The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-13

tracts have been ended, and very much 10 1 the advantage of the city. Of course. under present conditions. if the city were i not hampered by contracts already ex-
 isting, better terms might have been se-
 cured, but in view of the fact that old Birmingham and all of the towns recently l incorporated into the city limits of Great
 CT Birmingham (except North Brming- ham), have contracts with the Birming- | ham Waterworks company still unex- l pired the city is 10 be felicitated upon the
 notifications secured, which will work greatly to the benefit of the city and of
 it's people.
 A. reduction from 90 cents per 1000 gall l Ions to 20 cents per 1000 gallons is marked improvement over the old con- 1 tracts, and all consumers get the benefit of this and in addition material reductions are allowed in proportion to the water consumed. The provision that the mini mum rate shall not, in any case. be more than three-fourths of what the reduced flat rate would be. is a notable advantage to consumers. The lowest flat rate. s6 per year. for a three room dwelling. with single faucet, will, under the meter rate. be only s4.50 per annum, or 371h cents per month; and at 20 cents per 1000 gallons such a consumer could use 1875 gallons per month without exceeding the nlini- mum, and as no minimum can exceed s3 1-3 cents per month, any consumer can use 4167 gallons per month without go-
 ing beyond the minimum.
 Change in Hydrant Rates
 The main advantage to the city, it. self, accrues from the change in rates of fire hydrants. The city will within two years nearly double its number of fire hydrants. and yet be paying no more for them than 1t Is now paying for the nd ac ba c under an obligation to lay about 32 miles of new mains, 1t can be seen at once that thousands of people will receive fire protection who now are practically with out it, and this will. incidentally ana ultimately result, I trust, in the reduc- tfon of insurance rates. I, myself, until recently have always been partial to the fiat rate system. but since this investi- gation began I believe mat money can be saved to the consumer by the adoption Of the meter rates, and especially Is thls true since the city reserves the right to safeguard the interests or the consumers by having it's own meter inspectors to check up the company.
 While under the proposed ordinance either the consumer or the company can demand meter rate. it is probable that the company will rarely demand a me ter rate when the monthly consumption amounts to 10000 gallons.
 Through Single Meter "A distinct advantage inures to the city by the provision that the munict- pality is to pay for water consumed by 1t as if taken through one meter, which will bring about a reduction in price from 15 cents per 1000 gallons to 71a cents per 1000 gallons; and inasmuch as the city has about 60 buildings to be sup piled 1t can be seen at glance that 1t will be large consumer.
 "Under the ordinance to be drawn there Is no extension of any contract. either as to old Birmingham or as to any of the outlying towns recently incorporated in the city limits. It Is estimated that during the nine years at the end of which the old Birmingham contract ex- pires, there will be a saving to the city and its people of more than S1,000,000. I regard this as q conservative estimate Weatherly Explains His Position
 In reference to his action In withhold ing his vote Commissioner Weatherly stat-. ed that he was not willing to accept the agreement until the consumers lad a chance to discuss 1t and were given an opportunity to make possible amendmehts. Continuing, he said: .r
 "Conceding that the concessions made are the very best the'board of commission CTS could obtain from the company, and that the new rates fassuming the adyan- tages of the meter system over the flat rate system) are distinct improvement over existing rates, I am unwilling to un- qpalifedy commit the city by binding agreement at this time without the fullest publicity and the fullest opportunity for discussion and criticism.
 'eThe agreement Is far reaching and af- fects many interests. It Is to be substi- tuted for all existing contracts of all for mer municipalities of the greater city, which contracts have to run for terms varying from nine to % years. Of course,
 t does away with the rates prescribed in the suspended ordinance recently enacted and precludes all question of litigation with the company for the purpose of avoiding any of the existing contracts. It also precludes all, possibility of municipal ow nership until at least after the expira- ton of the shortest term of the present contracts, namely nine years. For these reasons I deemed 1t to be the wisest course to give to the people the pro- posal first and to vote on 1t after wards"