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? LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL •51 a lr% "V- 1 081 Mi ?? t "Wm * «*i HhHHHI - if ?I Silif J i!8#ltp iir ail* Bf m * m +~, FIRST HEARING — Robert A. Allen, lower right, is shown as he opened his first hearing as chairman of the public service commission. Above are shown a group of Union Pacific offi- 1 cials who are here for the hear­ing in which the Las Vegas Land and Water company is asking for an increase in rates. Show* in back row, left to right,®re R. A. Blonde, Paul HarrisMi, Jeff McColl, Review- Jouma&eporter, Mel Anderson and Wn«am Reinhardt, Union Pacific vice president. Seated are C. M. Bates, F. A. Hub­bard, William McCafferty and U. G. Parkinson, all UP offi- i cials. 1 Hi tor SC Hearing On faiet Rale i The first session of a two day hearing 'Ofbthe Nevada public service commission into.the pro­posed water rate increase of the Las Vegas Land and Water com­pany was held this morning m i the council chambers of the city I hall, with, representatives of the j Union Pacific railroad, the water i company and the .city of Las Vegas present. . At the start of the meeting board - Chairman Robert A-' Allen stated that he would con- j sider only the issue of the pro- I posed rate increase and con- I tinue for later action the city’s | complaint of improper water I service duringil the summer months. II ' City Attorney Howard Cannon, | who with his assistant, Ralston I Hawkins, is' representing Las 1 Vegas, contradicted the chair- i man’s statement and said that | the two issues can only be con­sidered together since the water company would be undeserving of a rate increase if its opera- j tions Were insufficent to warrant l the hike. - 8000 Edward Renwick, conducting the hearing on behalf of the wa­ter company and assistant gen- eral solicitor of the Union Pacif­ic, called Roy A. Wehe, consulting engineer hired by the water j company, to testify. , Two reports on the results of operation years 1950 and 1951 of the Las Vegas Land V and Water company Las Vegas water utility were introduced j as exhibits. '< ,, The reports state, briefly, that ! “the proposed water rates de­veloped will yield an increase of I approximately $90,000 of gross revenue for the year or an over- j all' increase of 42.5 per cent—the i average increase to a residential 1 customer of average size will i run to about $2 to $2.70 per ! month.” iff 1 ,. '. In one of She reports it is I estimated thallcapital improve- i ments for 19'51H>f the water com- I pany will totST nearly $230,000 | and include reinforcement of j water mains to increase capacity : and better pressure and installa- ' tion of pipe lines in sub-divisions.