The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-02-14

ger or having the work done IN care
less manner, or the best garbage taken
up and the poor left in receptacles or
scattered in the alleys. However, the
plan is not fully worked out and may
have to be modified.
Light Plant.
"The most important asset the city
has is the municipal light and power
plant. This plant is valued at consid-
erably over one million dollars, and
the problem of how best to organize
this most important utility to get the
best results has given me more con-
Germ than any other part of the city's
business. This also comes under the
supervision of the board of works. My
first resolution was to do all that
could to take this important depart
ment out of politics if humanity posi-
BILE to do so. My idea was to secure
efficient management and TO build up
such an efficient organization that the
man who is selected to succeed me at
the end of my term would not dare to
tear it down | believed that if /
played the game square and gave no
attention to political lines in building
would support such plan and no
man or set of men would dare to tam
per with the personnel of the plant
for political purposes L~caIled to our
assistance a committee composed Of
Messrs. William F. Bockhoff, Stanley
Hayes, E. H. Cureton, Walter Reid
and Frank N Watt, and | want to thus
publicly thank these men for their
unselfish assistance and the hours of
time they gave to this problem.
I'VE deliberated long and carefully
and finally determined that the best
organization that we could set up
would be to have man in charge of
| the production and another to look
after the commercial end of the work
| realized that we could not hope to
secure men competent to manage this
| work for the salaries heretofore paid
and yet in the budget made up last
September no provision had been
| made for any larger salaries than we
had attempted in the past to pay had
been made. / went to council with
| the problem, explained to them the
facts, pointed to the experience
through which the plant had passed
! the last two years, and asked them
which they preferred-cheap men and
cheap service, or men who could de.
liver the goods at larger salaries, but
whose knowledge might save us many
times the salary each year. Every
man of the council stood I'D and
pledged himself to back US as far as
it was necessary to go to get com
petent men.
FINALLY, after due deliberation, We
! have selected Mr.. l.. c. Weldon az
! production manager, who will manage
the plant and deliver the juice to the
switchboard. Mr.. Weldon has beer
in charge of the reconstruction of the
plant and those of you who viewed
the plant two years ago and who have
again looked it over recently, will,
am sure, have confidence that we have
picked out the right man for this i'm
portant duty. We have secured Dan
c. Hess, of Anderson, for commercial
manager. He comes highly recon
mended, and his training and expert
ence is such that we feel he will b,
ideal for this place. Mr.. Hess viii
have charge of the transmission line
and the commercial business. He will
i. be at your service in any problem
you may have and will welcome you
inquiries. l do not know the politica
belief of either of these men and d,
not care to know
Still Work to Do
"The work of rehahilitating tn
plant is not done by any means. 1t i
: true wonderful Improvement has beel
made. The new unit is installed an
| working. Two new boilers are rul
nishing the steam for it, but the oil
, units must be overhauled AMI put il
condition to carry the load if neces
! sary, and the old battery of boiler
t should be replaced as soon as possible
: Also there is quite large loss of cul
t rent on the lines. Some of the line
/ have been erected for twenty year
, and were not designed to serve III
: number of taps now on them. TIL
. whole system of lines have been In
J ventoried and map is being made t
: show the location and size of eac
: line, the number of taps, the Location
of transformers, street lights, an
: other matters that will be of value an
t interest in the work of rehabilitation
} "The gap in the ornamental light
!, ing system on Main Street between