The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1913-11-18
RESOLUTION
TO TAKE OFF S1,580
FROM WATER BILL
Majority in Council Believes
Company Has Overcharg-
ed the City.
MUST REMOVE POLES
Ordinance Put Through Pro-
viding for Underground
COnduits For Wires.
MUST REMOVE POLES

With two dissenting votes council
last night ordered City Controller Nc
Mahan to deduct overcharges amount
ing to $1,588 from the last bill sub
mitted by the Water Works company
and pay the balance. The bill as pre-
sented calls for $7,95921. In a report
to council two weeks ago City Attor-
ney Bond pointed out alleged over
charges in the bill alone of sos, and
overcharges of $1,490 for the last
twenty years.
Councils action will leave the de-
cision as to the legality of hydrant
rentals and the method for making
and paying for main extensions to the
public utilities commission.
The company claims that it is en-
titled to hydrant rental amounting to
$40 a year on each 500 feet of main
laid whether a hydrant has been set
or not Attorney Bond says the city
should pay for only hydrants that are
set.
Two Dissenting Votes.
Councilmen Won Pein and Williams
voted against adopting the resolution.
They objected to the refusal of the
city to pay for the hydranL outside the
corporation at Seventh and South \
streets, which they said was ordered
by the board of works to provide fire
protection for factories in the neigh
bOrhOod.
An ordinance ordering the removal
of poles and wires on East Main street
from Twentieth street to the corpora
ton line, and providing that wires be
placed in underground conduits, was
introduced by Councilman Jones and
passed to third reading.
1t is an amendment to the ordinance
now in effect regulating the placing
o. poles and wires from Second to
Twentieth street. The measure calls
for teel, iron and concrete poles for
the wiring of trolly lines and electric
current for street lighting.
City Clerk Besher was instructed to
notify companies placing poles in the
street effected by the ordinance that
council was taking action to stop it.
Councilman Won Pein, who during
leave of absence last summer made
trip to his birthplace in Germany,
gave council his impressions of the
continent last night. He was impress
ed, he said. by two things. that the
public utilities were practically all
owned by the cities, and that the
towns had no alleys. ~
Richmond, he said, has more flies
than any city he visited, due largely
to alleys. In Germany each property
owner provides for the disposal af
garbage, making alleys unnecessary.
Controllers Report.
The following report for October
was submitted by City Controller Nc
Mahan:
Receipts Recommendations SO
Disbursements ............. 12, $50. Il
Sinking fund receipts ...... 9.748. 81
Balance in special fund. ..... 13. 2S9. SO
Street improvement fund.-. 4.502 .09
Because of the installation of new
equipment and the construction of an
addition to the plant the disburse.
ments for the city light plant as re-
ported by Superintendent Johnson for
October were s31,933 40, divided as fol
lows:
Operating expenses .......S 3,316.71
Building and equipment. 27.956. rs
Singing fund ............... $4,000
Amount on hand in the mu-
nicipal fund .......... 1906 29
Amount on hand in the sink
ing fund ........... $3.50 65