The Council's Expensive Water Report
Walla Walla officials are paying $500 for a new water study despite already possessing a comprehensive 1893 report.
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.
The report of the Spokane hydraulic engineer upon a gravity water supply, based upon offhand observations made during two or three trips up Mill Creek, will cost the city five hundred dollars. The council has on file a report made by an expert from Kansas City, Missouri, in 1893, which covers every point that Expert Weile can cover after his cursory investigation and probably a great deal more. It seems the council is to pay the Spokane man five hundred dollars for streaming data they already have in stock of far superior quality. When Expert Weile's report is read the council next Tuesday night, it might be interesting to compare his recommendations with those made by Expert Kiersted in 1893. The topography of the country has not changed since Mr. Kiersted's report was made and his conclusions are just as valuable today as they were ten years ago.
“It seems, then, that the council is to pay the Spokane man five hundred dollars for streaming that it already has in stock of far superior quality.”
Local government spending on redundant consulting studies remains a common point of contention in Walla Walla, echoing this 1903 frustration over council oversight and fiscal responsibility.
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