The City’s Controversial Watering Hours
New city regulations for lawn sprinkling spark protests from North End residents who claim the schedule ignores the reality of their working hours.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A change of hours for sprinkling was made by the commissioner of public works today. Heretofore users of city water were permitted to sprinkle four hours each day, but under the new order they may now run the sprinklers five hours out of the twenty-four. In all parts of the city sprinkling will be permitted from 6 to 9 o'clock each morning. In the evenings all residents north of South Twelfth street may sprinkle from 5 to 7 o'clock, and people living south of that street may sprinkle from 7 to 9 o'clock. The morning hours are satisfactory, but a big kick is being made on the evening schedule, especially by those in the district where the sprinkling hours are from 5 to 7 o'clock. The contention is that many people, particularly those whose business keeps them away from home until 7 o'clock, will not be able to use the water at all in the evening. E. I. Salmson, of North Fifth and D street, says: 'I don't know how a business man living in the North End, who doesn't get home till 7 o'clock, is going to sprinkle his lawn. It seems strange that, with three new wells at South Tacoma and a new reservoir built at an expense of $18,000, we can't get as much water as we had at this time last year.'
“It seems strange that, with three new wells at South Tacoma and a new reservoir built at an expense of $18,000, we can't get as much water as we had at this time last year.”
Public access to water and the management of municipal utilities remain a point of contention in Tacoma. Much like the 1904 complaints about the 'evening schedule,' residents today still grapple with the tension between individual property maintenance and city-wide resource conservation.
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