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Las Vegas - Jims 7# 19^8 W 2 >7 Mr. Fran* Strongs ( oo - Mr. E. E. Bennett) X enclose copy of letter from Public Service Commission, June 3# and complaint from Las Vegas Hos­pital, dated May 6, both of which are self eaqplanatory. fhis is one of the very rare complaints made to the Public Service Commission on water rates in Las Vegas, one of the reasons for the scarcity of complaints being our policy of fairness in the application of rates and endeavoring in all oases to base the rates on actual usage in the absence of meters. However, in­equalities are bound to appear occasionally under flat rate schedule because each classification is definitely stated without any leeway between the large users and the small users in the same classification of service. 2Tou will note that the Commission has sustained our position in responding to the complainant, but suggests the rate prescribed may be too high in this particular case. X do not agree that any of our water rates in Las Vegas are too high} In fact utility rates here are about the only cost of living items that have not increased tremendously in the last 15 years. However, it does appear that the total rate of I57.^5 for the Hospital is out of line when compared with rate paid by commercial laundries of 030.00 plus toilets. He have no desire to be arbitrary in the matter of the application of water rates and have always exhibited & tendency to meet the Public Service Commission more than half way, which is recognised by their spirit of cooperation and friendliness toward us. Will be glad to have you dis­cuss this with Mr. Bennett and if you concur we will submit a request to the Commission for permission to charge, say, $15*00 per month for laundries operated in conjunction with hospitals, of which there are only 2 in town. Nothing will be dons with the restaurant rats; a charge of a day for water used in connection with cooking for patients in h8 rooms is not excessive. A. M. Folger