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L A S VEGAS EVE N I N G REVIEW-JOURNAL Las Vegas, Nevada Sept. 14, 1959 1 1 ? JAYCEES OPEN I: ! ADEQUATE VEGAS ! j iWATER DR IV E 1 •_ ; y ??? j Fiery Resolution Is Passed; By Civic Organization! Last Eve •. •• — ---- ---- After a riotous discussion of I the various factors involved, the Las Vegas Junior Chamber j I of Commerce last night request- \ ed the board of city commis- { sionem to “call to account” the ] Las Vegas Land and Water j Company, and “take such steps ? as may be necessary to require \ | the Las Vegas L a r d and W ater j j Comrany, a public utility, ' to i provide adequate and courteous service to the consumers of the I. city.” . j The action: was taken upon ' recommendation‘of a special dom- I j mittee named recently to stud'" ' | the water situation, and resulted ! iin the adoption of a strong laso-H ! lution to back up the request | ' upon the city board. . 1. C IT IN G FIR ST the recent de- | cision of the Nevada public cerv- ’ ice commission in the Jake Beck-' j ley case, wherein the state board ; , found that: “the (water) mains in I certain parts of the city are whol- J ly inadequate”- and that the local utility has not taken proper steps to provide additional water for j ithe community, the junior cham- i Iber contends in its resolution: 1. —That the water company J has, for the past several sum- I \ ers, decried the lack of water , and urged cooperation from the | citizens of this city in conserv- j ing. water. , ,;j 2. —That the company, despite j 1 this'plea, has been using cool-1 i ers at the Las Vegas depot im ; direct violation of the emergen- , i cy ordinance for the conserve- j tion of water, drawn by the ! water company, by allowing , | these coolers to flow directly j (Continued on P age T w o ) Jaycees Open into the sfevyers without being put to additional use. 3. — That the system is oper­ated with wooden mains “ o f ancient origin” which continu­ously leak water thereby de­pleting the supply available for 'the city.; 4. — T H A T during all 'of thd water shortages, the company has, profitably sold, for use out­side the city, o f Las Vegas and yieinity, large quantities Of lo­cal wafer in tank cars tp be transported and used at distant points. ' 5.—That the company has, in the past, “refused to acquire any* mope yrater fpr the. use of tHe' city of Las Vegas, despite the-fact that every summer for the past four or five years the company has known a shortage existed.” 6. —That the company has re­fused to give any information regarding what the company has done or contemplates doing toward getting more water for the city. 7. —That officials and em­ployees of the company have ' been “discourteous” to custom­ers and citizens .seeking infor­mation regarding the possibility of receiving .more water, and have taken “ the publie-be-damned” attitude, 8. —TH AT the attitude of the company “is such as to be a detriment ft) and an impair­ment of the growth Of the city j by frequently publicizing an al- I leged shortage of water in this area; by refusing to increase its water supply, and ? by re­fusing to furnish water service' to both, new and bid points in the city, and giving , as its rea­son lack of water; and by ac­tively discouraging the build­ing of hew homes . and other ! improvements in the c ity ' of j Las Vegas where water lines are not now laid; and by re- : fusing - to permit pipe connec­tions of adequate size to se­cure proper . service.” 9. —That there is no apparent , need for water meters and the threat of the company-from time to time to install them is j “solely because of its hope for greater revenues if Water me­ters were required.” THE R E S O L U T IO N was adopt­ed by a pratically unanimous vote, and copies w ill be presented to the-board of city commissioners, the water company, the main of­fices Of the Union Pacific rail­road company in Omaha, the pub-lic service commission of Nevada, and the press of Las Vegas.