The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1910-10-06
SALE OF WATER
BONDS ENJOINED
7-DAY ORDER FROM u. S. COURT
Complaint of Burt Van Horn VIII Fur
ther Delay Building of Municipal
Water Plant.

Following a complaint filed Monday
| by Burt Van Horn in the u. S. Circuit
Court for Oregon, Judge Bean that day
| issued temporary restraining order to
enjoin the Hood River city officials
from carrying out contract made
with Keeler Bros, Denver bond buy
ers, for the sale to them of the 500, 600
| issue of city water bonds.
As a result of the injunction, Mayor
d. Mcdonald and Recorder H. b.
Langille, who made the contract with
the Denver firm were noJifed to ap-
pear next Monday in Portland and
show cause why the injunction should
not be made permanent. The trial of
the case has been set for November z.
The injunction is believed by the
city officials and others to be clearly an
other attempt by a group of men
interested in the present local water
system to further delay the sale of
bonds and the construction of the pro-
posed municipal water system. Many
friends Of Mr.. Van Horn believe that
he is not sufficiently interested to
cause him to bring the suit and that
his name as a nonresident of the
state was merely used in order that the
matter could be placed in the federal
court. Mr.. Van Horn owns a few va
cant lots on the Heights and when here
last summer it is understood that he
sold out his numerous interests with
Fl. f. Davidson to the latter. The
complaint as signed with the name of
Mr.. Van Horn by A. A. Jayne, named
as his solicitor the complaint having
been prepared by attorneys Snow &
McCament in Portland Mr.. Van
Horn was here during the summer and
left the latter part of August for
Niagara Falls, where he is now. An
affidavit was made by II. F, Davidson
swearing to the truth of the statements
made in the complaint.
The bon1s for the water plant have
been advertised twice by the city and
remain unsold. The first time the
lowest bidder failed to make good and
it was believed at the time that his bid
was a part Of the local conspiracy.
The second time the bonds were adver-
tised there were no bids and the coun-
Gil concluded that it would be neces-
sary to make the securities more at
tractive to investors by increasing the
interest rate. They arranged to make
the bonds draw six per cent and later
Mayor Mcdonald and Recorder Lam
gille made a contract with Keeler
Bros. to sell them the bonds, "legally
issued" at par. The injunction has
been made to stop the carrying out of
this contract.
The complaint made by Jayne in the
name of Mr.. Van Horn alleges that the
agreement was a secret one and be-
sides the mayor and recorder, City
Treasurer f. o. Blanchar and Council
men f. C. Brosius, George |. Slocom,
L. H. Huggins, Charles Hall, j. M.
Wright and S. w. Arnold are made
defendants. The complaint further
alleged that $l050 which was to be
paid to Keeler Bros. for printing the
bonds and legal services was rebate
and that the city had debt amounting
to more than the legal limit of $4,000.
The complaint also set forth that the
water plant would cost more than
800, 900 and that therefore, it was nc
use to sell bonds in an amount less
than was needed to complete the work.