The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1917-05-10
ACTS ON OWN INITIATIVE
Hearing May Result in Co. Being Or
dered to Improve or Abandon Central
Heating System in Officials
Are In the Dark as to Purpose.

Acting on its own initiative, the
Wisconsin Railroad Commission has
announced that hearing will be held
at the City Hall here ON next Friday
morning at which time the commission
will make an investigation into the
9 services and practices Of the Wis
cOnsin Gas and Electric Company. /"
Formal notice of the hearing was
served on the city officials on Friday
afternoon and it came as a great
surprise. 1t is understood that no
formal complaint is being acted on at
this investigation set by the commits
sion. The hearing is not on the COM
plant of the city against alleged dis
elimination in gas rates or for review
of the electric rates in vogue in the
city, as under a stipulation between the
officials of the company and the attor-
ney for the city this matter has been
laid over indefinitely on the. promise
of the company that existing inequali-
ties will be corrected within the
next few weeks. 1t is said that an
order for the correction of the rates
complained against, has already been
prepared by the company.
Local officials believe that the hear
ing slated for Kenosha relates to the
suficiency or the insuficiency of the
service furnished by the Wisconsin Gas
and Electric Company in supplying GER
tain buildings of the city with heat
from the central heating plant. At the
last visit of the commission to Kenosha
several complaints were made against
this service. At the time the commits
sioner in charge of the hearing an
nounced that at some future date the
commission would look into this mat
ter with a view Of securing a more
satisfactory service before the coming
of another winter season. 1t is adj
mitted that several informal com
plants, in the way Of letters from
property owners, have been fled with
the commission, but none of these COM
plaintants is named in the call for the
hearing on next Friday.
It is an open secret that the Wiscon-
sin Gas and Electric Company would
not make a fight to maintain its fran
chise for the public heating plant and
it is even suggested by officials of the
company that the company would well
come an order from the city or from
the state commission for the removal
of its heating system from the streets
of the city. 1t has been a difficult
thing for the company to meet all de-
mands on the central heating plant and
in order to reach the highest success
with this system there must be large
expenditures for the rebuilding Of it.
The elimination of the central heat
ing system would come as a great in
convenience to many property owners
in the "near in districts of the city.
Many of them have built homes and
business buildings with the under
standing that they were to be heated
from the central station and no provi-
sion was made for emergency heating
plants or for the possibility of the
company eliminating the service. The
city will have no part in the hearing on
Friday IS it is in no way named in the
formal order Of the commission. 1t
is understood that a dozen witnesses
have been summoned for the hearing
and number of them are people who
have used the "city heat"
1t is expected that at this visit of
the commission an effort will be made
to have the state officials take up the
question Of the jitney routes. Al
though this matter has been before the
commission for some time, the new
routes have not been outlined and
the fact that the routes have not been
changed has handicapped the city in
its efforts to get a better settlement