The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-04-05
ACHIEVEMENTS
OF CITY BOARD
ARE RECOGNIZED
Efficient Service of Present
Board Of Works is Pointed
Out in City.
BY ROSCOE FLEMING.

In reply to criticism Of the present
city administration made by members
OF council who are trying to GUST the
board Of works and substitute another.
friends OF the administration pointed
Saturday to a long series Of achieve
ments. mostly due to the efficiency.
business ability and foresight of the
board
No more money was raised by taxes
for the present board than had been
raised the year before, and the city's
income was about $4,000 less because
OF the closing of the saloons.
War prices affected the city pocket
book just as it affected that Of the
private consumer. Every article used
by the city went up in price. In some
per cent. City employees had to be
paid more that they might meet their
own living problems.
Has Saved for City.
Yet in spite Of this situation, the
board has been able to carry on the
work Of the city without borrowing
money and without decreasing the ef
ficiency Of any city department. This
has been possible only because the
board Of works has worked. and ha 8
planned and saved as theoretically for
the city as they would have for their
own business.
Critics have spent much sarcastic
effort on the two sessions of two or
three hours week which the board
holds in public, but they do not know
OF the long private informal sessions
at night, sometimes several times a
week, held by the board when they
threshed out city problems and stuck
with them sometimes until two
o'clock in the morning.
Here are few of the things which
the board Of works has done:
Water bills have been reduced
$500 a year. $500 a month. by in
vestigation Of the sewer system. This
alone Is enough to pay the combined
present salaries of the board
Repair Department Created
Twenty-eight hundred dollars year
has been saved to the city by better
service in the collection Of garbage
another item almost equal to the
boards salaries. And in the future,
as the result of an exhaustive series
Of experiments carried on in the col
lection Of garbage by the city engineer
with a truck loaned the city without
cost by the president, Norton John
son, still greater saving is probable.
Complete inventories have been
taken Of all city property. tabulation
has been made, and the city can now
lay it's hands on any of its own prop.
erty ut minutes notice, something
never possible before.
A repair department has been ere
ated, where city employees on straight
wages, who heretofore loafed at city
expense in rainy or cold weather, can
do repair work to buildings or machin-
cry.
Won City Gases
Store rooms have been established
for purchase Of property, and depart
ments which have been in the habit
of purchasing materials indiscrim-
inately and where needed, now have
to buy through one source and one
requisition.
Machinery has been put under cover
and painted. and copper and other
valuable materials found lying around
the light plant, easy prey for anyone
who wished to carry them away. are
now stored away and properly cared
for.
The present administration has not
lost a case for the city with the public
service commission, and has sue
ceeded in stopping several advances
which were asked by public utilities.