OCR Text |
Show ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF field and each one has been eminently successful in private affairs. In short, the personnel of the board is such as the public might expect to work out a reasonable solution of the city's water problem. " Salt Lake City, therefore, has made an excellent beginning in water reform. How far the board may go in the ultimate solution of Salt Lake City's problem will depend upon the determination of the board members and the degree of cooperation which is extended by the city itself. " Mayor Marcus says: ' ' It is to be hoped that they ( the directors) will largely determine the policies of the water department of the city. I am sure eventually the policies they adopt will be adopted by the water department.'' A similar point of viewT was expressed by Mayor Marcus on many other occasions and by the Commissioner of Water Supply and Waterworks, Mr. Keyser; Mr. Keyser saying that " We can't ask the Board to be responsible for acquiring water if it hasn't the power to say how water shall be distributed and how much shall be charged for it." \ Mr. Keyser also expressed the point of view that water administration should be under civil service. He \ WATER DEVELOPMENT 53 said, " The success or failure of water development plans depend on their being initiated over a long period of time. As it now stands, any program, regardless of how economically it may be planned, is liable to be thrown out merely by a change of administration, at great ultimate expense to the city. This is a condition that must be remedied. It is too costly to train a person in all the technicalities of water administration and then have him summarily removed by a change of officers." IMMEDIATE PROBLEMS AND WORK OF THE DISTRICT Immediately upon its organization the Board of Directors of the District commenced the work it was created to accomplish. While not committed to any particular project but rather to ends both immediate and remote- the immediate end of acquiring a water supply for the present and near future, and a future relatively distant, and a more remote end of planning for a long- time inter- related and continuous development- it nevertheless was the most active agency in working out the many relationships necessary to the Provo River Project, so that if that should turn out, as most supposed, to be the most desirable source of a longtime water supply it would be, and would in advance be known to be, in all of its aspects, of a form and substance most nearly acceptable. |