Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-11-20
BOARD \ OF FINANCE
Beard Parties Discuss Inc Esil-
 males For 1909.

per yestefudy dIleTHooH ior tho P"'-
 pose of hearing parties who desired
 to have word to say regarding the
 estimates for 1909.
 John O'Neill, president of the
 board of agents of the Bronson libra
 ry, was the first speaker. He said
 he would be brief because he had
 notion that the less the speakers said
 the more they would get, but while
 he was on his feet he wanted to say
 that at the very lowest he hoped an
 appropriation of $5,000 will be made
 for the library with an addition of
 between $1,100 and $1,200 to pay
 an assessment levied against the li-
 brary for the widening of Grand
 street. Smiling at the cussedness of
 the. thing, MT O'Neill stated that the
 city cut into the library lawn, taking
 away very valuable piece of proper
 ty and assessed them big benefits for
 the privilege of losing their proper
 ty. The total income of the library,
 he said, is $11,500, and something in
 the neighborhood of s8,000 of this is
 pau Out TUT ldUOl, lCaflh6 NStJ
 small sum for books and such other
 items of expense as are necessary to
 keep the institution up to the times. There will be some expense this year
 In fixing up the lawn, planting shrub
 bery and getting the place into keep
 ing with property in the immediate
 neighborhood, and this, added to
 keeping up the regular work of cir culating books at the library, in the schools and at deposit stations, could not be continued without a liberal ap- propriation from the city. You took our property away from us and now we want something in return for it." said MT O'Neill. Give at least $7.000, and as much as you like over that"
 B. H. Fitzpatrick, principal of the Croft. school, for many years mem Der of the board of agents of the Sperry, Miss Bossidy. principal of the Washington school, and Miss O'Neill, principal of the Mulcahy school, also spoke regarding the library matter, and between the whole of them they made out pretty good case in favor of an appropriation large enough to enable the library to keep up with the procession.
 William E. Kennedy, superinten- dent of the water works, and Con- l missioner Scully represented the de- | partment of public works. MT Scully | said that a good deal of work or dered done by the board of aldermen | is still on the waiting list, and that | the board would like to be in posi- tion to take up the whole of it next | year, but they knew this was out of | the question and kept down to sub- stantially the same amount as they | had last year, and, therefore, they hoped there, would be no cutting. He thought, though, that the sum total should be added to so as to enable l the board to purchase a sprayer to enable the superintendent of parks to cope with the elm leaf beetle in case 1t should make war on the trees next season.
 Superintendent Kennedy explained the need of larger main in lower Baldwin street as far out as Cherry street, also the condition of the reservoirs and what should be done in order to guard against contamina- tion. The mayor asked MT Kennedy several questions, all of which were answered in manner which showed that the superintendent is on to his job.
 About S25,000 is asked this year by the board of public works for the bureau of engineering, so that the department may have its own appro- priation, but the item Streets, new work" is made about $25,OO0 less than last year, so that the engineers appropriation is not in excess of what the board had for 1908.
 Superintendent Beach of the police Fire Marshal Snagg and Commissioner Minor appeared for the police and fire departments. They want new grade in the police de- partment to which officers will be eligible after two years service, the wages to be $3 per day, the same as men get in nearly every other town of this size all over the country. At present the maximum salary for pa trolmen in Waterbury is $2.75 a day and the minimum $2.25. The board also desires to make an additional title to the detective force, the men 10 be known as detective sergeants. This does not carry with it any in- crease in pay and will have to be passed upon by the aldermen. They want five new men, or, in the lan- 5uage of the speakers, they are ask ng for five, but they need at least .wenty-five. Many sections of the 'ity are poorly policed, but the de- )artment is doing the best it can with the number of men at its con,- hand. The principal thing desired y the fire department is an auto hemical apparatus which can be had or about $5,500. This would put he Leavenworth street house in a ,osition to take care of still alarms md small fires without running any isk of being handicapped in case ,ell alarm should come in while they we're out on the other.
 sDr' John D. Freney. president of he board of health, represented that apartment. and he did his work we'll. ie said the board hadn't asked for n appropriation for new crematory ecause they knew they would not ct 1t and besides the crematory busi- ess is still in the experimental stage nd after a few years Waterbury will ave the benefit of the experience ainod hy ofhar oit;ac ,,,ho.o t,..t-