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tlAC* Tuesday, April 3, 1951 Las Vagras Review-Journal 3 i i ------- -—is - ECAS VALLEY m m FIRST HEARING — Robert A. Alien, 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 offi­cials who are here for the hear­ing in which the Las Vegas Land and Water company is asking for an increase in rates. Shown in back row, left to right, are R. A. Blonde, Paul Harrison, Jeff McColl, Review- Journal reporter, Mel Anderson and William Reinhardt, Union Pacific vice president. Seated are C. M. Bates, F. A. Hub­bard, William McCafferty and C. G. Parkinson, all UP offi­cials. ? ? ? ? ? ? PSC Hearing On Wafer Rate Hike Under Way The first session of a two day hearing of the Nevada public service commission into the pro­posed water rate increase of the Las Vegas Land and Water com­pany was held this morning in the council chambers of the city hall, with representatives of the Union Pacific railroad, the water company and the city of Las Vegas present.' ] At the Start of the meeting ‘ board Chairman Robert A. Allen stated that he would con-sider only the issue of the pro­posed rate increase and con- ’ tinue for later action the city’s complaint of improper water service during the summer months. City Attorney Howard Cannon, who with his assistant, Ralston ! Hawkins,, is representing Las Vegas, contradicted the chair­man’s ^statement and said that the two issues can only be con­sidered together since the water company would be undeserving of a iate increase if its opera­tions were insufficent to warrant the hike. Edward Renwick, conducting the hearing on behalf of the wa­ter company' and assistant. gen­eral solicitor of the Union Pacif-i jc, called Roy A. Wehe, consulting ' engineer hire I company, to testify. Two reports on the results of operation years 1950 and 1951 of the Las Vegas Land and Water company Las Vegas water utility were introduced as exhibits. ' The reports state, briefly, that l; “ the proposed water . rates de- ‘ veloped will yield an increase of approximately $90,000 of gross revenue for the year or an over­all increase of 42.5 per cent—-the average increase to a residential customer of average size will run to about $2 to $2.70 per month.” in one of the reports it is estimated that capital improve­ments for 1951 of the water com­pany. will total nearly $230,000 and. include reinforcement of water mains to increase capacity and better pressure and installa­tion of pipe lines in sub-divisions.