New Britain herald., 1918-10-05
COMMUNICATED.
MUNICIPAL COMMISSIONERS.
Alderman Curtis Voices Protest Op-
 posing Methods Of Management

The weekly contributions to your columns headed Town TOpics' are read with interest and appreciation by large number of people and con- seQUently it would seem that consid- erable care should be exercised in es- tablishing tho cor ectness of the facts therein stated before their appear ancc in print.
 The statements made in your Sat urdays issue of Sept. 2Sth regarding committees appointed by the Com mon Council for several purposes seem to me of importance enough to take notice of.
 First as to the committee or com ] mission on the cost and scarcity of rents in the city, while the mayor touched on the subject in his annual message in May the Common Coun- cil did not take any action in the ap- pertinent of committee. From the newspaper reports and state ments from individuals it has been learned that certain gentlemen were
 
 | members of a committee for such a 1 purpose but up to date it has not or 1 ganized. Under these circumstances 1 please absolve the Common Council Second, as to the committee on 1 water supply according to the reso- l luton creating it they were to investi- 1 gate the condition of the city's wa 1 ter properties, the different plans 1 and methods, proposed for increas- 1 Ing the city's storage and supply and l in doing that they were instructed to i ascertain the opinions of large tax 1 payers, water consumers and manu- 1 facturers. The manufacturing plants ! of this city, according to the water commissioners reports of meter. readings use more water than all l other consumers combined and the assessors and collectors books show 1 that they pay approximately 43 per 1 cent. of the annual tax collection. ] The committee are acting in line 1 with their instructions and believe it l will be for the city's interest to await l the advice of such prominent men in 1 business as our manufacturers who i have so much at stake in this matter l and who they are informed are in l vestigating it themselves at some out l lay and considerable time In line with this work the committee made i a partial report to the Common l Council July 5, 1918, in which they l requested a report from the water 1 commissioners at an early date as 1 possible on four propositions, two of l them already proposed by the com l mlssiOnerS and all necessary in for l mulating comprehensive recommen- dations on the subject under consid- eration. This was passed. Up to ] date the Committee has not received | even a partial report on one subject. As to the automobile trips your ] writer mentions the committee has not as a body visited the properties 1 but once and of the six or eight ma l chimes used by them only one was the 1 property of the city. Some individ- Uals of the committee have been talk en to Burlington perhaps three or
 four times and to Wolcott twice, out
 side of that the activities in the rid i ing line must apply to other parties.
 In the matter of the wood cOm- ] mittee a report of interest was made
 at the last Council meeting and it l certainly was satisfactory to that 1 body if not to your writer, and it i showed the committee were on their ] job and alive to the taxpayers inter ests as we'll as to the fuel consumers 1 prospects.
 The comfort station subject has 1 been under consideration for the past l twenty years at least and committee i has followed committee. The last action in that line taken was nearly
 a year ago when plans were presented l to the Council for waiting station i and a tentative proposition from the i TT,,D1 soy,Jx1 to1 for,
 a booth therein.
 The matter was referred to the l board of public works to secure an 1 appropriation for building it this sea- 1 son but it was cut out by the board of finance and taxation so that there l is at the present time no council l manic committee on the proposition There are or have been numerous 1 committees and boards appointed in
 the past few years by the mayor, 1 some by the councils action and 1 some otherwise which are in different
 stages of existence and form, some with life and some seemingly with
 out, which your writer could elabOr- ! ate on With interest if he desired to
 do so.
 For example a committee which
 was to largely increase the grand list
 LiOIll ul1AtcI' assessed p1 oPSLt y, pLOp-
 erty not assessed, non-assessed bank
 deposits and personal property where
 by the city was to get on Easy street
 financially. Prominent men were
 named to serve on it but no good news has arrived yet.
 Another was the food and fuel
 committee, which if in operation
 now would render the present wood
 committee unnecessary the state fuel
 commission as also the local fuel
 commission useless, and the state
 food commissioner and his able as
 sistant back numbers as far a New