Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-09-03
TO START ALL OVER
IN FORMING PAID
FIRE DEPARTMENT
Continued from page 1.

Having secured this data the di-
rectors then Will make up their plan
for the establishment of n paid de-
partment. This plan. which will In
olude all they propose doing. will be
submitted to the City Council for tse
approval of that body With il will
be an estimate of the amount of
money needed To defray the expenses
of such purchases as may be recon-
mended. In the event the entire plan
! meets with the approval of Council.
then the latter body viii proceed to
author ize bond issue for an amount
that will. provide the necessary cash.
This is the present program and Ii
is claimed To be the only one under
which the safety directors can legally
proceed. IL liz also contended that
such plan would comply with the law
I'm all it's details and by proceeding
thus the board would be acting in
complete accord with everything
specified in the Legislative act. BY
doing this. IL was pointed out today.
the directors will be proceeding with
out danger of running counter to the
court decision against them and il is
/ further claimed that such a plan
would be in thorough accord with the
chancellor's statement i'm his recent
opinion that there is no insuperable
barrier against the safety directors
establishing paid fire department
Council VIII Have .Look In.-
But when the safety directors send
their plan TO City Council for approx
al il is known the Councilmen- propose
- a
that they do not propose 10 afIiS their
approval to anything which they may
think is unnecessary. Many of them
have made no effort to conceal their
tiisapproSal OF many of the things the
safety directors have already done
with relation 10 the fire department.
They have been free in their criti-
cism of the board. especially of the
manner i'm which the directors are
said to have expended the city's money
for equipment, supplies, engines and
even some of the fire compa nies houses
and they have recently asserted that
there will not he a repetition of this
reported lavishness when the work is
undertaken. anew.
Some Expenditures Criticised.
WIN IethtlpH III statements natte
about how the safety directors spent
money some of the Democratic Coun-
cilmen are said TO be preparing to
demand at the next meeting of the
Council that a complete report of the
boards expenditures be read. In this
connection Councilman James b. Nc
Manus, chairman of the finance com
mittee, stated this morning that he
has gone over all the boards records
and has secured for his own informa-
ton definite data on just what has
been done. lie said, however, that IL
the Council wants this data he will
not hesitate 10 give It 20 them. The
only reason he has not done so before
was because IL had not been asked
Of him and he did not volunteer the
information because he secured it for
his own guidance.
One member of the Department Of
Public Safety was asked this morning
il he had any objection TO making
public a complete list Of the DEPART
ments expenditur' and he said he
hesitated to give a decision until he
had a conference with other members
OF the department. Efforts to get i'm
to communication with the other di-
rectors Were futile. as one of them
was out Of the city and another could
not be located.
A statement current that Mayor
Harvey would exercise the authority
vested in him by law and make an
investigation OF the rumored extrava-
gance on the part of the Department
Of Public Safety in establishing the
paid fire department are said to be
unbound. Mayor Harvey. it was
learned today. would not take any
action I'm {. case which is pending be-
fore the courts.
City Solicitor Satterthwaite has for
warded to the Ahrens-Fox Company
copy of the court injunction against
the board and a cancellation OF the
contract for two OF that company's
triple pumping engines, which had
been ordered at a cost of about s25,-
600. These engines were scheduled TO
arrive in this city last Thursday, but
il is now understood they were not
shipped. Similar cancellations have
been sent out to all other concerns
which We're scheduled to make de-
liveries. Whether any Of them will
refuse to accept cancellation remains
to be determined.