Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1911-02-01
CITY SEWAGE PLANT
Discussed at Length by Commercial
Club at Regular Meeting.
Enlargement of KOrnmeyer Brick
and Tile Plant Next Work to be
Taken Up by DecOrah's
Boosters.

The regular meeting CT the De-
, corah Commercial Club at the city
hall on Friday evening demonstrate
ed that interest is not abating in the
movement to do something for De-
ccrah, but rather that increasing
numbers of the business men and
citizens have allied themselves with
the organization which has as its
sole purpose the advancement of the
territory.
After the disposal of routine mat
tiers Messrs. Kornmeyer Bros. stated
that their brick and tile business
was increasing to such an extent that
they were unable with their present
equipment to fill more than a small
portion of their orders. That dur
ing the past year they had been COM
PEELED to turn down many large
orders, and that they desired to
form a stock company, add about
$4,000 capital, install new machin-
cry and equipment, increase their
working force and accordingly the
output of the plant, making in ad-
dition to brick, hollow building
blocks, drainage tile, etc. During
the past season they constructed an
additional kiln and built a side track
connecting their plant with the rail-
road, so that now the output can be
shipped without hauling, loading
direct into the cars. The PROPOSE
ton was looked upon very favorably
by the Club, inasmuch as it means
employment to local labor to use
raw material which is here in album
dance, and will not require the ship
ping in of material A committee
consisting of w. F. Baker, Dr. F. W.
Conover and R. H. Tracy was ap-
pointed to thoroughly investigate the
proposition and report further.
The matter of sewerage system
for DEBORAH was presented by Alder
man w. F. Baker. He explained
how urgent the necessity for a sys-
tenn of this character, how the city
is disobeying the law daily in not
providing it, how the present condi-
ton is simply tolerated by the state
officials in the belief that a system
will soon be installed here. He also
took up the matter of expense ar7t
of this nature may be paid for by
issuing series of bonds maturing
through period of years, or by as
sessing the amount against the
abutting and adjacent property in
proportion to the benefits conferred.
The construction of the septic tank,
the main sewer connections thereto,
intersections, abutting city and fed
eral property ETC., must be paid for
by the city at large. He then took
up the matter of the amount of
bonds the city can legally issue for
the construction of sewerage sys-
TEN, and took occasion to cor
rect an erroneous idea that has been
prevalent here for years, relating to
the limit of Indebtedness that mu-
nicipal corporation may incur. Sew
en- years ago there were bonds and
warrants outstanding of about
$2S,500, and we were led to believe
that $4,000 was all the indebted
ness the law would recognize. At
the present time the city's indebt-
edness in outstanding bonds and
warrants amounts to $12,500, less
the amount on hand in sinking
funds, $500 leaving a total in
debtedness of only $1,000.
The limit of city's Indebtedness
is 5 per cent, not of the so-called
taxable, or One-fourth assessed val
uation of property, but 5 per cent of
the actual assessed valuation of the
same In the city of DEBORAH the
total assessment of all property, in
round numbers, amounts to $4,000
900. This would fix the limit of
Indebtedness at 100000, surely an
amount sufficient to meet all reason
able demands. The limit of bonds
the city could issue for this purpose
would be the number of mills the
council could levy to pay interest
and retire the bonds. For this pur-
pose not to exceed 5 mills annually
may be levied. At the present as
sessed valuation this would amount
to about $3,250. This would meet
the interest and retire 100000 of
5 per cent bonds in eight or nine
years, or a smaller levy could be
made, covering longer period. At
least this amount would be required
to construct the main outlet, septic
tank, etc.
Two years ago the city council