Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1908-07-14
More About the Water supply.

| More About the Water Supply.
Il When the two active members Of tn,
Norway Water Co. tried to influence
the voters Of this village, by display Of
the water pressure in the square, few
! nights ago, they succeeded far beyond
, their expectations. It has long beer
known by the people here that we have
no sufficient pressure to fight fire with
, but In spite of this, the two active d.
J rectors of the Norway Co. seem to dis
regard what has been said, aud 40 de-
termined to make an exhibit Of theil
} own. Just before the corporation meet
ing that was called to see whether the
people would take water from q new
J company to be formed, the water com
} pany from Norway came into the square
and began to couple on the hose lines,
with the intention of showing US what
! good pressure we have.
Chief Engineer Charles Bowker, OBJ
jected to their doing this, but after some
few minutes in consulting legal advise
Mr.. Andrews of the Norway Co. disre
garded Mr.. Bowker's objections and the
water was turned on.
The water was taken from three diff
ferent hydrants, and only short lines
from each hydrant, so az to have as lit
tie friction on the hose as possible, and
J very small MOBILES used, and In this way
with one stream only, water was just
put on the roof of Odd Fellows Block
With three streams on, water was put
up part way on the second windows
about twenty-five feet from the ground
A water gage which was attached to the
pressure showed just twenty-five pounds
pressure at the time when the three
streams were on.
The evident intention was to influence
the voters of the corporation at q critic
al time, and the plan was complete
success, as was shown few minutes
afterwards, when with unanimous vote
the people voted to take the water from
a new company to be formed to put
water into the village for fire and domes-
tic service.
This exhibit only emphasizes the fact
that this village is in the greatest dan
ger, and every day that goes by with no
serious fire, we should be thankful for.
II there had been real need for water the
other night, instead Of a mock.trial, we
should have found that with three
streams on and good fire started, it
would have been impossible for men to
get near enough to the buildings to put
water on the fire, and had there been
any wind at all it would have been i'm
possible to put one stream of water on
to the roof of the building against the
wind. This condition is nothing new,
and has long been known, but not so
generally known by all as during the last
year.
Just why the Norway Water Co. gave
this exhibit at this time is hard to un-
derstand, when we consider that our
streets are being repiped and larger
pipes put in to increase the service.
If the service is good enough now, why
60 to all this expense? And, If it is not
good enough, why try to make US think
that it is?
| AMOUNT OF WATER THAT WE HAVE.
| Considerable talk has been made dur
ing tho past few days regarding the
amount of water that we have In the
brooks from which the new company
proposes to take the water. OF course
every one knows that the ground is ex-
ceedingly dry, and as We have had no
rain for nearly five weeks, it is to be ex-
pected that the brooks will be low, and
about as little water in them as there
ever is. Some persons whose interests
are apparently against the formation Of
the new company have claimed that the
supply was not sufficient, and for that
reason have refused to help in the move
ment, and evidently have worked against
it.
During the past few days have meas
ured the water myself, and have the
exact figures of others who have meas
ured the water, and am pleased to give
the following figures which believe to
be correct. I have taken the average
from five different measurements, taken
at different times by different people,
and believe all of them to be correct.
In the small brook, or the Cooper Spring
Brook, where our reservoir now is,
find that the average flow of the brook
to be 65,240 gallons, and in the large
brook, or Stony Brook, it is 259, 900 gal
Ions, every twenty-four hours. This is
much more water than our engineers
tell US that we will need, and we have
had three expert engineers, whom we be-
/
what we need.
Surprising that we had no reservoir at
all as a reserve, and had to depend entire
ly on the flow of the brook, we would
have barrel of water day for every
man, woman and child in the corpora
ton, from the small brook alone, and
almost five barrels, if we take from both
brooks, which we propose to do.
This ought to satisfy the most thirsty,
and the most exacting of our village
and the people may rest assured that
they are not being deceived. The water
COMMITTEE have no desire to misrep-
resent and mislead any one, and especial
ly themselves, as they propose to back
up their assertions with their own
money which they have subscribed for
they did not think it profitable invest
ment, as we'll as necessity. do not
wish to discredit any statement that has
been made regarding the flow of the
brook, for find by my own measure
ments that the flow is very much larger
| in the morning than in the afternoon and
evening, 80 that the measurement of the
flow depends largely on the time of day
it was taken.
The figures given above are the aver
age of five measurements, three being
taken in the morning and two in the
afternoon.
Anyone will understand that this con-
tinued dry weather will effect the brooks
greatly unless we have rain, and as this
extreme dryness is almost unknown, we
do not take the present flow of the
brooks to be fair test of their capacity.
| have seen more water running in the
little brook than could be put in an 49,
inch pipe, but 1t would be just as unfair
to say that the brook had that capacity
all the time as it would to take the pres
emit flow as its capacity.
1t is the plan of the new company to
have three large reservoirs, one at each
brook and one near the village, from
which the 12.inch pipe will run. Each
one of these reservoirs will have larger
capacity than the one that Norway and
South Paris has depended on for the last
twenty two years, 80 We will be prepared
to stand drouth, and do not need to be
alarmed If the streams run low in the
summer, although such drouth as this
| is almost unknown and is not likely to
occur often, but there is plenty of water
| in the brook and 1t can be stored so that
we need have no fear regarding water
shortage. We will be taking but very
little chances compared with what we
have taken for the last twenty-five years.
GEO. r. MORTON.
State Certificates.
| The annual examination of candidates
for state certificates will be held Friday,