Bisbee daily review., 1907-11-27
CITY WATER IS PAYING GOOD pR0EIT
 A AHOa kk
Phoenix Reports Snug Net Gain After All Interest and Ex- penSeS Are Paid From the Revenue Derived.
(PhOenix Republican ]

The municipal water works has now been in operation long enough to be- 1 ssftr to sve sOrne results ana thus Tar the results are most encouraging
 The water department during the
 month of October earned $1263. 30 net. and this figure is more than conserv- ative for during that month also, the department had in it's expense ac- count the liquidation of the bill of the
 Phoen.x Light and Power Co. for
 power for the preceding three
 months, which bill had been previous ly in dispute and therefore not paid.
 This dispute was in respect of q matter of rate, the city paying for power under the old contract S65O per month. while under the new con trate the rate is s416 per month.
 Since the city took charge four months ago the net earnings of the water department have been 5000, ,i4 or at the rate of s27, ,000 per year, over and above the expenses of operations. The annual interest on the bonds. S240,000 at five percent, and S66,0 of the Sherman bonds at six percent, amounts to s15,O00 Deducting that from the s27 900 profit that will be in evidence if the same favorable results continue during the rest of the year there will still be accumulated as profits, enough money to pay S-1O per cent profit on the. investment of s3Oe, ,OOO
 A portion of this profit fund, how ever, has been expended for repairs and improvements that were neces- sar or advisable. For instance, the repairs included the buying of a new wagon to replace an old one and the fixing of breaks and other irregular l sties in the system. This bill totaied SSS0,4S. The expenditure for perman- ent improvements amounts to S2829. .35 and includes the buying of a new wa- gon. necessary to care for an expand l ing business, together with horses and harness the extension of the pipe lines to make additional connections, some new buildings and other Improvements
 at the power house and various other | things, all in the nature of permanency
 and betterment Of the system.
 | There was some criticism of the de | partment when the appointment of an
 inspector was first suggested, at a sal.
 ary of SS5 per month The department
 however. feels that it has been very | profitable investment as the inspector
 has added more than four dollars oi
 revenue for every one he has been paid
 in salary. He has added to the list oi | patrons, 176 nv accounts which con | tribute about s400 monthly to the rev | enues. Thes eaccounts are nearly al patrons who were overlooked by the Sherman management and hard to gel
 at by the new city management with out the help of some one to devote him
 self to that line of activity. They arC not dishonest people but simply those who were taking advantage of spec3a privileges that came in their way in | cidentally and that would have beer continued had it not been for the eagle | eye of the inspector. For instance iI some cases there were double houses
 where one family paid for the water and two or three were getting theii | supply from the same hydrant, not ex actly surreptitiously but merely be Ecause nobody stopped them or called
 them to account and put them on the same footing with the others. In other ! instances there were tenement houses | through which a sUprIv was furnished [ 10 quite a number that nobody seemed i to know anything about until special attention was paid to them Others
 would utilize the hydrants of their l neighbors and the latter naturalll, 1 would not protest but the city did.