Arizona republican., 1918-05-07
DRAINAGE ISSUE
 IS ACTED UPON ! IBYWATERBOARD

! Finishing up the work of the year, lIe old board of governors Of the Wat ar Users met yesterday morning. The meeting marked the farewell appear ince of President John Orme and reso- lutions in appreciation of his long and faithful service were read and ordered To be spread on the minutes.
 At 10 o'clock the new council met and reelected the former chairman, A. $. Reed. Frank R. Stewart was llso nominated, the vote being 10 to 9. The council also elected c. Winfield Hartranft as clerk and provided that .hc assistant secretary of the associa- jon should also be assistant. and, therefore. the acting clerk of that body. The council, in response to rec concentrations of the board of gover- uors increased the salaries of some of he officers and also increased the sal try of the president by $500.
 At 1 o'clock the new board of gov Tnors met with the new president, r. M. Wilkinson, in the chair. The presi- lent announced the following commit Ices for the year: Construction, II. J. Hanson, Edward Pattee and l.. Lassen; auditing, George w. Brown, Lin E. Qrme and w. J. Clemans; printing, w l. Clemans, E. Johnson and l.. Dassen; bank deposits, F. J. Bennitt, Fred C. Weekcs and r. W. Avery.
 Charles Van Der Neer was re- appointed secretary by the board at a salary of S2,40O per year, and John L. Gust, legal advisor at a salary of 5000. sylvan Gang was the appoint ed treasurer to succeed John H. Wilson who has moved from the valley; Miss Frances Craighead, assistant secretary at $1,500, and w. R. Elliott, general Superintendent. at sG000 a year. The hoard confirmed the increase of the presidents salary, making it s2,500 in place of $2,OOO.
 Consider Drainage Issue
 A joint meeting of the board of gov ernors and the council was then held at which the principal discussion was on the drainage question. The lega advisor gave the opinion that tho board of governors is authorized tC make investigations along the lines o1 what is needed to be done to remedy conditions with the provision that be. fore any plan or action is decided upor or any large expenditure is made amendments to the charter will have t be adopted with the provision to en' gage in work of this kind which is no now provided. An action was present cd that it was the intention of tn, board of governors to do all that wa, necessary to handle the situation. Tn, action was adopted.
 Tine proposed legislation, which thu Dailymen's association is trying to ge through and which was submitted ffsf1 s,s.r l., County Agent Barr, was indorsed.
 Tho annual report was as follows:
 The outstanding feature of the worl of the Salt River Valley Water Users association during the past year wa. the taking over of the operation ant maintenance of the project StartinJ the year with the negotiations goini on with the secretary of the interior agreement was reached as to the term of a contract which was ratified by tn shareholders of the association by al overwhelming vote of approval at special election in August This wa followed by the execution of the con tract on the part of the government i time tO have the transfer of manage ment take place on November l, 1917
 To meet the new conditions, Whic had been anticipated in the admirabl plan of organization adopted when tn association was formed, the board O governors established the office of gen eral superintendent as they were em powered to do, for the engineering an field work, with the president as tn thief executive officer Such part O the working force of the reclamation service as deemed necessary to carr on the work was retained with subse lueHt changes in the personnel due t resignations and the army draft. Lik all other organizations. the associatio has been hit in all departments by tn loss of those who have volunteered o been called to war activities and in tn first six months of operating tn project has seen twelve march ava to the colors. Others are to go later.
 Water-right applications under tn project opening notice of January 1; 1917. were just beginning to be mad when the association year commence but the large majority of the total C approximately 3l00 were complete during the year. Each one had to | checked and certified by associatio officials before final acceptance an the same thing is true of the sever; hundred scattering applications mad since the reclamation service left tt project, or still to be completed t round out the eligible area of th project.
 During the Year the board of govei nors have held twenty-four meeting besides committee meetings and ir spections. The custom has been es abolished of a regular mid-mont meeting besides the regular month meeting.
 In addition the board has met join ly with the council four times and Il council has held eight separate mee ings.
 There were contained this year tho register for the annual electic 3,56l individual voters with a votir acreage of 165,053 when restricted q, cording to the bylaws to lands eligib for permanent water rights. With contest at the head of the ticket, Il vote at he election totaled 7T,319, ti largest ever cast in the history of u association.
 Starting the year with a balance ( hand of $92,611.34, there has been r, eeived from all sources, $5S5,SS2.S There has been paid out $435,957.7 2 .eaving Q balance on hand of $242 5S6.47 deposited as usual at interest Phoenix, Mesa and Glendale banks.
 Besides the routine work there al