The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1911-05-24
When S-hour Day Comes Be-
fore Barre Council
NO ACTION WAS TAKEN
Although Motion Was Carried to Sub
stitute Week of so Hours, the
Resolution Was No More
Warmly Received.

/ f-@NNNAtttb
aldermen was held last evening, fol-
lowed by special meeting of the city
council, the gathering called princi
pally for the purpose of acting on the
resolution presented several weeks ago
relative to placing the employees Of the
street and water departments on an
eight hour day basis with the same pay
as for nine hours.
4 The street committee to whom had
been referred the matter of getting the
! opinions of the workmen as to whether
they would like an eight hour day or
80 hour week with Saturday half-holi-
| days reported that they found 40 men
on the pay roll of the department and
of these 20 were not taxpayers, ii had
been listed for taxes this year and
had paid taxes for several years. They
personally saw 10 of the men, who are
tax payers and eight of them ex-
pressed themselves as beng in favor Of
an eight hour day and the other eight
in favor of 30 hour week
Alderman Wiley of the water COM
mittee reported that at this time there
were only two permanent men on the
| pay roll and one of them wanted an
eight hour day and the other pre-
ferred a so hour week, thus making an
even split in both departments
A lengthy discussion then followed.
during which Alderman Rossi said that
in view of the evenly divided opinions
of the employees he thought the council
would not be justified in doing anything
except establishing an hour day, ac-
cording to the vote of the citizens in
the city meeting, and he moved that
the resolution be adopted After
long silence Alderman Brown moved
that the resolution be amended to read
80 hours week This was promptly :
seconded
The mayor then called for action of
the amended resolution and Alderman
Brown moved that it be adopted There
was another long spell Of silence around
the table save for the remarks of the
mayor that he thought. the aldermen
were not acting honestly if they did
not either adopt or vote down the reso-
luton. After several minutes wait, dur
ing which no one seconded Alderman
Browns motion to adopt the resolution
the mayor directed the clerk to proceed
with other business, and the resolution
was dropped
During the discussion the mayor
asked the street committee If they had
any recommendation to make In regard
to what the council should do, and Al
derman Thurston replied that the in
struetions of the committee did not
call for recommendations being made.
The mayor said that was what the rec
ords showed, but he thought that it
was generally understood that the com
mttee would make recommendations so
that the council would have better
idea what to do Alderman Thurston
then said that if the committee recon-
mended one way or the other they
would have to hit eight men square on
their noses.
Beautify Gospel Village Common.
The council also received a COM
munication from the Civic Federation
of Women's clubs, asking for permis
sion. and the cooperation, of the city
in the work of Identifying the north
end Of Elmwood cemetery and the
Gospel Village common The fedora
tion also requested that the name of
the common be the wood Common" in
honor of the donor, as the federation
understood, and that $50 Of the appro-
priation for the care Of parks be
turned over to the treasury of the
federation to be used in caring for the
City park.
The mayor stated that he had in
formed the federation that the city had
no jurisdiction over the common prop
erty, and that the ladies were in error
in regard to there being a donor, as
Mr.. Wood was only an adjoining land
owner OF this property The mayor
said that he was heartily in favor Of
giving the federation all the assistance
the council could give and the matter
was referred to the property commit
tee.
$1,000 for Band Concerts.
Alderman Wiley stated that the
committee had consulted with the
manager of the Barre Citizens band
and had made arrangements for is con-
certs in the park this summer for
81 900 He said that the manager was
very anxious that the city appropriate
81 200 this year as the band was very
much in need of more money to
meet their necessary expenses. The al
ierman said that he thought that citi-
lens of the city who enjoy the con-
,erts and are much in favor of them
should personally donate to the sup
port of the band as is done in other
titles On motion of Alderman Wiley
The committee was instructed to draw
I'D contract with the band for 10
concerts at $1,000.
Alderman Brown reported that con-
SIDERABLE complaint was being made
.bout the stagnant water in the bottom
If the old river bed and that the
lealth officer had requested that some
hing be done to get rid of the water
md filth Referred TO the health CON-
nittee with power 70 act
Aldermen's Meeting.
In the meeting Of the board Of al
Iermen the principal business done was
he disposing of several reports Of CONF
nittees. The lighting committee re-
,orted in favor of installing Tungsten
.treet lights on Academy street OPP
,osite r. T. Pages residence and one
N Brook street On motion Of Alder
nan Wiley the report was accepted
fcoutinued on fourth naref