The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-08
NEGOTIATIONS ON
 WATER PROJECT
Sadsden May Furnish Ala
 bama City's Supply
REPORT ON THE PLANT
Council Passes Ordinance to Force All Consumers to Use Meter Begin ming With October-May Not
 Appeal the Lutes Cases

Gadsden, May Special. )-Negotia
 ions have been renewed for Gadsden 10 furnish water to Alabama City. The hew municipal water plant has ample tapacity to supply water for much larger population than that of the two tities combined and the matter has been lnder advisement before, but the au- thorities could never come to an agree nent.
 The water supply at Alabama City Is entirely inadequate and unless some Arrangement is made with Gadsden an- other system will have to be built. The matter of a separate system Is already under consideration and the preliminary surveys upon which to base cost es- Inmates are now being made.
 Mayor McCord of Alabama City came before the Gadsden council last night and asked that Gadsden make new pr oposition for supplying the water wanted and this will probably be done within a few days. A satisfactory agree |ment will most likely be reached as |Gadsden can supply the water cheaper than new plant could be operated for. All Must Have Meters At the meeting of the city council last might report was made by the superin- tendent of the waterworks which was of more than usual interest as the new water plant has never been put on pay ing basis, although it has been completed about a year. According to the report of Superintendent M. E. Jones the leak is in the service to the consumers under the flat rate.
 The report shows that 15,o00,0 900 gallons of water were pumped in April at a cost Of 1Ik cents per 1000 gallons About 4,0Oo,- 900 gallons of this was sold to consumers through meters at 24 cents per thousand gallons.
 The city used a little more than 1,000,- GOO gallons and the remaining 10, 900 gal Ions were used by the consumers paying for their water on a fiat rate. And all the city received therefor was a little more than S40O This shows that the flat rate consumers received their water for about one-half of what it cost the city to pump it from the river.
 An ordinance has been passed that will force all consumers to take water by meter beginning October l.
 May Not Take Appeal
 John A. Inzer of this city, one of the attorneys who defended the men ac- cused and convicted of the murder of Jacob c. Lutes and wife, whose trials were held at Ashville last week. stated today that he was not certain that ap- peals in the cases would be taken. The defendants were Will and Cleve Campbell and D. s. McClain, and all were found guilty and given life sentences in the penitentiary. MT. Inzer said that a most unusual thing happened in the trial of McClain in that the jury finding him guilty and fixing his punishment at the same time when handing in the verdict delivered resolutions to the clerk the sympathy of the jurors was rendered the defendant
 Barn Destroyed
 A fire in East Gadsden last night de- stroyed a barn belonging to N. M. Lam ders, a groceryman. The grocer had considerable quantity of canned goods stored in the barn and this was all de- stroyed, together with buggy. mule and a number of chickens were also cremated. The fire department respond ed but the lack of water on the east side made their presence of little avail.