Newark post. (Newark, Del.) 1910-1969, 1911-02-22

the Water and Light Plants to the
Newark Water an dElectric Co., feel
that as we have been unjustly criticised
by certain individuals through the me-
dunn of newspaper articles, and. lnat
as such articles are of a nature to nlia-
lead the public in general, the follow
ing statement of facts should be pub
lished
Before effecting this lease We Sc
cured the opinions OF six attorneys or
standing, all of whom agreed that snch
action was entirely within the author
ity o.. Council, and legal in every re
spect, there was absolutely no I:sfei-
ence of opinion on this question:
Our own attorney never made a
positive statement to the effect that
our proposed lease was illegal, before
we entered into it.
Alter making our desire to secure
bids public, in newspaper reports, and
| otherwise, we received two proposals.
| one from the Elk River Heat, Light
and Power Co.. and one ;roih the
| Newark Water and Electric Co.. both
OF which were referred to committee
for examination and report.
| Alter making a complete and en-
haustive study of both proposals, the
committee reported that in their opin-
ion the offer made by the Newark
Water and Electric Co. was preferred
| for the following reasons:-
That they agree dto install any num-
Der OF arc or other type of electric
lights ior street lighting at the request
OF Council. at no cost to the town -
while the other bidder did not
That both companies made an offer
OF SO much per year per light-wltll
an alternate offer to furnish current
by meter measurement-the Elk River
Co. at 4 cents per X. w. hour land the
Newark Co, at 3 cents per K. w. hour
By adopting arc lights for street
lighting which we have already done,
and which will be installed i'll a few
days, and by using Tautalum or Tang
stem lamps in place of the carbon
lamps now III uoN, tiiio blilSiS VI
one cent per K W. hour means a saw
ing to the town i'll current alone oi
about $775.oo per year, leaving dir
ference in the bids NOW OF only
S225oo, and it being only fair to as
sumo considerable increase ip u.reet
lighting in the very near future, VIC
believe that within five years at most
the Newark Co. will be paying the
town more in dollars and cents thar
was offered by the Elk River Co., ant
that toward the end OF the lease, the
increased receipts fro mthe Newark
Co. over the other offer will be very
large indeed. thus making it inconsist
ent and undesirable to make a lease
with Elk River Co., who did not make
as good proposition as the offer W.
J accepted.
In addition to the above yearly saw
ing, these arc lights are to be furnish
ed and installed by the leasing com
pany at absolutely no expense to tn
: town, making an additional saving thi
year OF $500 to 5000.
At the published figures it will re
| quire 100000 gal. OF water per yea
= to flush sewers, it would cost the tow
4 according to the late Prof. Freuden
berger, the sum of I3 I-2 cents pc
thousand gallons to furnish this waite
1 being an actual cost of 9 cents 70
pumping and an allowance of so pc
: cent for loss, which does occur, or
S total OF $357.5o.
Under our contract with the New
# ark Co. the town will buy this waite
: at the rate OF 5 cents per thousan
gallons meter measurement, or tots
e cost of SI25.oo, this item alone show
positive saving to the town {
$2I2. so per year.
2 Water for street sprinkling will b
! furnished at the same rate, and wi
% show proportionate saving.
!" There was absolutely no effort mad
u to keep the taxpayers in ignorance {
=. the terms OF the proposed lease; O
IL the contrary. it was the desire of til
e. committee to have a full and free di
IS cussion of the entire matter from I'll
time it was first mentioned, and tt
l. committee stood ready and willing
st give any Information at their con
r. mand at any time-as matter of fac
criticism was solicited by members
/, this committee from some of tho:
l. who are making the loudest protest
,a but they exhibited no interest in II
. matter at that time.
The matter was under considerable
g ior about two months before Count
~ took action and during that entire tin
no effort was made by any of tho
IT, who are now protesting. to secure i
Ill formation from the Council as a boz
at or from the signers of this stateme
ne personally.
es 1t is a fact that those opposed
s. the lease, and most prominent at t
re indignation meeting, admitted at t
time of the meeting that they kne
m nothing at all of the provisions of t
is lease we had entered into, yet tn
ce adopted resolutions condemning us t
not making lease with the Elk Riv
IL Co.
ID There was no garbled financial stat
ob ment made at any time-and our stal
nd ment covering the operation of
en- plants for the last eighteen years
absolutely correct in every particu
a. r,,+ ~ tl7a n, ,