Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1907-01-18
BELLOWS FALLS NEWS
Village Accepted New Charter
Granted by the Legislature
-Four Objections Raised Against Meas
ure, But the Vote on Acceptance Was
172 Yes to 14e No.

-Four Objections Raised Against Meas
ure, But the Vote on Acceptance Was
172 Yes to 146 No.
The meeting of the voters of the vii
lage corporation Tuesday evening to ac-
cept the new charter granted by the last
legislature was fully attended, there
being SIS votes cast. Judge u. II. Allbec
was moderator and because of the ill
ness Of f. A. Bolles, village clerk his
son. Edmund c. Bolles, acted in his
place. There was but one article in the
call. viz to see If the voters would APP
prove the charter, and considerable dis
cussion was INDUCED in as to its merit
and demerit Thomas E. OBrien. a mem
Der of the committee chosen by the town
to draft the document, explained the care
taken by the committee to investigate the
charters of other municipalities, taking
from each what the committee thought
to be best and discarding those which in
their Judgment were not advisable. rms
document was adopted by the corpora
ton at meeting about year ago and
the LEGISLATURE was asked by the COM
mittee to grant 1t. The committee OF
that body upon corporations had gone
carefully over the document and made
few unimportant changes and 1t now
came back to the voters for final adoption
or rejection
John j. O'Connor, member of the
present board of bailiffs argued against
its adoption making four objections
First. the hour named for annual meet
ings, 10 a. m, was one that would pro
hibit many working men and railroad
men from voting each year. second, that
If vested in a president and board OF -FOUR
trustees the appointive power for the
heads of the different departments, in
stead of their being elected as in the
mast This would affect the street depart
ment, water department and fire depart
ment. The police department has al
wavs been in charge of the bailiffs. Mr..
O'Connor felt the voters should choose
the heads of all departments. The third
objection was that the president by the
terms of the charter was only ngure-
head, was not given the right to vote,
and any measure adopted by the board OF
trustees would have to be by vote OF
three to one and the same vote would
mass the measure over the veto of the
\ president The fourth objection was that
II placed the entire purchasing power IN
the hands of the bailiffs whereas now
the bills were contracted by the heaus OF
departments and came to the balllHS LOT
approval Although it was shown that
the bailiffs were obliged to pay any
hills that were contracted ny NAS iiN''N.'
of the departments Mr.. OConnor TOOK
the ground that by their coming at once
to the attention of the board of bailifs
It was a check upon extravaganza.
Mr.. O'Brien replied to each one OF the
points made by Mr.. O'Connor, and sup
ported by Fred II. Babbitt, the point was
made that the proposed charter was a
more up-to-date government in use by
nearly all the municipalities of similar
size in Vermont, and was practically the
same as the general law of the state OF
New York had for every municipality OF
that state.
The different arguments having made
the document clear to those present II
was voted to decide the question by bal
lot and use check list. Three hundred
and eighteen votes were cast of which
172 were Eyes" and 146 mo- so the char
ter was finally adopted by the village.
BY the terms of the new charter the
annual meeting for the election of the
president and board of trustees would
occur the last Monday of this month
but the special meeting was held so late
that proper warning could not be given
and it will occur this year. Monday, Feb
4.