Connecticut western news., 1909-02-18
TOWN HALL EATING

North Canaan, by it's majority vote, al aShe special town meeting held on Satur- day of last week, looked the gift hors2 An the mouth, refused it ana ordered it Lied away.
 By a vote of 68 to 38 the town de- cclined to allow three Canaan ladies, who have raised funds by means of subscrip ition papers circulated in the town, but ymore particularly i'll the village, to pre- 'ssent it with steam heater and to ln- stall the same in the town hall free of ali expense to the taxpayers.
 It does not seem to THE NEWS that fthis generous proposition was thor -oughly' understood by all who voted to ereject it, inasmuch as some of the ar garments presented at the meeting had to do with the cost of the furnace and its installation when so far as concered the 8sswa, that phase of the proposition did snot participate ill the least. Stripped to >sshe most simple phraseology the propo- ssition was this: .
 I've will purchase a furnace and place it in the town hall if the town will ..operate and maintain it..
 It would not have mattered to the r@bown whether the furnace and the in .;stallation entailed an expense of $4O0 or .>$4D0O, the obligation would have been ,sassum ed by those making the presenta- 9tiOn proposition but, as we have said, 8Ehis did not appear to be perfectly un- x4daFstood by all the voters.
 THE NEWS thoroughly understands rShat every person has an inalienable right to his or her opinion but we be- aieve such opinion, in matter like this fdurnace proposition, should be based ruDen a clear and complete understand ixag of the question.
 We confess that we do not know wksther it would or would not have hbeen 8 move toward economy, so far as concerns cost of heating the building is concerned, to have accepted the offer :sand for that reason we believe it would shave been simply justice to the ladies ;sand to the town as whole, to have passed the motion made by J. Henry Roraback. Men who opposed the prop elasition said the cost would have been greater than at present and those who .sawored it said it would not and we do 4a,os question the statements of either 3out it is fact that no conclusive figures were presented to show that it would re- ss3uire more coal to operate the furnace shan is now required for the several stoves.
 MT Rorat ack's proposition was, in ef- feet, that inasmuch as there were no figures before the meeting to show what .she coal costs at present, committee of three capable men should be appointed to give the matter due and careful con- ssideration and investigation in its every detail and report at an adjourned meet ang- This appeals to us as being a prop 7osifi0n that was absolutely fair to both sides and the information adduced by =sa committee would have provided some sShing tangible for discussion, positive information which was not available at Saturday meeting.
 We do not wish to be understood as sasriticizing the action or impugning the motives of any man or men who voted .zat ffiis meeting for we believe all were e1slncere in their views, but we do not be- ,2ieSe that sufficent light was shed upon e5he proposition to enable any man to decide. intelhgently what was for the .gsest interests of the town from the 1inancial standpoint.
 The aforesaid motion was lost by a vote of 67 to 42 and directly upon the heels of that vote, a motion was adopted whereby the selectmen were authorized and directed to proceed forthwith to in- stall sanitary plumbing in the building and to connect the same with the sewer system.
 That there is imperitive need of such plumbing is fact we'll known to every person who has attended the various gatherings in the hall ill recent years ibut in order to maintain this system, a,eat is required and this cannot be pro- rvided by the stoves Ill present use. It appears to us that ill adopting this motion. the town has assumed the very obligation it sought to avoid i'll declin- ing the furnace proposition, i. e., in- creased expense in properly heating the hail.
 As we say above. we give every voter credit for having been sincere in his views on Saturday last but we believe sfbe vote was taken without a clear and thoroughly comprehensive understand Xng of the situation.
 You probably think that should some of the valuable buildings i'll Canaan be l5nrned because the fire fighting facili- s4ies are inadequate that THE NEWS would be moved to remark Il told you so'' We admit that we should be tempted to do SO. But we sincerely