The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1920-10-09

car would have amounted to consider
able. Mr.. Noble also stated that his
car had not cost the county anything
as it had been paid for by fines from
the moonshiners, and if the fines
were not used in this way, there
would not be. 1919 of them which
would be used in Stevens county.
Senator Mcmillan stated that
good way to arrive at the value of
the automobile cost to the county
would be to compare it with the cost
of travelling expenses previous to
the advent of the automobile, "be-
cause | do not think the business
has increased SO extraordinarily
since the automobile came into
fashion" The commissioners stated
in reply that the only conclusion
they would come to if the automobile
cost more would be to go back to the
horse.
One of the taxpayers suggested
that the commissioners should lock
up the county automobiles every
Saturday night SO that the county
officials would not be using county
gas on Sunday. One of the COM
missioners after trying to picture
himself going around to the various
public and private garages where
these cars are kept, stated "if you
don't have confidence enough in the
county officials to trust them to use
the cars for county business, then
take the cars away from them"
Commissioner Hunt suggested that
the cars might be marked as are the
cars belonging to the state of Wash
ington. Another suggestion was to
build a garage on the courthouse
grounds where all official cars should
be kept and the garage locked on
Saturday nights by the janitor.
Bruce Mcdonald was in favor of
reducing the number of telephones in
the courthouse and especially the long
distance calls, and believed that much
of this business could be done per-
sonally or by letter.
A. A. Hansen stated that the road
men working for the county sit or
stand around half the time they are
supposed to be working and believed
that the county is not getting 30
cents on the dollar on money paid
these men. Lew Hickman asked Mr..
Hansen why he did not kick about
it before and Mr.. Hansen stated that
he did several years ago and got a
man fired and later got into fight
with the man on the street and they
both landed in the justice court
Some of the taxpayers, although
believing that it was for the good of
the county to have a tuberculosis
nurse, felt that it was something that
could be put off at least a year as
they feel that taxes should be held
down just now as the farmers have
not had good crops for four years.
w. L. Sax suggested to those
present that they make up budget
as they thought it ought to be and
stated that they would be wonderfully
surprised how little difference there
would be in the total of their budget
and the total of the present budget.
The items of the budget were taken
up one by one and by the time the
men had finished discussing the bud
get for the assessors office, it was
found that there were so many dif-
ferent opinions among themselves
that they voted to let the budget for
the assessors office stand and later
voted that the expression of their
sentiment on the budget for the
assessors office be implied to cover
their sentiment on the whole budget.
It was also voted by. the taxpayers
present to leave to the discretion of
the board of county commissioners.
the matter of decreasing it,
County Auditor Spedden explained
that the increase in deputy salaries
in the budget for 1921 would not
amount to over $4,000 of mill.