100 years ago in The Record: October 1

Thursday, October 1, 1915

Mayor Burns is angry at the United Traction Company again, The Record reports. This time the streetcar company has failed to provide materials for street repairs in Lansingburgh.

The mayor gets the bad news from Department of Public Works commissioner Charles Crowley at today’s meeting of the board of contract and supply. Crowley says United Traction made a “verbal agreement” two years ago to provide the materials necessary for the Second Avenue repairs, while they city would provide the labor.

Now, Crowley says, “It looks very much like the company was dragging the work along so that it cannot be finished this winter.” Crowley had hoped to have the Second Avenue project finished this fall, but “now feared this would be impossible.” To get on with the work, the city has purchased the necessary materials itself.

“We must impress upon this company that it cannot play any more on the city,” Burns responds. He accuses United Traction of violating its agreement and blames the company for the poor conditions of other streets where its tracks run. On Second Avenue, for instance, “the track gang of the company had raised the tracks five or six inches and had left them in such a condition that water ran under them and damaged the pavement.”

Burns has made a habit of attacking United Traction and other local utilities during his two terms as mayor. He won the Democratic nomination to run for a third two-year term last week.

After the mayor’s remarks, the board sends a note to United Traction warning the company to carry out street repairs promptly or get billed when the city does the repairs itself.

WATER INFRASTRUCTURE. “Fear of a water shortage in the city’s water supply has been eliminated” by continued improvements to its infrastructure, our paper reports.

Water works superintendent John Diven issues a statement today explaining that the Tomhannock Reservoir currently holds approximately twelve billion gallons of water. If the “lower service” of the city uses an estimated 38,000,000 gallons daily, and the supply were somehow not replenished, the reservoir could hold out for 400 days, Diven states.

The “high service” or “hill service” is supplied by the Brunswick Reservoir and Grafton ponds. Estimating usage of 5,000,000 gallons a day, Diven says this supply of almost 1.4 billion gallons would last three hundred days.

Diven promises that improvements will continue. Plans are underway to link the Tomhannock to the Lansingburgh reservoir “so that in time the residents of the North End will have the same service now given below Glen avenue,” our reporter explains.

– Kevin Gilbert