The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-07-21
REDDINC'S TOWN VAULT WILL SOON
 BE DAMP PROOF
And Then Town Clerk Kicker. son Will Turn Over the Re-
 cords in His Keeping
Republicans of Old Town Elm. brOiled by Search of Town Ac- counts Conducted by Ex-
 pert SOule

Bedding, July 21.-To the extent o1
 not having been dislodged from his position Town Clerk Nickerson has
 won technical victory in his con.
 troversy with the selectmen. This fact will incline the frivolous minded
 to snfcker, remembering as they dc
 that the outcome is the usual one
 In contests in which the town clerk
 figures although a notable exception
 occurred last fall. While MT. Kicker
 son saves his face,'' however, the se-
 !ectmen will gain their point on the
 Issue of securing a transfer of all the
 public records from the clerks office
 to the vault in the town house.
 The reason he advanced for declin-
 ing to remove the records to the vault
 was that last year MT. Hathaway,
 State commissioners of records, had
 advised him by letter not to make
 such removal until the vault had been
 placed in a suitable condition AS
 this letter had been lost and as it's
 phraseology was in dispute the se-
 lectmen, at their special meeting last
 Saturday, 5, decided to defer further ac
 uon until copy of the letter could
 be obtained from MT. Hathaway's
 files. The letter, however. will prob
 ably have no real influence in set
 ting the case as work was begun yes terday on the vault to effect changes
 which are expected to do away with its dampness. The job will occupy
 only day or two and then the clerk
 will have no further excuse for not shifting the books. If he should put forward some pretext for further delay
 the selectmen may be expected to
 develop another attack of violent ir-
 ritation such as seized them in the
 or-lxy y% o4 lno& clerk assumed a contumacious atti- tude and refused to budge despite threats of legal proceedings of vart- ous kinds.
 It now looks as if one of these prospective proceedings, that having for its purpose the busting of the town clerk from office by means of a com- plaint to the Superior court through the State attorney, would not be car ried into execution. The matter was further discussed informally by the selectmen on Saturday, but no one seemed disposed to press the issue to decisive point and it therefore re- publican selectmen strongly intimates that the proposition is not likely to be revived unless change for the worse occurs in present conditions and prospects. He said the move was talked of when the board were much aggravated over the clerks attitude. They discussed the remedial measures at their command and this was one of them. He added that while some might feel that 1t was the duty of the board to resort to custer proceedings in case they were convinced that the clerk was incompetent and that other reasons for the proceeding existed their failure to act afforded MT. Nick erson no ultimate protection from the in YI10 ms off zen was at liberty to bring complaint and if sufficient grounds were ad- duced the State attorney would heed 1t as readily as If the selectmen were the comp1ainants.
 The board did not, at their meeting on Saturday. even consider the subject of instituting custer proceedings against Town Treasurer Hill.
 Two of the three selectmen are Re- publicans, the officials involved by the investigation are Republicans and an election is coming on.
 The writer is in receipt of a note from Town Clerk Nickerson in which he says, T have never refused books, files, etc, to MT. Soule. Three differ ent times I have been to the town house and told him I could and would give him anything he wished to help him out in the matter. It was only once that Pinkney came and demanded them ana all l tOlQ n1m no SIT, not until the resolutions of town meet Ings for repairing the flooring of the vault were carried out would I allow the records to enter the vault. I am now sending to be bound land and other records, the bindings of which are gone from their being a few days in the vault"
 The clerk incloses copies of the res- buttons he refers to by which the annual town meetings of 1908 and 1909 directed the selectmen to take mea- sures to have the vault made damp proof. This was not done. MT. Nick 1 erson's statement regarding his will ngness to turn the lien records over to MT. Soule would seem to raise a lirect question of veracity between himself and the selectmen. Their 1 statement is that only when he refus- 1 d to give up the lien records did they | make a demand for the shifting of all | he records. In explanation of this l apparent misunderstanding the town | Jerk says that what he did insist on | keeping in his possession were files | to the liens, these files be- l ng in a sense his personal property l md likely to serve for his protection | n the event of possible disputes. At | he same time he says that he offered MT. Soule access to these papers if |