The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-02-02
TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY
Blackfoot Considers the Water Question. Shall
City Water Works be Municipal or
Private Ownership?

interest on bonds, salaries, etc., ar,
deducted each year from the gross
receipts and it leaves a profit ranging
in the past two or three years from
two thousand to five thousand dol
lars a year net, after allowing sal
ary for the owner for his part of the
work. 1t is admitted that, some oi
the machinery is obsolete, and nc
doubt some of the pipe lines are be.
coming so on account Of the increas.
ed capacity needed.
A person may buy the best ma.
chine in the world today, and by the
time he has it installed. something
better may be on the market that
makes it in large degree obsolete
and yet it is as good as it was the
day it was made. For example, the
water company have three pumps
that were considered the best OBJ
tainable when they were installed
and they still do good work, the
three fthem lifting $4,000 gallons
of water per hour. But with the
installation of the vertical centrifu-
gal direct pump mentioned, it was
found that it lifts more water than
the other three and consumes only
about two-thirds as much power as
the other three. If one looks at the
cost of operating the several pumps
he will at once condemn the first
three to obsoletion and yet they are
mechanical achievements and perfect
in their respective principles. Every
firm in town that uses machinery
charges or ought to charge off money
every year to depreciation and OBJ
solescence, no matter whether they
use ten-ton electric transformers or
elevator and milling systems or
coffee grinders.
In fixing the price of the water
works, the owner evidently consid-
cred these matters and deducted
$4,000 on account of them, for he
offers the plant to the city at $82,-
900, instead of it's whole cost of
$108,000. The city engineer was in
structed by the council to make an
estimate of the value of the plant
and he arrived at $4,000 as the
price which he believed it could have
been put in for. Much of this in
formation was taken from an exam
ination of the company's bills, but 1t
probably does not allow for the un-
forseen expenses that arise in actual
construction and installation, nor
does it allow for the rise in costs Of
the past years. 1t Is well known to
men who build things, that anything
so familiar as a dwelling or store
building cannot be estimated so that
it can be erected at the estimated
cost. It over-runs from 20 to 40
per cent by reason of the unforeseen
things that happen that have to be
met and which cost money.
Since the water works look as If
they could be built for $4,000, TAX
ing the prices Of the respective years
in which the materials were bought,
if we add 25 per cent for the unseen
things as is generally done with
dwellings, it would raise the probable
cost to $67,500. The increase in the
cost of materials, and machinery is
likely to vary greatly. If it is print
ing machinery and printing house
it would be from 10 to
100 per cent since the opening of
the war. We conferred with Man
ager J. B Brokaw Of the Southern
Idaho Power company and he stated
that in things electrical the advances
have been about as follows:
Copper, a little over 100 per cent.
Motors and generators, 20 to rs
per cent.
Ranges and heaters about 20 per
cent.
Wiring devices about 20 to 40 per
cent.
Mr.. Brokaw states that obsoles
cence in their line is fixed at slight
ly less than 10 per cent per annum.
We conferred with l.. G. lockwood
at the Boyle Hardware company and
he stated that the advances in iron
and steel goods in the past two years
had been about 30 per cent.
Howard Henderson, secretary of
the Blackfoot FIGURING mill stated
that the advance in the cost of mill
ing machinery had kept pace with
other lines, he thought, but as they
had remodeled just before the war,
they had had no occasion to keep in
close touch with it.
Manager Alpha Berrett, of the
Gem State Lumber company stated |
hat advances in building materials |
1ad not kept pace with iron and steel
goods, but that there had been slight |
advances in lumber, brick and ce-
nent. He said with his experience
n estimating the cost of buildings,
4 he were going to build a house
or himself he would compute the
cost of ali the things he could list
Is necessary and then he would add
IS epr cent to cover the unseen
Continued on page four