The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1914-04-09
AS { TY OF
UTILITY IS SEEN
MANY CITIZENS EXPRESS VIEWS
Opponents Say that City Would be an
lmpraCtiCable Burden Fail to Com
prehend, Says Rowland

10 order 70 get the opinion Of both
those opposing and those favoring the
proposed City Of Utility as a means of
securing cheaper electric lights and
power tor the valley, the Glacier has
endcavored 10 secure from prominent
citizens a number Of interviews,
The proposed incorporated town,
which will take in the greater portion
Of the Lower Valley orchard district.
has created as much discussion in the
past few weeks as any problem ever
confronting local voters.
Lawrence n. Blowers. who has been
connected with business enterprises of
the city as long perhaps as any man in
the community, says:
In my opinion the creation of Util-
ity City at this time would be very un-
wise. As ! understand it the law was
never intended to be used in the way
in which the promoters of this measure
are attempting to use il. / sympathize
with the desire of my neighbors for
better and less expensive electric ser
vice, but think it would be a serious
mistake 10 shoulder the legitimate
and observation-disclosures of maintain
ing a superluous city government.
Experience has shown that these
expenses grow by leaps and bounds.
We are now paying SIS. 600 a year for
city tax in this little town of about
1000 inhabitants; county expenses
steadily growing until now we pay
more thar 5000, 900 GEAR to run this
little county of less than 5000 popula-
ton. If il were possible to install CO.
operative plant without cumbersome,
costly and unnecessary city govern
ment | should think that the proper
way to proceed, but believe that the
present plan, if carried through, will be
disastrous.
Mrs. Ed Hawkes., wife Of Commits.
sioner Hawkes., is one of the leading
eXponents Of opposition to the City of
Utility among the women voters of the
valley. Even though the new munic-
ipality could be formed without lot
of attendant municipal governmental
powers that would be burden to US,
do not think | could be in favor of it, F"
she says. "The district is widely scat
tered and it would cost too much to
construct lines to all those who desire
municipal lights.
number of the women of the Polit-
ical Research club, of which Mrs.
Hawkes. is the vice president, are in
favor of the City of Utility. The club
will hold a meeting for discussion of
the matter Friday, April 7,
II. F. Davidson, formerly owner of
the property now operated by the Hood
River Gas g. Electric Co., says:
when we operated the light and
power plant we found that the country
| lines as a rule were burden rather
than source of profit and am conf
dent that if Utility City is Incorporated
and the matter of generating power
and distributing the same is undertaken
| in the territory proposed that the SER
| vice will cost two or three times as
much as the present rates unless a part
of the cost of operating or tue interest
| is paid by direct taxation. Every per-
son whose property is bonded and who
has to pay taxes to support the plant
will be entitled to service no matter
how remote he may be from the plant
or the main service line and to build
lines and put up transformers to ac-
commodate those in the outlying terri
tory would bankrupt the whole terri
tory, as everybody in the district must
be served at the same rates.
'Ihe principle involved is good, but
the application Of the principle to the
territory proposed is worse than ridicu-
ous. 1t is time for Hood River to
practice cooperation and consolidation
for self protection instead of taking
this plantof promoting permanent dis
| integration. We had better get closer
together rather than to permanently
separate ourselves and divide our inter-
ests in any such way"
j. G. Rowland, of the committee
which prepared the petition calling for
the election, sums up the case for the
eXponents of the City of Utility as fol-
lows:
Committee instructed at meeting at
Commercial club February Z ordered to
petition county court Unanimous ac-
| ton. Committee did as ordered.
Opposition did not appear to any
extent until the proceedings began to
seem like business, then all manner of
objections were made. This didn't suit
and that wasn't right, and so on. In
fact, the people commenced seeing that
something was being created which
they couldn't comprehend and instead
of going at it calmly, looking up the
| laws governing the matter and becom-
ing posted in all that was happening,
they went off at half-cOck and opposed
the proposition. 1t has been a cam
paign Of education. There has been
more erroneous information given out
| in regard to this matter than one per-
son could think Of The law tells Just
who has control Of the roads and
schools. No chance of doubt. In
working out the details of the mass
meetings orders to the committee the
best legal talent in Hood River was
resorted to and all proceedings have
been carried on according to the laws
governing the case in hand.
''ln event of the defeat of this meas
ure on April 20 it was suggested at one
of the many meetings held here in the
valley, that the water rights be re-
tanned until such time as another plan
could be found to accomplish the de-
sired result. Personally, ! am not
agreeable to the idea of spending my
time in carrying out plans ordered in
mass meetings and then later have
these plans repudiated by the people at
large. When some responsible, tangible
/ body of citizens or residents find out
/ Just what they want and how they
want it, then if it needs money to carry
Ou the plan, get the cash and put it in
/ the hands of a trustee, stick to the
plan and stand by the committee; when
that has been done | will be ready to
do all can to save what is left of
water rights on Hood river, if any are
left"