Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1916-12-01

hands Of the council and is entirely up
to tho company, there is no reason why
the council should endorse the pro-
posed rates 30 as to give them pres
tige, he said.
A. H. Vernon said that it appeared
to him that Mr.. Bergheim and Mr..
vasaly differed as to what the instruc
tions of the council to the committee
were, to which Mr.. Schallern replied
that the instructions as he understood
them was that the committee was to
secure rate that was satisfactory to
the people. Mr.. Vernon then went on
to say that if the city council attempt
ed to establish a rate by. ordinance.
the city might be involved in an ex-
pensive lawsuit in. which the: burden
of proof would rest entlrely with the
city. He stated that there, might be
no harm in at least trying out the pro-
posed rate, but shat it should be un-
derstood that the council g action was
not binding if they thought later that
the rate should be reduced.
AS to instructions to committee Mr..
Bergheim said that an application of
the company asking an extension of
their franchise was pending at the
time of the appointment Of the COM
mittee and that the committee worked
under the understanding that it had
to report a rate that the company
would accept and that could be put
into the new franchise. GAS to this,
however, Mr.. Bergheim must be con
fused, as the committee was appointed
the first part of May and the extension
~ no1n
a meeting of the council held on July
%. nearly three months later.)
s. J. Vasaly also made few re-
the whole matter of water and light
franchise and rates should be taken
up in one proposition, pointing to the
fact that the water franchise runs but
two wears longer.
Mr.. Gordon, upon being asked as to
what action the company desired of
the council, stated that it wished to
have the council or a council COM
mittee approve the proposed rates, 80
that. if a customer should come to
them and complain that he was paving
dollar too much, thew could say that
the rate was approved by the council
or committee, whichever it might be.
A resolution, he said, woulo be suf
fcient, simply 80 unat the entire bur
den Of responsibility for the new rate
would not be laid on the company.
DR.. f. w. Kaliher spoke briefly of tF,.s
proposed rate, and said that the COM
mit+ee had at least got started on a
scientific rate, and. in view of the
fact that the council has no power in
the matter, all they cou-. do was to
accept, the committees report and ask
the company to establish the rate. He
said that he believed the elimination
of the drop feature was inpor+ant.
Alderman Fa1k moved that the COM
pany he asked to put the pronoscd rate
into effect, saving that he had spoken
to some Of the signers of the petitions
and that thew had said that they were
satisfied with the proposed rate as
long as the company has withdrawn its
application for extension of the light
franchise.
Four of the aldermen registered their
objections to this action, they being
Hall. Moeplein, Farrow and johnson.
Alderman Hall stated that he did not
believe that the council as bodv car
ed to get behind any rate before
knowing thoroughly what it was
about. especially since it has been
pointed ont that thew have absolutely
no RIGHTS in the matter. The company
has the maioritv committee back of it
on the proposed rate, and perhaps the
members of the committee know: that
the rates are fair, but the councilmen
do not know it. He moved that the
matter be referred back to the; com
mittee for further investigation but
when Mr.. Bergheim indicated that he
for one did not care to put anv more
time on it Mr.. Hall changed his mo-
tion and moved that the entire mat
ter be laid over to the next meeting.
This motion carried .and the council
adjourned #