The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1906-10-31
Term For Only $50 Hydrants
of411 Expires This Year.
City Must Pay Rental for Hydrants
Twenty Years From Date Of
Installation.
81
ALL INCLUDED IN NEW TERMS

II am for the city buying the wa
ter works at some time, IL not IN
1909. the next period when 1t can,
just as soon as 1t is able to, as I
firmly believe the city should own its
own water plant. However, the
proposition of the city building
plant is as probable as that you
could gather the stars from the
heavens for me. II | should request
it," said former Mayor James NJ.
Lang to a Sun reporter today.
What do you think of the water
contract the council has put up to the
people to vote on?" the reporter in
terrogated.
81 don't see anything in It very
Objectionable. There is one big con-
cession the water company is max
ing in the contract that have not
seen mentioned and on which / think
the people should be advised and that
is that. under the original contract
with the water company, the city
only had $50 hydrants, and the con-
tracts for these $50 hydrants are the
only ones that expire now. Under
the contract the city agrees to buy
water for each hydrant twenty years
from the date 1t is installed. As an
illustration, the contract for all hy-
drants put in this year run for twen
ty years, all hydrants put in last
year for nineteen years longer and
all for the year before eighteen years
and so on. There are now All ny
drants in use, and the expiration Of
the contracts for them run all the
way from nineteen years down.
80. you see, the water company
Is making quite concession In the
new contract, which says the com
pany will waive these contracts and
have all contracts expire at the end
Of eighteen years. That was a prob
lem that perplexed me. when | was
mayor, and this seems to be good
solution of II.
"Paducah has good water" con-
! tinued Mr.Lang."as an incident of my
administration will show. was
very eager to extend the water to all
parts OF the city for the fire protee-
tion as we'll as the benefit of people
who were wanting it, and we were
making quite lot of extensions when
all at once the report became cur
rent that the water supply was bad
and causing much sickness. The re-
port was narrowing, as l thought.
here am. doing something that is al
injury to Paducah and its people. So
| took samples OF the water and sent
them to two OF the best chemists in
the country and got their reports.
you can imagine my relief when
they came back lattering in every
essential. One of the reports is on
file over at the city hall now, aud
should be the source of pride and
qualification to the water company.
This was before the company INSTALL
ed the alteration plant. which should
make the water better now than 1t
was when l had the analysis made"
Mr.. Lang is correct about the n.y.
drant contract expiring at odd times
from nineteen years down to one.
| Some of the aldermen when tod OF
the interview with him pointed to
the present book of ordinances and
showed where the water franchise or
dinance said that "the contracts for
the first 45O hydrants should expire
at the end o. twenty years. But an
investigation developed the fact tina:
this was a typographical error. 1t
should read the first $780, as does
the original ordinance and other cop
les of the ordinances"