The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1909-07-08
Finance Committee Sees
Value of Reuterdahl
Relief Plan.

More progress was made toward
furnishing Spokane an adequate
water supply in two hours ses-
sion of the council finance commit
tee this morning than has been
made by the whole council in the
past two years.
In the preparatory work of Com
missioner Reuterdahl the commit
tee had something to work on eff
fectively and it was willing to
work.
If The Press were not so modest
it would remark that the commit
tee members found conditions just
as The Press depicted them, and
also found the road to a remedy,
just as The Press declared they
could if they would only get at 1t.
Had they held this meeting week
ago the whole thing would have
been ready for submission to the
council tonight.
The net result of the meeting is
the announced conversion of Coun-
Gilman Schiller to the policy of i'm
mediate relief action and Dalke's
evident willingness to proceed
promptly since he is satisfied that
the proceedings are properly start
ed. Ostrander needed no convert
ing. He attended meeting in his
ward the other night. Schiller had
been laboring under a misappre-
hension as to present pumping
capacity.
After a comprehensive discus
sion of the whole proposition Com
missioner Reuterdahl's second
plan, providing for an additional
reservoir and enlarged supply sys-
tenn from the wells that can be at
tached to any sort of permanent
system Nhe city may eventually
adopt, was referred to Corporation
Counsel Conner, Mayor Pratt, the
board of works, including the city
engineer, and the city comptroller.
It is expected that the legality
question of appropriating the SAIL
900 required under Reuterdahrs es-
innate will be promptly put in
shape. in which opinion will be
cial condition of the city with ref
erence to the expenditure pro-
posed.
Figures given by the comptroll-
er's office and an offhand opinion
by the corporation counsers office
at the committee meeting indicate
that there will be little difficulty
in providing round 100000 the
increased service demanded.
The city's Indebtedness now is
| $3,570,000, This includes the two
recent bond issues, with $4,000
for crematory. 100000 for parks
and $4,000 for water, the latter
items being appropriated by action
of the council alone.
On a valuation of $62,21S,000 the
city is allowed to bond five per
cent of this for general purposes
| and five per cent for water, sewer
and fire expense. The council can
! borrow up to one and half per
cent OF the valuation without
authority of general election. I'm
less the figures have been misin-
| terpreted there is 100000 or more
available for emergency water ex-
| tension purposes. No specific pro-
vision had been made in the Reu-
terdahl plan for increasing the
supply in the extreme northwest
section, and that problem is also
to be. worked out. Mr.. Dalke was
especially insistent on that. The
people out there have been heed
ing the advice to pound their coun-
Gilman on the back. They're in
Dalke's ward.
The plan that met favor with
the committee contemplates a
greater expenditure than his orig
inal proposition. but he demon
strated that none of the work
would be wasted, as the system
could be coupled onto Priest lake
or other gravity supply and retain
ed as auxiliary to it to guard
against break in the main line
or other contingency. Standpipes
are provided for in Altamont, Ken
wood and West Grove. Another
will is included, with a new reser-
voir and other Improvements that
will take care of the city safely
until 1912. In Reuterdahfs WORK
the council was given the first ac-
tually comprehensive idea of the
water situation, present and future,
l