New Britain herald., 1917-01-04
PlainVille News PAY AS YOU GO' IS
 DIRECTORS' SLOGAN
Business Men Talk Over Taxes
 And Many Other Things
NORTON QUITS AS CHIEF
Head of Fire Department Discour- aged With '"The Way Things Are ened.

ened.
 Although taking no definite action 1 that would place the organization on record as being in favor of increasing | the tax rate, the directors of the Business an Improvement association at their January meeting last evening gave their unqualified endorsement to the plan of having the town stick to the pay-as-you-go system and ex-
 pressed themselves as being in favor of adopting a rate at the meeting next Monday night which will produce sufficient revenue from the grand list to correspond with the total of the ex- penses for the fiscal year as estimated in the budget prepared by the select men, copies of which have been sent out to the voters. The directors are strongly opposed to the idea of mourning debts for future generations to pay and in the interesting discussion at last nights meeting they pointed out that were 1t not for the fact that Plainville citizens in the past have been handing down debt to posterity, a. rate of tWeIve mills would be sufficient to cover the expenses and by working on fifteen mill basis, the town would easily be able to build sewer and provide the school accomm odatfons required with property owners.
 The whole sense of the meeting was that if it is necessary to raise the rate a quarter Or even one-half a mill to meet the requirements of the budget the town should vote the raise. Should the estimates be found to be high the additional money will neither rust nor decay and will be available for use next year, when 1t will enable the vo- | ters to reduce the rate without firt- l ing with extra debt. The tax question was discussed at length. The direc- 1 tors admitted that they are not anx- 1 ious to pay any more taxes than are necessary but they did feel that the expenses as estimated by the select men should form the basis on which the voters should work when they meet to consider the adoption or rate for this year.
 Many other important matters came before the session. The "boosting' or publicity committee reported that an effort will be made to increase the membership and to get the people or the town to understand that the as- sociation is fundamentally an 1m- provement society but Is connected with the state and national Business Mems association that it may der1Ve benefits which attends such afhl1atlon. It stands ready to receive the com plaints or suggestions or any resloent | regarding town improvements and IS willing to work to remedy any trouble 1 that is within its province to leg1ti- mate1y consider.
 S. s. Gwillim reported for the side 1 walk committee that measurements have been taken around town which l enables the members to give cons1d- erable information to property own | CTS considering the building of side l walks The committee is working to get the townspeople to take advan- 1 tage of the towns offer to pay twen- 1 ty-fve per cent. of the expense of the 1 improvement and it's investigation has 1 had results that will make it easy for l property owners to figure the expense 1 of the improvement.
 l John L. Alquist was appointed chair 1 man of the membership committee to l succeed George R. Hebdeh, whose re- l moyal from town made his resigna- ! ton necessary.
 1 Numerous communications were re-
 ferred to the proper committees, the | utilities body getting most of them. 1 Chairman c. IF, Newton's report
 i showed that this committees desk is l without a single pigeon hole" and l every matter assigned to it for con-
 sideration is receiving 2, full and com-
 l plete investigation. The committee
 l has a number of matters in the works
 1 but they have not developed sufficient
 ly to permit of public announcement. l Its chairman emphasized the point
 1 that complaints from anyone regard
 | two nfoS the electric
 l light company or, other public utilities 1 will be welcomed from all individuals 1 and an attempt will be made to see
 1 that the troubles referred to are rem- l edied
 | The committee believes that acting
 l as an organized body it can accom-
 l plish more than m individual and
 with the cooperation of the towns
 l people the members think many desir-
 ! able Improvements in service can be l obtained.
 The directors took up the sugges
 l ton that retail merchants associa-
 1 ton should be organized to work
 l through the organization and it is ex- 1 pected that in the near future
 committee will be appointed to attend
 l to the matter.
 1 After fourteen years of service,
 1 Minton A. Norton last evening at a
 l banquet given to members of the Hose | company in the Hotel Clarendon an
 nounced that he had forwarded to the
 l fire commissioners his resignation as
 l chief of the fire department and
 l would sever his connection with the
 ! organization. Chief Norton's an
 l nouncement came upon the gathering
 l like a bolt out of the blue and it was
 1 received with amazement and sincere l h,- cJ1hO r6 The chief l expla ined that he decided to quit af