The Arvada enterprise., 1922-10-05
Burch Discusses
Sewer Proposition

W
On the south side of the town and
the Allen Subdivision, we have forty
five property owners, owning l2O
acres or thereabouts. These forty
five property owners would pay more
sewer tax than all the rest of the
town put together at the rate pub
lished in the last ordinance, claiming
that there were going to be so many
million feet of land assessed in Arv-
ada for the sewer purpose at a rate
OF .01172 per square foot. Not
having any way of telling whether
this amount of feet took in all or
part of my property, | am only left
tc guess at it. | will allow that it
only takes in part Of it. The same
ordinance provides for benefits de-
rived, meaning that if the rest of the
property derives benefit, it also
will be assessed. 1t seems that our
property is going to be well taken
care of either way in the line of
taxes. The former ordinance gave
the total cost of the sewer at S32,-
900. The last ordinance gave the
total cost at s63,750. Whose pipe
went out? The City Attorney ad-
vised me that the difference was due
to some addition and the cost of
material had gone up. This pipe
did not come from China. We
citizens living on these acreages
made our money in other places and
came to Arvada and spent it in good
faith. We came to Arvada because
7our acreage was the inducement.
II we wanted to live on tot, we
would not have picked Arvada.
When we bought this land at the
rate of 500 to $500 per acre, there
were no provisions put in our deed
stating that the town board was go
ing 70 put mortgage Of $507 per
acre on it for sewer purposes. Had
we been so advised, we would not
have been here to bother the rest of
the population. We have repeated
II told the Town Board that we did
not want any sewer, but our plea has
fallen on deaf ears. Our sewer sws-
tenn is entirely satisfactory to US and
open for inspection at all times. Our
town board might answer through
your columns why they ne 50 per-
ristant is giving US what we don't
want. We did not elect them to be
our guardians or expect them to
make US pull the. other fellows
ckcstnut's out of the fire. have
been criticized for stating that I
would bring n suit Of injunction
against the town board if they used
our water bonds for sewer purposes.
They accused me of going off half
cooked. The board did not use these
water bonds and am wondering
who it was that went off half cock
cd. or in other words, If I go out
side the law, they have a room with
bars around it to put me in. I can't
sec where the town board has got
any more right to go outside the
law and use our water bonds for
sewer purposes than I have to go
outside the law for any purpose.
We South side and Allen Sub
division citizens want .Arvada to
have q sewer. Go riyht ahead and
build you a sewer, but cut US off
your list. We don't need a sewer.
II your sanitary condition Is bad,
let the State Board Of Health know
snd they will order you to remedy
Il. Our town board and community
club has q great pipe dream about
our wonderful growth In the future.
II We grow ~ fast in the future -
We have In the past ten years. We
will have about $50 more houses IN
. hundred years from now. OF
course We know all Of our town
board il In business and their busi-
ness will also grow. but show me
whore the individual will be bene-
fitted by these great Rrowths. A
man Of brains will not seek our city
TO live IN. Whyf Because We are
too much. Our taxes are
too high. The working man IL not
coming TO our city to live. Why?
The streetcar fare will rob him.
Who 10 coming 70 build our town
with about 5000. 900 bonded indsbt-
sdnsss and with still more TO cemsi
One Of our local physieians made
. statement that he had found one
dyphthsria case b town and was
quite ssre that Il WAS due 70 our
poor sewer system. The City. Of
Denver has over eight hundred