Henderson gold leaf., 1911-09-07
WHERE THECITY'SMONEY GOES.
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have less confidence in him than |
have. for | believe he would have
made the town Just as good may
or, and acted in just as dignified
manner for the 500 as he will for
the $500. | do not believe that he
will blow in this extra 5000 in buy
ing silk hats, swallOw-tail coats and
tooth pick shoes, nor do | believe he
will blow it in entertaining our not
ed guests at swell functions. No one
claims that he will make a better
mayor since the increase in salary
than lie did before. If this is true,
the board of town commissioners
voted him $500 without any legal
authority or moral right, and as
proof of this statement, | sight the
fact that Commissioner Peace NOV
ed that the legality of this matter
he referred to the town attorney, for
his opinion. The motion was vote d
down, and / ask why? In speaking
about the prOgressiveness OF some OF
our commissioners | can't help
thinking OF the great contrast in the
ard0r Of their progrtssiveness when
VOlilg uIrn "a; or the Town treas
nry as compared with the way they
support the { ,.it j. = ~ Commerce
In the instance above rcl,rred to,
the six missiOners supported the
high .Iaried officer because they
stood for dignity and progress, con
tributeI less to the running of the
Chamber of Commerce than the two
commissioners who opposed throw
ing the towns money away in this
way. 1t all depends on whose mon
ey you are spending. Looking over
the vouchers of the town | find that
last year we expended for water for
the purpose of Sprinking the streets
$3O1 Tom Bullock, the man who
drives the sprinkler, tells me that he
gets Il dollar a day, and that he
spends half of his time driving the
sprinkler. | figure that the use OF
the horse and sprinkler is worth $40
a month. | also find that last year
the town bought a new sprinkler at
cost of S275. This shows that
last year, you, board of commission
ers spent $500 for sprinkling the
streets in the business section of the
town. am reliably informed that
the same streets that have been
sprinkled, could have been oiled for
$500, that Oiling is better than
sprinkling, that the street commits
sioner could and should have saved
the town 1902 on this item alone.
The town now owns five horses, three
of these are boarded at the town
stable, and the other two at livery
stable The town is paying two
| drivers besides Bob Falkner who
stays at the stable all the time. |
contend that the town ought to sell
one of these horses and board all the
others at the town stable, and by
doing so they can save at least 5000.
Last year we paid the town tax
collector 1901, treasurer $653, street
commissioners $3.50, town clerk
5000, q total of 81 ,734. | suggest
that these offices ought to be consol-
| idated into one office. The commits
sioners could get a good reliable
man for 81 200 a year, fix him up an
office in the towns building and re-
quire him to look after the towns
! business. This could be done as |
figure it for $534 per year less than
we are now paying, and could be
done q great deal better. Am glad
that we have at last got a settle
ment with the dispensary, but am
sorry that more than 500 worth Of
glass bottles were lost or carried off.
If we had one man to look after the
towns affairs, as suggested above,
this property would not have been
lost, the $1,000 roller machine
would not have rustcd out, and the
new road machine we now have sit
ting ont in the sunshine and rain
would be taken care of.
1t cost over 5000 last year to heat
and light the mayors office. At
least half of this was wasted and
should be saved to the town. The
payroll for labor on the streets last
year amounted to a little more than
-, 100. Add to this the salary of
the street commissioner and $50 to
Mr.. Parrish for watching the hands,
we find that the town expended for
labor and experimenting more than
$1,000. l contend that the way
this has been managed considerable
amount of it has been wasted. The
street commissioner or his assistant
has worked from four to ten negroes
cleaning ont bitches and scraping
grass Off the streets and sidewalks
with shoveIs and hoes, leaving them
for one-half to two-thirds of their
time without anyone to watch them
and the larger part of their time is
idle1 away. And at least 81 200
spent for labor on the street is vast
ed. In other words. | can take al
most any good man at a cost Of
$50 per month, have him to take
the team we now have, working
them by the road machine that is
now rusting and by using three men,
he can do more work on the streets
at a cost of 81, 500 for labor than
we are now getting at cost of So
700. There is 81, 200 of your mon
ey unwisely spent.
Mr.. Peace has told you about the
commissioners paying 500 for a
town charter, which has never been
read or considered. [ have been told
by party, whom think knows as
much about what the charter con-
tains as anyone else, that it has not
been considered because one man
who has large influence over the
board, opposes it because tprovides
in undisputed language that no Of
finnr shnll he allnUnd To trad o;thnr