The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1907-03-07
Voters to Decide on the Matter
Of Building a Lighting Plant
at the Coming Election
HARD FIGHT IN THE COUNCIL
Friends of Municipal Ownership Far
Out-number it's Enemies. and
the Resolution Passes With
Big Majority

1t is up to the voters of the city of
Kenosha to decide the question of
building a municipal lighting plant
for at the meeting Of the Common
Council Monday evening the council
by vote of 9 to decided that the
question should be submitted to the
people for referendum vote at the
election to be held next month. The
Iquestion will not be in regard to the
tissue of bonds but will simply be as to
whether or not the council shall go
ahead and contract for the building of
the plant.
The final fight for the passage of
the resolution was not devoid of ora
torical fireworks, and before the
council took the final vote on the
question there was a great tilt on the
floor of the council between William
Ross, the consulting engineer hired
by the city, and r. N. Kimba1l, the
general manager of the Kenosha Gas
and Electric company.
Mayor Not Present.
To all intents and purposes Mayor
1 German was still basking in the sun
/ shine Of Cuba as he did not appear for
the meeting and he is not on record Is
to his opinion of the plan to submit
the question to the vote of the people.
Many Of the aldermen were absent
and only twelve voted on the question.
Alderman Alleman had taken the
chair IN order to allow Alderman
Stemm to present the resolution and
as the majority was largely in favor
of submitting it to the people it vas
not necessary for the alderman from
1 the Fourth ward to 90 on record. The
vote on the question of submitting to
the electors was as follows:
Ayes = Aldermen O'Brien, Pirsch,
i Pabst, Thomessen, Wade, Stemm,
Zievers, Williams and Mayer.
/ Nays-Aldermen Karnell, Schultz
and Stevens.
In presenting the resolution ITO the
council for final action Alderman
Stemm made speech in which he de-
clared that he had been at work on
this question of municipal ownership
for the last twenty years and that he
had carefully tested the pulse of the
| people of the city and that he was
convinced that the tax payers of the
! city we're in favor of installing
plant. He said he was not seeking to
hurry the building of the plant, but
i that it was his desire to have the
question settled before the expiration
of the present contract with the Ke-
nosha Gas and Electric company.
Engineers in Wordy War.
At this point William Ross, said to
be the Milwaukee Engineering COM
/ pany, who had made the estimate for
the city, was. called to the floor of the
council and the aldermen were asked
to question him in regard to the esti-
mate he had made for the committee.
| Alderman O'Brien called on r. n.
Kimba1l to represent him in answer
ing questions from the engineering
expert and from this time on a merry
war was on.
During the half hour discussion the
men dealt pretty freely in person
alities. Kimball asked that he be
shown just who Ross and the Milwau-
kee Engineering company was, and
intimated that he had sought in vain
for the officers of the company to find
whether or not it was financially
4 L. a Al =
pany was purely an advisory company
and not engaged in the work of build
ing electric plants. Then the fighe
began as to the value of the estimate
that had been furnished to the city,
Kimbal1 claiming that the estimate
was practically va1ueless on account
of the fact that many items of ex-
1 pense had been omitted, and for the
further fact that the prices of items
mentioned were constantly changing
Ross demanded his figures and went
over them at length. He declared
that he would guarantee that the
plant could be built for less than
$45, 900, and that if this was found to
be not the fact his company would
not charge one cent for its services in
making the estimate and the specif-
cations. He stated that his company
had revised the estimate and that the
cost Of the plant estimated on the
price of material at the present time
was placed at $40, 248.82, and that he
would guarantee that if the contracts
were let by bids this would be reduced
20 per cent. He declared that the
cost of operating the plant would be
$40, 284.22, and that this wovld provide |
for the city furnishing light for the
streets at rate Of $41.03 per lamp per