The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-07
City to Improve Artesian
 Wells.
COUNCIL AUTHORIZES MAYOR
Aldermen, With Talk Aplenty, Ac- compIish Much.
asayor's vete Turned Down--Msny Paving Ordinances Considered. , Adoption of New Charter Ex-
 pected Monday Night. 4

Council was a strangely busy one m which the Aldermen. after transacting many matters without any debate whatever. finally struck their gait. so to speak. and ended m . tremendous set piece of oratoricai fireworks. The chief debate and the chief trans action was of the resolution empower ing the Mayor to conclude with the Hudson Engineering Company q con- tract for the engagement of an erect ing engineer at $7 day and expenses for the direction of the clearing or repairing of the wells whence the City Water Works obtain water supply. The resolution was finally adopted.
 It was favorably reported to the Council by Alderman Virgin, Chairman of the Water Works Committee, dur ing the regular order of business. It provided that the Mayor be authorized and directed to enter into q contract with the company for the services of Robert. Anderson. an erecting engineer, who would be paid e and expenses; the city to furnish labor and necessary apparatus. When under the head of unfinished business the report. of the Committee was offered. Mir. Virgin opened the debate.
 
 said. and the contract named in the resolution was about | the best that could be made. His statement was corroborated by Alderman Seidle. who explained thatathe apparatus which the city would have to buy was to be kept by the city. He added that the com pany named in the report had installed the afr-Iift a and other equipment at the pumping station and was going to do the present work at cost.
 It was .Aldefman Sullivan who spoke most ardentiy against LRs< adoption of the Committees report He contrasted the Mayors veto of the ordinance ap- proprtating $100 to defray the expenses Of the attendance of the Chief of Po- lice upon the Convention of the Nation al Association of Police Chiefs in De- troit,, with the resolution authorizing the. Mayor to enter into contarct at $7 a day when the city was even to buy the instruments.
 Mir. Thompson said the matter had been investigated and that the ordin- ance contemplated a. needed improve ment. but. in his opinion. what most needed Improvement and enlargement was the storage capacity of the water works. The matter of police and schools. Mir. Thompson held. was instg- nihcant in comparison with the supply of water to the city.
 
 Alderman Lowe said that as . rnena- Der of the Water Committee he had met Mr. Anderson. who. he believed, was helping the city because his com pany had installed the original works and therefore was interested in the condition of the wells He said the Alderman from Six, CMr. Sullivan), was not familiar with the subject and was speaking in ignorance
 T can't understand how the gentle man from Five. (Mr. Lowe), was ever put on a water committee."' remarked MT. Sullivan to which MT. Johnson offered objection on the ground that inc Retleman from Six was indu1ging tn personalities. And Alderman Saul made a point that Mir. Sullivan was out of order because the rules of the Council forbade any fnssAber to speak more than twice on the same measure.
 q am aware of th2t," Mir. Sullivan reioined; T have spoken only once be- fore and the gentleman would know 1t if he hadn't been either asleep or ab- sent. The gentleman might have mo- tlced, too, that everybody isn't leav- ing the lobby when l speak as was the case when he spoke second time the other night" Then Mir. Sullivan went back to the water works question. tax ing up a reservoir as a theme. lie said the city would probably get into inst such another business: the bottom had dropped out of that reservoir he declared, and the Council ought to have learned something from that. He was there to protect the tax payers or Montgomery, the orphan and the wid- ow.
 Alderman Johnson contended that the tax payer needed water as much as protection. He claimed that the water works department was as emcient as any in the country, and he was contin- AAS Eon h hailed the chair with the statement that Alderman Sullivan. who was talk ing, was out of order.
 How many interruptions am l all lowed?" asked Mir. Johnson with pa tient sarcasm.
 ice-President Ruth. from the chair, ruled Mir. Parrish's point well taken and Mir. Sullivan. immediately on his feet, asked:
 "Did you say well taken or awk- wardly taken?"
 T said well taken" the chair am nounced gravely.
 Mir. Johnson proceeded. The city was compelled. he said. either to bore new wells or rearrange the air lifts. The agreement suggested in the reso- lution, he said, was not exactly what he would have desired but it seemed the best that could be had. as the in- vestigattons of the water works com mittee showed. The only apparatus the city would have to buy was a winch that would cost about $10o. He declared the city was lucky to find a man to do the work.
 Mir. Jones Asks Cost.
 Alderman Jones insisted that the Council ought to know the cost of the work 1t was about to have done. We recently paid $20.0O0 to get out of a hole: we may be paying s10.oO0 to get into one" he said. Mir. Seidle asked If if would not be better for the city to nav even $10,000 and have water, than not to pay anything and try to get along without water; and MT. Jones replied by repeating that the cost ought to be known.
 Alderman Saul said he believed that the city needed water. but that the Water Works Department contained men competent to do the work re- .ouIred. If the Department did not have such a man, he declared. some bodv ought to be let go and compe- tent man gotten. He moved to re-re- fer the resolution reported by the Com nnittee, and his motion was lost.
 FAlderman Virgin said that every well had been reported to need cleaning and that two wells were altogether out or commission. They had never been cleaned and the proposition confront ing the city was new one. Ihe oh!| previous bid on the work. MT. virgin .said, was for $s,OoO. The toois re, auired would cost less than SlOO ana could be used by the city on other york.