Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-01-04


high cost of living, increased the
salaries of all city employees and
some of them twice, with the ex-
ception of the mayor and commits
sioners, who got no advance in sal
ary
Notwithstanding the increased
cost of labor and material we have
continued to make public improve
ments, miles Of street paving, miles
and miles of sidewalks, water mains
and sewers extended everywhere,
grading down and filling low
streets and alleys in all sections
of the city. We have built a new
and up-to-date brick city barn, two
new hose houses, with two addi-
tional motorized fire fighting ma
chimes. We have established and
maintained a pest house in the west
end of the city, fully equipped to
take care of patients, also a tuber-
culosis sanitarium has been built
and equipped, and is in general use,
with a trained and competent corps
of nurses, in charge of a board of
competent physicians at its head.
We have also a garbage disposal
plant continually in operation, and
we have paid for all these improve
ments as we went along.
Things Not Done.
I will admit there are some
things we did not do which we
ought to have done, providing we
had had the money, which we did
of thncn TNr EnStnr'a
bathing beach. L agree with the
doctor we ought to keep clean. An
other of these projects was John
Murrin's water works park, just
north of the water works, which
our hearts have been set on for
years. If Uncle Sam had only given
US the harbor line which we asked
for two years ago, we would care
for only short stretch, say three
or four hundred feet from the via
duct west, along the water front,
we would have built concrete wall
high enough to be beyond high wa
ter mark with parapet wall four
feet higher, and then filled in be-
hind with dirt, with walks, seats,
trees and flowers, a regular beauty
spot to please the view of our
neighbors with aesthetic tastes,
coming from Davenport or the ar
senal, and we would have started
it if Uncle Sam had given US a
small piece of the harbor line, even
though John, who is commissioner
of water works, was inclined to be
close and stingy, and we would have
shaken a few dollars out of his
water works revenue to start it.
After that it would go anyhow.
There were two other projects
we started and fell down on, and
did not complete, for the lack of
funds. That is the east and west
end storm drain, both necessary
and essential, both of which ought
to have been started 10 years ago
and perhaps completed now, one
in the east on Division street be-
tween the two cities, built jointly,
each city paying half the expense.
The one on the east end is a large
tile sewer, large enough to drain
it's natural water shed, starting at
the slough, running south to the
south side of the railroad tracks,
where we stopped for lack of funds,
more than half way and the worst
part of it is done to go now to
Ninth avenue. Both cities have paid
as far as they went. They, like
ourselves, are hard up.
Other a Big Project.
The other one in the west end
is a vast improvement, a drain
seven by ten. AS it is now, both
ends are in the air, although we
fought our way through under the
railroad tracks. which they built at
their own expense, and there it
stands, thing on which the future
welfare and growth of the city de-
ponds. All we did on both these
projects was paid out of the gener-
al fund.
Since our first annexation, which
was done by the vote of the people,
we have continued to annex at no
expense to us, taking a bite at a
time. This is done by ordinance
and is legal One lot or any num-
Der of lot owners, by petition, pro-
viding they are contiguous to the
city, can be annexed. if they are
unanimous. Some of these bites
included 20 or 80 lots or tracts
and sometimes only one lot. We
have never yet refused any one who
knocked at our door, no matter how
poor or insignificant the tract is.
Just a word about our water
works plant. which for the purity
of it's water is unexcelled in the
state of Illinois, and by the install
Iation of meters we have reduced
our pumpage until it is little in ex-
cess of what it was a quarter of
century ago, while the revenue is
more than three times as much as
it was then. Notwithstanding we
are furnishing a lot of free water,
that is extending the water mains,
then assessing the abutting prop
erty, which is related back in free
water until the assessment is paid.
This city gets good revenue as it
is now, while carrying these as
sessments, which eventually will
be taken and paid. then the city
will have a gold mine in it's water
works plant.
I don't want you to accept this as
a political bid, for it is not. have
never consulted the wishes of any
Of the commis and don't
know if any of them will be candi-
dates for reelection or not. This
[ will say, no matter what our
shortcomings and mistakes may
have been, with perhaps one excep-
lion, myself, the commissioners as
4 whole are strictly honest. Not
one of them ever got a dishonest
1ollar.
WILLIAM McCONOCHIE.