The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1921-10-07
WILL OLD MAN MACK SAWYER ENJOIN
THE PRESENT BOARD OF ALDERMEN?
Wouldn't Let Old Board Give the People Sewer
age, But His Own Gang Can Give Sewerage
Co. Double Rates and That's All Right

Old Man Mack Sawyer, po1iti-
cal busy-body extraordinary in
Elizabeth City for more than a
quarter of a century has an op-
portunity to get out another in
junction against a Board of AL
dermen. Only a few months ago
Mr.. Sawyer secured a court or
der restraining a Board of Alder
men of Elizabeth City from pur-
chasing the Elizabeth City Sew
erage Co. He was opposed to
the city making any deal at that
time. Now a new Board of Al
dermen in Elizabeth City has
given the privately owned Sew
erage- Co.. permission to double
its sewerage rates, charging
$500 per quarter for service
heretofore rendered for $1.5O.
Will Mr.. Sawyer get out an in
junction to save the dear people
from this situation?
The answer to the foregoing question
is positively, No. The Board of Alder
men that Old Man Mack enjoined last
June was another Board of Aldermen,
composed of men who were not afiIiat-
ed with the Sawyer Clan. TIE present
Board of Aldermen is of another com
pleXion, being composed of a majority
of Sawyer men, including the benign
Uncle Pat Williams who prays over a
situation at night and talks it over with
Mack in the morning.
Elizabeth City occupies an unique and
embarrassing position among the prog
ressive towns and cities of this and 9TH
er states, in that it belongs to a priy-
ately owned sewerage company. In
stead of putting in it's own sewerage
years ago when Mack Sawyer, Ed. Ayd-
lett and Tully Wilson were running the
town without opposition from a newspa-
per like THE INDEPENDENT, Eliza
beth City let a private company have its
sewerage franchise. The Sewerage Co.
picked out a few choice business and
residential streets for its service and let
the rest of the town go hang. The city
has had only a partial sewerage service
ever since and all efforts to make the
Sewerage Co. extend its mains have
failed.
For several years past the Sewerage
Co. has insisted that it is losing money
and has threatened to shut off its SER
vice on several occasions. Each time it
has been persuaded to give the Alder
men a little more time The Sewerage
Company's latest threat was effective
Oct. 1, 1921. But philanthropic Board
of Aldermen comes forward at the last
moment and tells the Sewerage Co. to
double its rates to it's patrons during
the months of October, November and
December. If the Sewerage Co. isn't
satisfied after that, the Aldermen prob
ably will give them something else in
January.
The Sewerage Co. claims that its re-
ceipts in 1920 were $3,O4O.2 against an
operating cost of $4,3O5.S4, leaving a
deficit of $1,265.59. With labor and
other operating costs cheaper in 1921
than in 1920, the operation of the sew
erage in 1921 probably will be consid-
erably under $4,000. And with it's re-
ceipts doubled, guaranteeing an income
of more than $4,000, the Sewerage Co.
should manage to get along somehow.
The Aldermanic order granting an in
crease in sewerage rates, follows:
''Whereas the Elizabeth City Sewer
age Company has served notice on the
Board of Aldermen of the City of Eliz-
abeth City, that it will close down it's
sewerage plant on October 1st, 1921,
"It was upon motion decided that the
said Board Of Aldermen of Elizabeth
City offer to the said Sewerage Com
pany to permit them to increase the
rates for sewerage to $1.OO per month,
from and beginning with October LIST,
1921, for a period of three months. And
that the Board of Aldermen will pass
an ordinance, compelling all persons ad
jacent to the sewer, to put in sanitary
sewerage, if in the opinion of the City
Attorney it is legal to do So"