WATER MEETING, AND COUNTY SUPERVISORS CHARGED WITH EXTRAVAGANCE.

The Cortland News, Friday, December 10, 1886.

$250,000.

How long! O, How Long!

   Last week we had something to say in regard to the Board of Supervisors of Cortland county. We charged them of being extravagant with the people's money. We take it all back. An incident that came to our notice on Tuesday has shown us the folly of our way. The Board of Supervisors for 1886 are economical—very.

   A certain stationer of our town had an item in his county bill of 25 cents for mucilage. Our Board mercilessly and ruthlessly cut him down to ten cents. That's economy.

   The Board has been in session this year five weeks—over a week longer than any previous one. They have transacted the business of the county in the same time that three ordinary men could have gone through with in four days; they have each drawn three dollars a day while so in session—that's money.

   Despite the earnest endeavors of certain members of their body to do away with the annual junketing tour to the Alms House, the majority have ruled and they again made their visit at an expense to the taxpayers of at least $100, in order to satisfy the cravings of their stomachs—that's pleasure.

   Notwithstanding the labors of the Supervisors from Cortlandville, Homer and one or two others, the majority have been successful in raising the assessment in this town nearly $250,000, and are chuckling in their boots to think how they have taken the tax from their own towns and saddled it onto this one. They call it shrewdness. The people at large look on it as a little better than theft.—that's honesty.

   Will the people at large stand this sort of thing much longer? Will not the time soon come when the people will rise up in their might and elect men for this office who care more for their reputations among the citizens than they do for drawing three dollars a day at the county expense for doing next to nothing? When they do that thing, they will be looking to their own interests. That's business.

WATER MEETING.

   The adjourned water meeting was called to order by Hon. W. D. Tisdale at a little after 7:30 last Saturday evening. F. C. Straat was chosen secretary.

   A proposition was made from Cortland Water Works company as follows:

   The water company will furnish the hydrants now in use at $50 per hydrant for the first 40 hydrants and $40 per hydrant for the remaining nine hydrants, or The Cortland Water Works company will extend their works, putting in five miles more of mains so as to cover every portion of the village and increase the number of hydrants to 120 for which an annual rental of $4,000 will be charged, or $33.33 per hydrant, provided in either case a contract for five years is entered into.

   The majority report of the committee of twenty-five was submitted to the meeting, but no action taken on it.

   A minority report was also submitted and was, after debate, adopted.

   It provides:

   FIRST—That the Board of Trustees resolve themselves into a board of water commissioners.

   SECOND—That such board of water commissioners take steps to ascertain if the waters from the Otter Creek springs are polluted or are likely to become so from the close proximity of the Cortland Rural Cemetery.

   THIRD—That immediately after ascertaining such facts the board cause to make by suitable persons plans and specifications for the construction of a public water system but in no case to enter into a scheme to buy the present plant from the Cortland Water Works company.

   FOURTH—That the board as such water commissioners present the question whether the village will raise by tax or bonding, a sufficient amount to construct such system.

   FIFTH—That the board annul or rescind the franchise of the Cortland Water Works company and prohibit them from opening the streets for the laying of mains and service pipes.

   An enlarged map of the village was shown and explained by Mr. Stevenson [general manager of Water Works Co.--CC editor]. In it was a plot of nine acres of land which Mr. Stevenson explained covered the Otter Creek Springs and which might be laid out into a beautiful park in which our citizens might be allowed to ramble. He failed to explain how much this proposed park would cost the taxpayers or whether he intended doing the work at his own expense. Mr. Stevenson also had considerable to say about the present system. That it would be impossible to throw eight "consecutive" streams from the smallest mains. What was meant by that word "consecutive" the majority of the people failed to understand.

   Hugh Duffey opposed the passage of the minority report, and made in reality the only conservative, reasoning speech of the evening.

   The meeting adjourned to meet again next Monday evening.

CORTLAND AND VICINITY.

   The [signal] ball is up at the trout ponds and good skating is being indulged in by a few. Messrs. Robinson & Allport are making a fine rink of it this winter.

   Messrs. Hyatt & Smith, dentists, in the Wallace Building, have dissolved partnership. Mr. Smith will continue the business.

   At the rate of increase in the taxation of Cortlandville [Cortland was a village in the town—CC editor] which the Board of Supervisors have saddled upon us this year, how long before the out towns will own the whole earth?

   Winter with all its discomforts is upon us. Toothache with all its prevalent miseries is one. White & Ingalls extract teeth without pain by the use of Nitrous Oxide gas.

   A pleasant little surprise party was given Miss Laura Gillette at the house of her parents on Charles street last Friday evening. Quite a number were present and the evening passed very pleasantly.

   Would it not be pertinent to inquire who is to pay the $250 for which the Rochester experts have sent in a bill to the corporation for making estimates of the cost of the Cortland Water Works plant? If the trustees are to pay it, what fund do they draw upon?

   One of the beauties and charms of an editor's life is in his deadheading it on all occasions. No one who has never tasted of the sweets of that bliss can begin to take in its glory and its happiness. He does $100 worth of advertising for a railroad, gets a "pass" for a year, rides $25 worth; and then he is looked upon as a deadhead or a half-blown dead beat. He “puffs” a concert troupe $10 worth and gets $1 in complimentaries," and is thus passed "free." If the hall is crowded he is begrudged the room he occupies, for if his complimentaries were paying tickets the troupe would be so much [more] in pocket. He blows and puffs a church festival free to any desired extent, and does the poster printing at half rates, and rarely gets a "thank you' for it. It goes in as part of his duty as an editor. He does more work gratuitously for the town and community than all the rest of the population put together, and gets cursed for it all, while in many instances a man who donates a few dollars for the Fourth of July, base ball club or church is gratefully remembered. Oh, it is a sweet thing to be an editor. He passes "free," you knows.