upr000270 210

LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL P u b l i s h e s ,'j, 3 .3 1 iy to Talk Sale of’Water Firm E ve n as a city commission-ap­pointed committee took steps to lift watering restrictions here, it was- learned Saturday that the i Union Pacific railroad is willing! to ^negotiate with the Las Vegas S Valley Water district for- Sale ofi the LaS Vegas Land and Water company. Sensing the feeling of the pub­lic that the present r ordinance j regulating Use of water is inef­fective and inadequate, the spec­ial committee, Composed of two! members of the city commission i and five members from the puta» “ Somebody jumpe$rthe gun jpin declaring watfeK res trie#--nous u ro u ld be * M u y o r th is hahge the exist- PKis amended. I S®dv evidently con- I the committee’s pro- I Fosed recommendations with what can actually be done,” j Cragin commented. “ The committee, appointed I to study the situation has hot i* made its report to the board J and it will require at least ten j days to amend the ordinance | and change the present hours. “ The public should not be misled into violating the pre- ! sent anti-w a s t e ordinance which violations can only re­sult in citations to appear in ! court,” the m ayor said. lie, F rid a y decided to ask the. commission Monday to lift w a -: tering restrictions for a 15-day' try period to see whether the * public couldn’t use the available ' water wisely and not cause a! dangerous water shortage situa-j tion at the same time. A t the same time, the com-! mittee asked the city to have ?’ a representative of the public! service commission see to it that! the water company fulfills its ob-; ligation in providing . all water possible. Members of the committee are ! City'Com m issioners Bob Moore I Wendell Bunker ! P& vJbfic^j. Fird .Pii;,>v„M ;.-4/J.i IsMiller and’ O tto Underhffl* ? *nt was b a w T r a r a of the water olftttrictt 'and* the U n ­io n Pacific railroad that the lat­ter ha® indicated; it® wiMingnes® to negotiate for sate o f fee> land and water company, distributors vrt w a te ir. te the city of La® JPega®, to iter i atiq^ffi&ttnei. |fi I F urthe r information; revealed; that the 3ia®teEadi already- ha® 1 started f® m ake an imventdry of sits phiysteali properties hr vie w iof arriving;' at; a, fa ir and? equit­able sales price.' . The; railroad already ha® sett1 ;s teMatrv® piSee of $2,000,000 for jithe utility,., and the, inventory, •waiter d&trisct officials said, pro- .toabiyr w ifi shary fee value of ttte: .utility to be within a range of 10 per cent off figure.. |1 During, the w a te r committee .meeting, COmimissinrier Bunker pointed out- that solution i s the! w a te r probierm was not just tem ­p o ra ry and stated; emphatically that -if l i e water company C0uid®’t straighten the m atter out, he was in favor of having ittae c ity condemn the property: in 'view of taking over the utility'., Bunker a te stated that tide water district eauldhP posaibiy get rolling before “two? or feres j years” and some Steps should i;be taken immediately to. al- , leviate the situation. Miller,. however, reported that w ith the. utility’s announced. . in­tention of negotiating a sale; pro­gress on acquiring the water sy­ste m A o s M proceed more rapid­l y ,fean-'that because there.woai® not be the necessity o f a long condemnation suit. D uring the committee disfeus-: 1 sions, Com rm ^ioner Moofe said: “We m ight as well admit the a t e s k e isn’t working -and 1 so- w e wild have to: isfp! some! lather means.” * A E members j>f ? the commit-1 tgp agreed that it wasn’t so! much a water shortage that is currently plaguing the city but ;a lack of physical facilities, to distribute the. water. Another factor in the present water dilemma is the wastage. D uring discussions it was pointed out that the water com­pany is furnishing the city with. 17 million, gallons daily. In an inform al c o m m i s s i o n meet­ing Thursday, C ity Engineer G-J I! W. Anderson .reported that 9 m il-j lEon.. gallons were going through the disposal plant, and unless ut- .ilized by valley farmers, t h i s 'amount w ould be wasted. Committee members cited otb-er cases of water wastage by residents and emphazised t h a t if the temporary lifting, of re­strictions is to he made p e r ­m anent the public must c u r b such wastage and use the water wisely. ... W M . ft AUG 14 .... Suggestions w e re . rejected that the city be zoned in two ' halves, w ith people on one side of town watering in the morning and those on the other side in ’ the afternoons, or that persons Kving in even numbered houses water while those in odd-number­ed homes refrain from watering. Such proposals, the committee decided, were merely keeping | the restrictions alive under a different name. The utility came in for some yrourh treatment, both during the ? M N r commission meeting f w -r i a large delegation of in.- Idi'm ent water users appeared, before fee city fathers, and in fee special committee meeting. Commissioner Bunker read a lengthy statement placing most (of fee blame of fee current wat­er problem on the utility com­pany and. then later, in commit­tee meeting, exclaimed bitterly: “ Instead of public utilities, be­ing fee servants o f La s Vegas (residents, we are fee-; servants of |fee pufoMe f r T h e city official also declared I “ feat some heat should be put on" fee Imihlie _gervtce comrals- | sum to see that the utility fuM B I its obligations l o fee uub&C. ” “ P rio r to ”c o 5 S g f e r ^ e '~ c b m - mission meeting, Bunker said he | made a survey of water produc­ing areas and found feat at least five persons have sunk water w ills in the same area feaT w a t-e rTs T fcemg~&awn_'Tr_qm by fee uMtfjaaar W S B ifi |fep~ “ On that ba-sl “ there i s 1 i'There’s no w aB ^ y ^ P f g was- also pol§l|a dfifc thi. ! whffle the utility compand has .11 swells in- the. area, only three sate actually pumping.