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About Forest Grove press. (Forest Grove, Or.) 1909-1914 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 28, 1912)
I FOREST GROVE PRESS, FOREST GROVE. OREGON, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1912. OVERCt ANALYSIS OF REPORT. OVERCHARGES. Please note that the plant earned $800.45 during January ?heea v ?r a ^ fir 0tnhe la s.% Y St‘'° g months vvas $72G-03 whi‘e «477 79 ; 1 S,IX mo? ths given in Veport was only fn. kimr’ n i/i,!» u ovej;cl!arffe here of $248.31 per month, hut making all due allowance for increased income during long winter PRODUCE PROFIT FOR CITY ELECTRIC PLAN T Finance Committee’s Report Last W eek Omits H alf of Expenses ie» m onthsof thL'year.0' anoverc^ar^e of at least $900.00 during and Shows Overcharges of $ 2 4 8 per Month. METERS But this is not all. Consumers are charged a high flat rate in ordei to urge them to buy an electric meter. The charge for «19 mT f t r«s?a3 iVar®d. between $14 and $H say an average of * ,; . Clty electrician states that about 200 meters have been sold. 1 his means that consumers of electricity in Forest Grove have been overcharged $3000.00 during ten months, that is $600 for light and $2100 for meters. There are still about 300 houses to receive meters which indicates an overcharge next year o f $3300.00 for meter or about $1100.00 for light used on flat rate CUSTOMERS LOSE The Customer loses either way. Note that earnings of plant fall as meters are installed. This means that overcharges for light will not defray future losses in conduct of the plant and taxes must be levied in time to meet deficits. The citizen pays at one end or the other when business methods o f this kind prevail. FUEL In conducting a steam electric generating station the item of fuel is a great burden on the plant. An engine uses a certain weight of steam to do a certain amount o f work. To evaporate a pound o f water into a pound of steam requires a certain weight of fuel The weight varies according to the quality of the fuel and its dryness. 1 heoretical and practical results vary so greatly that! REPORT UNCORRECTED only experience can show the approximate amount of fuel needed THE REPORT CORRECTED for a given case. Practical quantities always exceed theoretical quantities. Theoretically the Forest Grove plant requires 656 Period of Ten Months Only Period o f Ten Months Only cords of wood per year. Practical results in many similar plants give from 900 to 1100 cords. The report mentions 560 cords and At a Council meeting Tuesday Income Per City Report asks for an allowance for fuel on hand at the time report was com night November 19th the finance $ 5770.44 pleted, forgetting that there must have been fuel on hand at the From customers committee submitted the follow time the report began in January. Perhaps also the bill paid Nov. From earnings credit- ing report upon the receipts and 14 amounting to $536.25, has a connection with this case. 1520.17 ed from City lighing expenditures o f the light fund A NEW LAW OF MECHANICS From 100 porch lights o f the city: The city seems to have found a new law of mechanics when 25.00 at 25 cents each___ it can claim to carry its service on an expenditure for fuel 96 cords Forest Grove, Oregon. less than the theoretical amount and 340 cords less than the usual $7315.61 November 19, 1912. results in general practice. It is more probable that a bill for fuel Deduct for power To the Common Council of the was overlooked; (a bill for $536.25 for fuel was paid Nov. 14.) house l i g h t i n g City of Forest Grove, Washing Or perhaps ten months is too long for the buyer to recall that a 72.90 ton County, Oregon. chgd profit............. stock of fuel was on hand before January, when the report begins. We, the undersigned finance LABOR Total.......................... $ 7242.71 committee of said council, here Payments for work done stand high as items of expense in electrical business. The report shows $1900.00 paid during ten Expenses per our estimate by respectfully submit the fol months. This $190 per month includes $150 per month to the en lowing report of the receipts and gineer and fireman at the engine house and the $15 per month Labor two men in expenditures of the light fund power house per re paid to the city electrician for inspecting the lines or wiring of the city. This leaves $25 per month for all the other labor connected port ........................ $ 1500.00 of said city for the ten months preceeding and ending Novem with the entire city electric installation; machinery, poles, wires, Labor on unkeep of shop work, and upkeep generally. That is it costs Forest Grove jjoles, wires, e t c .... 500.00 ber 1, 1912. 83 cents per day to do the same work which everywhere else costs I t e m s o f R e c e ip t . from $2.50 to $3.75 per day. It is barely possible that again the Inspecting line by city inspector, per report 150.00 Receipts from the users of light: finance committee failed to find that some part of the sum of $410.40 paid for wages and labor done for the city in October should Fuel at 2£ cords per January....................... $ 800.45 be applied to the lighting expense. If we add. similar proportions day at $3.25 cord 2437.50 February ., 737.08 for the remaining months of the report labor rises considerably. Oil, boiler compound M arch........ 766.42 MINOR EXPENSES. etc. per report........ 129.74 A pril......... 600.18 The smallest business finds that little items here and there go boiler M ay......... 525.47 to make up a noticeable fraction of yearly expense. A bolt, a tool, Lighting of house per rep ort... 72.90 June ........ a little belt dressing, some nails, oil, cotton waste and piston pack 504.89 ing will make a noticeable item in a year. Forest Grove is getting Material used in line July........... 441.05 along with less than any other plant has ever done in this respect. upkeep ................... 275.00 August 420.25 Can it be that a stock on hand a yea • ago helps to make the September. 430.90 present showing about one-half the normal. T o ta l........... ............. 5065.14 October . . . 543.75 RENT Add to Above Expense These Rent is not considered at all; yet the electric plant should Total cash receipts $ 5770.44 Items bear its share of this item unless the other business of the city is Lights furnished for public to carry all the expenses while the lighting returns all the profits. Fund for replacing purposes. TAXES worn out machin 86 lights, 10 months Note also that the site of the power station with its new rail 636.00 ery ............................ for streets.............. $1290.00 road siding is a property valuable for taxing purposes, I f Occupi Fund for replacing ed bh a manufacturer the return in taxes would be a large item of Library, 10 months 75.30 poles, wires e tc___ 414.00 income. This and other taxes are now lost. Not only this but Firehouse, 3 months 26.73 thousands of dollars a year would be spent by the employees of a Fund for repaying Powerhouse, 10 mo æ 72.90 plant with fifty to one-hundred people on its pay-roll, while the 130.00 principal on bonds Wash. Co. A gri., and power plant employs two, and the Washington-Oregon company Interest on bonds is Livestock Associa would employ from six to ten men. sued for mechanical tion .......................... 25.00 POWER HOUSE LIGHTING plant..................... 600.00 8 light posts, extra 1 The report includes $72.90 for lighting the power house. This Interest on bonds is is an item of expense. The report places this item in profit mo............................. 30.24 sued for new line account under street lighting. w ork......................... 230.00 Total........... 1520.17 WATER USED BY POWER HOUSE 95.00 Cash received. Insurance for fir e .... 5770.44 In order to secure an increased efficiency from an engine there | 210.00 have been invented several forms of apparatus for condensing Casualty insurance. . . Total revenue ....... se $ 7290.51 steam back into water, in order to remove back pressure on the Losses from diverted piston working in the cylinders of the engine. Thet ypeot con- taxes......................... 3849.74 105.00 Total disbursements.. denser used by the Forest Grove plant is very effective and adds Rent pro rate share about twelve pounds per square inch to the pressure of the steam, Net returns to .city... $ 3440.77 at $12 per month 120.00 B u t a great deal o f cold water is used to condense the steam. The Expenditures city plant uses 50,000 to80,000 gallons per day. Water costs money. Items of Expenditures Total Expense......... $ 7605.14 But the report shows no item for this. Salary.......................... $ 1900.00 Total Income........... $ 7242.71 INSURANCE Expense, oil, boiler Fire insurance, accident insurance (casualty insurance,) and Deficit ....................„ $ 362.43 compound, etc $129.74 $ 2029.74 insurance against unexpected damages are today an absolute necessity in business. Fire insurance is too well understood to But this deficit will be Extension work and dwell upon. Casualty insurance protects from damage claims increased owing to m aterials................. $ 406.47 those who employ labor. If a workman is hurt or killed the law __ _______ the following cause. holds the employer more or less responsible and there is usually , , „ $ 2436.21 me some loss charged up from every accideut in the engine house or Jan. 1, 1912, 400 cords ters are placed will along the distributing system. A plant may go a year or two wood at $3.25___ $ 1300.00 reduce earnings$75. with trifling expense but there come occasions when the losses mount into large figures. Wires breaking and harming people in per month at least $750.00 Nov. 1,1912, 160 cords the street killing animals or setting fires produce losses which wood at $ 3 .2 5 .... 520.00 Deficit ten months $ 1112.43 can be met by setting aside a contingent fund or by insurance, Paid for to Nov. 1, $ 1820.00 the latter being the customary method. None o f these expenses are included in the report. To judge how much they amount to Expense and salary 2029.74 NOTE—The amounts stat eI*mi" e ° ar“ {j7T^ V T AND SINKMG FUNDS ed above are conservative. 3849.74 of business requires capital. Even public busi- Every kind O. M. S anford capital must be paid back sometime, and ana interest ^ w e were about to start a ness. This J. M. B a r b e r rnnai he naid all the time on the capital invested. Machinery plant of this size we would Committee. wears d o to r becomes otherwise unfit for um «fter «certain time A D D thirty p ercen t to .11 o f .Uo osnohinps asinkine fund must be established which . This report does not include 100 T o replace the machines a sinking fund will be large enough to accomplish this purpose every ten years. these items. perch lights and does not deduct Poles and wiring have a certain life and a sinking fund for re- REMEMBER, W E DO for wood on hand and paid for. pladng poles and other parts of the distributing system must (ae stands for errors) {nature every fifteen years. Sane o f these expenses are included N OT A SK FOR A MONOP- l i the report. Our items for these are conservatively stated in C W. HILL. - OLY. A4*. For W tib in ita i-O n co i C v p c n L .,. our estimate of expense. EVERYTHING TAKEN OUT OF PLANT and Nothing Put In to Maintain Value of Property CONSUMER and TAXPAYER THE VICTIM AN EDITORIAL FROM THE NEWS TIMES OF THURSDAY, NOV. 21. In another part of the paper today the News Times presents the report of the light committee made to the city council Tuesday night for the ten months past, beginning with last January. The statement shows the receipts and ex penditures of the city during that time in the management o f its municipal lighting plant, and quite a creditable showing it is. Since the matter o f giving an outside corporation this work has been agitated some the past few weeks by the corporation's agent in an attempt to influence the people to take up its proposition, it might be well fo r each citizen to carefully consider the facts ^resented in this report. The showing certainly is a creditable one for those who have had in charge the management o f our lightnig plant and we believe that our people will be slow to make a change just now. Portland has just voted almost unanimously to grant a franchise to a new and independent com pany that will soon get i"to the field for business and should Forest Grove at some future time desire to contract for its light and power it may be that better inducements can be secured from the new system that is to enter the field in our big sister city. At the rate that our plant is now working there certain ly is no need fo r a change at this time. A net révenue of over $340 per month is surely good interest on the investment and no town anywhere has better service than the municipal plant has given since its installment. , The above editorial from the official newspaper of the City of Forest Grove, may be taken as the voice of the administration. Replying thereto, the agent therein mentioned feels justified in giving the following facts. Five times in successive weeks the said agent appeared be fore your Common Council with a frank request that the Council consider some form of contract between the Washington-Oregon Corporation and the City. The terms solicited were as follows: That the city give a lease or a franchise or buy current. The Washinglon-Oregon Corporation to pay a reasonable profit to the city. The Washington-Oregon Corporation to carry certain street lights free. The Washington-Oregon Corporation not to demand a monopoly in the Grove. The Washington-Oregon Corporation to give twenty-four hour service. The Washington-Oregon Corporation to guarantee ample and continuous service. The Washington-Oregon Corporation to give electric meters free. Rates for service to be 12 cents per K. W. hour, Minimum 75 cts. per month. Existing City plant to be retained by city ready for use in event of Washington-Oregon Corporation failing to give service promised. Guarantee bond to be given by Washington-Oregon Corpora tion to protect interests of city. Scant attention was given any o f these offers. A request that the terms be written into the minutes was ignored. The meeting adjourned always in the midst of presentation of facts by said agent. Only after utter failure to secure proper consideration by the Council did this matter reach the stage called in the editorial above “ an attempt to influence the people to take up the proposi tion.” The editorial suggests that “ it might be well for each citizen to carefully consider tne facts” and we agree to this most cordi ally. Our facts and theirs are both grouped on this page where the comparison can be readily made. All the items quoted as our figures are thirty per cent lower than we would estimate if about to establish a business o f similar character. They are conserva tive estimates. The editorial says “ better inducements can be secured from the new system that is entering our big sister city.” We presume this means the Northwestern Electric which is now building a dam at Salmon River. Our terms do not forbid the entry of this com petitor into Forest Grove. Nor the entry of others nearer by who are in the electric business. Whenever they can give lower rates and equa lservice, we must meet that legitimate competition or yield the field to them. Perhaps the residents of Forest Gçove prefer to wait an in definite time for the others while the present plant taxes them out of several thousand dollars and sells meters at a profit. One thing stands out strongly in this editorial in the city organ. That is the fact, that despite a present profit of over $4000 dollars, the administration is contemplating the necessity of admitting a new system. If the Washington-Oregon Corporation could earn one half as much on the same investment it would be back in the obsolete field of the small independent plant and not in the modern field of central station distribution of electricity thought by electrical engineers all over the world to be the only method for the future.