The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1917-11-12
THE LIGHT AND WATER PLANT

The people OF Ocala are justly peeV-
ed over the bad conduct of the oil
engin@ at the city plant. Its evident
that a very large and particularly
sour lemon was handed the city when |
this engine was put in.
This however is no fault of the |
council. The fault lies between the /
engineers and the contractor.
When the council let the contract,
it acted according to law. It gave the
contract to the firm making the best
bid. When it employed engineers, it
employed the firm that had the best
recommendations. A council of other
men might have made the same mis-
take, or a worse one. And it might
not. There is nothing to go by but
the result. So far as we can see, the
critics Of the counciI-and we've
known them all for years-are no
more competent and no more honest
than the men now in Office. We beg
to remind the public of the we'll
proven fact that anybody can be a
critic, and the more eriticising man
does, the less he generally does of
other things.
The people are not generally aware
of another fact, and that is that the
plant is not fully paid for. Enough
money has been held back to have it
finished properly. The inconvenience
will be fully obviated before the work
is over.
The trouble at the plant is on three
11o vet hi fxxra
the piping was not finished. This
was because the contractor said he
Fcouldn't obtain the necessary work
men. This caused, so we are told, the
second fault-erippling the big steam
engine. Had this not occurred there
would have been little or no trouble.
Gripping this engine caused the prin-
lcipal reliance to be thrown on the oil
engine. There is no gainsaying the
fact that this engine is beast. IL
leither the contractor or the engineer
knew what sort of an animal it was,
he should be prosecuted, for they all
understood that an engine of noise
less type was to be put in, and the
council was just as much surprised as
anybody when it began its racket.
| q Mr.. A. Wirz, an engineer from the
lDe La Vergne plant, arrived here Sat
urday, and took charge of the oil en-
CINE. He says that as soon as the
steam engine can be put to work that
he can render the exhaust of the oil
engine noiseless. Some of our local
experts say it can't be. done. But the
De La ,Vergne man probably knows
what he is talking about, and at any
rate nobody should say he isn't until
he is given a trial.
In the meantime, it is only proper
to say that but for the oil engine the
city would have been in darkness
three nights out of last week.
Very few people have any idea of
| the trouble the council is having.
Some say they should shut the oil en-
CINE down and use the old plant. The
| old plant is used whenever sufficient
wood can be obtained. Some say the
city could obtain wood if it would pay
high enough price for it. Said people
don't know what they are talking
about. The city is paying the highest
market price for wood. The city has
eight cars of wood cut and contracted
for, but cant get it because the A. C.
E. cant find the cars to haul it.
Tt only takes one-fourth as much
wood to run the big steam engine at
the new plant as to run the old plant
If this engine hadn't broken down,
wood enough to run it could have been
tobtained.
The carelessness of the express
company is responsible for the mac
tivity of the engine. If the express
company hadn't lost the damaged
part, it would have been running
lagain in a few days.
1t is all very easy for people who
see the lights flicker or hear the oil
engine shoot off to damn the council.
But they probably wouldn't do any
better if they were on the council. Sew
eral of them would do worse
The Star recommends that the peo-
pie be patient until the engineer has a
chance to make the oil engine noise
less. If he fails, why then let the city
refuse to accept the engine and if
necessary go to law about it.