New Britain herald., 1914-07-11
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ly $40O,00O to place them in satisfactory condition. It was not the condition of the filter beds that caused the excitement but the cost of the repairs, the amount being largely in excess of the cost of the beds in the first place. A committee has been appointed to make an investigation of the whole mat ter, and while it is generally under stood that something must be done there is no one willing to say that any such sum as the New York en- gineer reported will be expended. It is probable that this whole matter will go before the board of finance and taxation, the legislature and a city meeting, all depending on the na- ture of the report of the special com- mittee. Treasurer Chamberlain says that the city has authority to issue $1OO,0 900 more in sewer bonds under legislative act, and when the char ter was revised two years ago pro- vision was made by which the city can issue another hundred thousand dollars in sewer bonds without the for mality of again going to the legisla- ture, so unless the repairs at the sewer beds are unexpectedly high the city has the power to go ahead and raise the necessary money. The sum of a thousand dollars has been aI- lowed the special committee for ex- penses and contrary to what might have been expected the money is to be taken from the incidental fund. The work to be done is for the sewer department and the expense of look ing up the matter of repairing the sewer beds should be taken from the funds in that department. The in- cidental fund was never intended to supply money for such a purpose and is not able to stand the demands that are being made upon it. This mat ter seems to have been understood at the council meeting for the reason that it was said that if the funds dwindled too low that the department could be replenished after February of next year through the instrumentality of transfers, though there Is no assur- ance that 1t will last that long. When the estimates were being made up last spring an extra sum was allowed the incidental fund above what 1t was thought would be actually needed, but thousand dollars is a great deal to take at once. It is difficult to un- derstand just why the council did this when 1t could just as we'll have taken the money from the department which should bear the expense. There is no desire to restrict the committee because it's work is of the greatest importance and needs to be thorough. 1t may be that the expense of work already performed may have to come out of this appropriation and there has been no report as to how much has thus far been expended or whether the work has been legally contracted for. The matter should have come before the right department in the proper way in the first place and then there would not have been any question about it.
 The dispute over the ice question has produced some unhappy results, the committee taking exception to re- marks by the mayor and some resent ing his interference and saying that he is exceeding his authority. Of course, the mayor is not member of the committee and has no more au- thorfty to dismiss any of its m members than if he were only plain George Quigley. The charter gives him cer- tain powers, but beyond that he is member of the common council, sub- ject to its rules the same as any ono else. He has no power to appoint a committee for any purpose unless he is so authorized by vote of the coun- cil and he cannot remove a member of a committee unless the council em- powers him to do so, so that the dis pute between him and the ice com mittee is not as serious as might be supposed and there isn't the slightest danger of any one losing his position. Mayor Quigley would be derelict in his duty, however, if he did not in- terest himself in the work of the city in general and the ice committee in particular, because the latter repre- sents the city in a new branch of busi- ness and If it is not working out to satisfaction then he may reasonably make inquiries as to the weak spots, If there are any. It is very evident that the returns are not what were expected, and how the undertaking can be made to pay Is a problem that interests the entire community. It was figured out in the beginning that the present plan would not be a good one, but those who thought differently had the votes and it was the votes that counted. The season Is now all most half over and according to the estimate of the amount of ice har- vested the city's supply must be get ting low if the sales have been any way heavy, so that there isn't much use of adopting any new plans con- corning the method of sale. The mu- nicipality has been in competition with the private dealers ever since the first pound of ice was sold and it would seem as if it were a bit late to purchase teams for delivery pur- poses, because if the city proposes to do that 1t should deliver ice to every house and it hasn't sufficient ice to do that for any great length of time.