cents.
CHANGE IN SYSTEM.
Fire Pressure Won't Affect
Whole City.
Made to Reach Only District in
Which Fire Exists.
CHANGE IN SYSTEM.


To insure a more even and constant
pressure for fire protection the city
viii be districted by the board of
waterworks commissioners.
Numbers will be given to these dis
tricts and a duplicate set viii be
maintained at the fire department
headquarters and at the pumping sta
ton west of the city.
Instead of maintaining a fire pres
sure all over the city the pressure will
be limited to a particular district only
that in which the fire is located. The
headquarters station of the fire de-
partment will inform the pumping
station by a series of signals of the
district or districts involved as soon as
the alarm of fire is turned in. The
high pressure will then be turned on
and limited to the affected area.
The change will be introduced with
in the next two or three months, as
soon as the new boilers are in place.
The scheme is intended to do away
with the extra wear and tear to which
the boilers are subjected by reason Of
a quick firing up and to cut down the
coal bills. 1t is expected that it will
brings about a reduction of some 500
to $500 a month in the item of coal
alone.
c. E. Jewell, a member of the board,
said today: I'VE believe there is no
use in putting on this extra pressure
all over the city when a fire is existing.
The ordinary pressure in most instances
is enough to handle any fires out in
the outskirts of the city but that is
side issue. The reason we viii intro
duce the change is. that it viii bring
about a more even and constant pres
sure for fire purposes, it will result in
a saving on the boilers and cut down
on the bills for fuel. we are already
beating the bills which were paid last
year for fuel. Last year the bills were
averaging about $1,000 a month, this
year we have got them down to about
$500.
AS it is now we fire up on an alarm
of fire and send the pressure up all
over the city. This results in pipes
bursting and the cutting loose Of the
dirt inside the pipes; you have noticed
no doubt that the water is always dirty
Immediately following a fire. As far
/ as the rates are concerned we are not
making practically any changes in them
at present; we are going to wait for
year vet before we introduce anything
/ which sav0rs of a change. Tt IS possible
that we will make some material re-
auctions within the next eighteen
months.
I'VE have made some material reduc-
tions for putting in stop cocks and cut
ting in on the service pipes. Where the
prices used to be $500 for three
eighths inch stopeock the price Will be
/ reduced to $500, for a half inch where
I it was $4.75 it will be $2.25 for five
eighths it used to be $5.25 it viii now
! be $3.50 and for a three-fourths inch it
! will be $500 instead of the former price
of $500.
meter rates to large users. We will
| introduce a number of scales between
I the users of 1000 and 5000 gallons
( per day. AS it now stands there is no
I rate in between 1000 gallon users and
/ 5000 gallon users. We figure it out
/ that it was possible for a man who was
actually using $500 gallons to let 500
gallons go to waste in order to take
advantage of the 5000 gallon rate. and
/ that by so doing he would be saving
/ over S11. Such a rate is wrong, as
YOU can readily see. To get around
/ this difficulty we viii bring in a new
rate for every 1000 gallons between
/ 1000 and 5000; it now stands 3 Il
| cents per 100 gallons for 1000 gallon
users and 3 cents per 100 for 5000 gal
/ Ion users.
1--WE win probably raise the minimum
/ monthly rate on a meter service from
] 25 cents a month to 40 cents. We find
/ that there is no OLnef city III the C0u0-
1 try where such a low minimum charge
/ is made; most of them run from IS
4 cents a month UP to almost 81.
4 Twenty-Five cents is too small; by the
1 time you figure in the cost of reading
4 the meter, posting out the bills and the
I incidental clerical work there is Moth
/ ing left to pay for the water Often
times the bill collector makes two or
/ three trips for a small bill of IS to IS
/ cents.
Though I don't believe that we win
I get so much money returned to US on a
I straight meter basis as we would and
! do off of fiat rate, the saving would
/ come in this. that we would be pump
/ ing about from Is to 20 per cent less
4 water. This in turn means that the
town can expand some IS to 20 per cent
before we viii have to enlarge the
plant. We are gradually getting over
Il to the meter basis. on an average the
meters are being installed one a day.
For every change in the service we in
sist on the installation Of a meter.
M Where the patron is enjoying a fiat rate
we can't stop and force him to adopt
the meter system. But if he makes any
changes in his service We can. We
have also brought down the price OF
meters to eight dollars. this is reduc-
ton Of from two to three dollars.
IF everything moves along as it has
been doing, and we can place the
schools on a meter basis and paving for
the water that they use We viii be able
to make a mile of extensions within a
year from now in addition to taking
care of these improvements which we
are making now"