The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-05-08
NEWTOWN BOROUGH
 MEETING FURNISHES REAL EXCITEMENT
Merry Row Follows Discovery of Secret Renewal of Con- tract With Water Mon-
 OpoIy
Objections to Procedure Result in Many Clashes Which Have Not Ended-Peck Is Warden
Special to The Farmer)


 T Special to The Farmer.)
 Newtown, May s-The annual meet. I ing of Newtown borough took place between and Il a. m., Tuesday, al the town hall, with an attendance o1 | a score of freemen at the business meeting and twenty-six voters in the election There was but one ticket l in the field, and only two voters used 1 the privilege of scratching. The ticket made only two changes in the per | sonneI of the borough officers since the 1 Newtown Water Company took the borough in charge. Those opposed to 1 this unlToly alliance between the Wa 1 ter Company and the borough board 1 at the recent caucus succeeded in
 nominating Charles G. Peck for war den at the borough caucus, and he was elected. It was understood that | he did not favor renewal of the con tractua1 rate of $20 per annurn for each hydrant in the borough limits as
 provided for in the five year contract entered into by the borough and Wa ter Company July 1. 1907, and which terminated by its own time limitations
 posed had remained dead as a door
 nail
 Judge of the surprise of the warden elect when he discovered that his 1aud- able intention to stand between the
 taxpayers and the local monopoly was IT lEdsL6QH Dy JL0 s10SOQ1CS1u4hCSS OI
 the Water Company interests, and that
 instead of demanding from the water
 magnates reduction to $20 per an-
 mum for each hydrant, the meeting
 was coolly informed that on April 15,
 1913, nine months after the expiration
 of the old contract, the borough fla thers without the sanction of the bor- ough freemen in meeting assembled,
 as the charter provides, entered into Q. ten years contract embodying all the worst features of the old contract, and dropping the good features, which seemingly had become irksome to the Water Company officials
 This information was received grim ly by the taxpayers present who are not in politics, with applause by the adherents of the Water Company, and by loud disapproval and dissent by the anti-water company voters in the business meeting. Several of the lat ter were on their feet in a. moment and the fire danger imminent with nc. Corbett demanded proof, when sBor- ough Clerk C. F. Beardsfey snniIingly showed him the record in his hand writing of the meeting of the borough fathers April 15,5 1913, two days after | the publica ton in The Farmer of the fact of the expiration of the contract, | and the fire danger imdnent with mol existing agreement for public use of the company's hydrants and water.l The obJector noted that the borough clerk had failed to attest the report of the meeting and asked why The latter stated he supposed 1t didn't make any difference, and looked ap- from the moderator to theI group of Water Company officials and borough officers who by this time had begun to sit up and take notice, and were hastily comforting. The air o3 the room seemed throbb bfng with surg Ing underdrifts of apprehension and ndecision, when the opposition speak ar calmly started for his seat after ,ernarking that an unattested report of -his April meeting was no record, and -he way was open for the meeting to act on the question of water. supply .or the borough or not, as the borough lad no contract existing at this time.
 This aroused the pro-water element. The clerk was hastily beckoned from he desk and called, into consultation with the result that he came up sheep shly and wrote attestation and his signature to the hitherto fatherless i'm cription in the borough record book. Then the storm broke, a half dozen rying to be heard at once. The val dity Of the action was attacked, the emerity of the borough o1cers who ntered into this new contract assail- d. and their boIdness denounced, and he charter cited in evidence against his misuse of prerogative and pawer.
 It was all to no purpose. The Wa CT Company advocates had by this ime recovered and got their second vind, and proceeded to put the deal trough Their chief spokesman, A. '. Nettleton, moved and Frank Wright econded the following resolution:
 Voted, That we ratify, confirm and : pprove of the renewal of the contract r agreement made by the Warden and ] surgesses with the Newtown Water \ company, April 15, 1913.'
 The chairman. who is the Warden ! iect, looked dfsgusted, and seemed on < he point of refusing to put the mo ion, when a new wrangie sprang up yer the report of Treasurer w. A. leonard. It was read by him and i'm 1ediate1y the coterie of six officials, ach of the borough and Water Com any, arose and moved acceptance as | cad. I Objectors quoted the charter that | he report must be written, signed, T worn to, and audited, then filed with e ne clerk. Only one auditor was pres nt who said he had read over the T -easurer's report and approved it, but,l a ad not signed it. Asked. if he would r gn it now, he agreed, and then a t unt began for the other auditor. pr. d
 J. Gale. In the pmeantime two a ems in the report showing that the t .easurer had made two payments to a le Water Company totalling nearly 100 between July 1, 1912, date of the \ rpiration of the old water contract, h nd May 6, 1913, were objected to as sing illegal, unwarranted, and recov v able by suit, there being no contract ith the Water Company in force at u le time of these payments. The V easurer was astounded to learn then S IT the first time that he had been aying orders on the treasury that had b ) vestige of right back of them, and u