The Little River News

CITY FACES REAL CRISIS
AS TO WATER AND LIGHTS

Citizens Held Mass Meeting Tuesday Morning and Will Meet Again at 4 p.m.

Since last Friday when the plant of the Commonwealth Public Service Co., which furnishes the lights and does the pumping for the municipal water plant, had a series of breakdowns the citizens have more than realized that a real crisis was being faced. At intervals the force at the light plant has gotten an engine going only to have it go down again. To keep a reserve of water for emergencies the water has had to be cut off a great deal of the time. It is doubtful if there is enough private wells in the town to furnish the population with water. There has been no water to flush the sewage systems. Probably the most serious situation prevails at the public school building where some 500 children are congregated without water for drinking or taking care of the sewage.

Tuesday morning the water department was busy running a power line from the city water plant to the oil mill's lighting system to get power for pumping water. A tractor was put in operation at the water plant to pump water until the oil mill line could be built and some water was turned into the mains at 11 o'clock.

Every engine at the light plant has been out of commission. The big engine burned out its bearings, one of the small engines has been out for a long time and the other small engine continues to go down under the strain of the whole load, and each time the juice begins to come over the lines has so far only proven temporary.

Tuesday morning at 10 o'clock the citizens held a mass meeting in the Goldsmith building and took the situation up. After much discussion it was decided that more information was needed as to our legal status before the town could know what it could do for relief. A committee of all the attorneys in the town was appointed including C. A. Bishop and Lon T. Jones to meet and thresh out the legal aspects of the matter with reference to what could best be done to get the needed relief. Municipal ownership was discussed along with other things. The committee was instructed to report back to a mass meeting at the same place at 4 o'clock Tuesday at which also a representative of light plant would be invited.

A resolution was adopted instructing the committee to wire our senator and other senators to favor the Gates bill abolishing the Corporation Commission, which bill has passed the house. It was the opinion of the attorneys present that the recent surrender of the company's franchise only transfers the power to deal with the light company from the city to the commission, and did not in fact empower the city to grant a franchise to any other company.