The Cordele dispatch. (Cordele, Ga.) 19??-1971, 1916-07-16
GAS PLANT NEXT.


time a real municipal enterprise, a
public service propositions gas
plantl Now, this is excellent, but we
are engaged in settling the question
asto whether we are 70 have NUM-
cipal light and power plant. Would ii
be impoiiie for US to suggest that? The
city of Cordele has NO much at stake
in this public service property that nc
time should be lost in anything but
serious study of this question as tC
whether we cannot turn the profits in
20 the public treasury.
We arc not so vitality interested in
The mater of having bonds. 1t is the
electric light and power plant we need
| because there is a handsome profit &C
cruing from its operation. This util-
| ity belongs to the public and the profits
should be made to help run the munich
pal government and The schools.
Since it is ours, we are more enti-
| tied TO the profits to be had from oper-
ating in here than are the share hold
ers Of the J.GWhite company in New
York This New York corporation is
drawing nearly five thousand dollars
year from the tax payers for street
lights alone in Cordele. And with all
that we have but a poor mans street
lighting We are entitled to white
way and three or four times as many
arc lights in our streets as we now
have. We don't get them because we
cannot afford to tax ourselves to pay
for them. Our town now has less than
half the street lights that other cities
our. size have.
Our investigation of the matter has
already revealed that other cities own
ing their electric plants not only fur
nish their street lights and white way
free, but they turn into their city
.reasurles anywhere from $4,000 to
$4,000 annually in profits, most Of
them on lower rates than are charged
in Cordele. Albany tells us that she
has just finished one OF the most mod
ern and up-to-date city auditoriums
in Georgia and that city is paying for
it with around $4,000 a year profits
from the electric lighting and power
plant. Albany can have such munich
pal Improvement because Albany has
something with which to pay for them
CordeIe need not burden her tax
payers with heavier rates. That could
not be done under the law. The sure
and plausible way is to make the light
plant pay for itself out of the profits
We are not too poor for it. We have
bonding margin of 100000, and but
for a charter restriction to $4,000 at
time, we could issue more than
enough to pay for our lighting plant,
The bonds are not the question.
Cordeie can pay for its own electric
light and power plant at a rate of
seven cents per killowatt hour and give
the stree lights and white way free.
Now we pay eleven cents and tax our
proprty owners for our small street
lights and have no white way.
This paper is not trying to cline up
with any faction or political following
in Cordale 1t is not getting paid for
it's efforts to show the plain facts to
the peOale at interest. 1t has nothing
at heart but to better the conditions
for the citizens. If it could see anoth-
err course a better one, it would not
hesitate TO follow that course. The in
terests of Cordele are its interests, for
as the community grows it must be,
come stronger.
With an issue of $4,000 in bonds
Cordele can own and operate its own
electric light and power plant and
that plant can be operated in connec
ton with the water system at a tire
mendous saving to the tax payer. The
citizen will make a great mistake fol
himself and his community if he de
lays the opportunity. To permit the
private corporation to retain its hold
on this public utility will only serve
to strengthen that grasp and a later eff
fort to take it over will be more diff
ficult undertaking,
$50 .,,-o ~I,D for tiD1e