Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-05-24
The Addition 10 the Asylum.

Vi supGENlSOISs AdQ q COuiCIcHG6 Will
three members of the state board of
Charities and Reform, at the Wright
House in this city. Messrs. McFall
and Grimm of the committee, Chair
man Ryland and Col. Clark, ex-mem-
Der of the committee, were present.
The members of the state board pres
ent were DR.. j. H. Vivian, and Messrs.
Il. H. Giles and A. E. Gilmore, the lat
ter of Green Bay.
Mr.. McFall, in opening the confer
euce, said he thought if the county
understood the situation, the addition
would be made. The committee on In
sane understood that if the county
failed TO make this addition the state
board would in the future make the
county no allowance for caring for in
sane to exceed sixty in number-the ut
most capacity of the building. He
wanted to know if the addition should
be made, and the capacity increased to
100, if the board would give the county
assurance that it would always be kept
full
Mr.. Gilmore said after this year any
county which shall build an insane asy-
lum must beg permission of the state
board to do so. Before this the state
board has had to beg the counties to
provide buildings for their insane, but
the board had now got past the point
of begging. We shall soon have good
places for every insane person. If
Grant County doesn't make proper pro-
visions for the care of the insane, the
board will take away from her all the
insane of other counties. Bot if she
does, the board will refuse permission
to other counties to build subsequently.
They will say ''the state will not pay
you one cent for the care of the insane"
To do so would be unjust to Grant and
other counties that had gone on and
built at great expense, when the county
system was an experiment, under en-
enlargement from the state board that
their asylums would be filled. But
Grant County must furnish the neces-
sary Accommodations tor those they have
now.
Mr. McFall asked how much time the
county have to build Mr. Elmore an
swered, until the other counties had
built, Dr. Vivian said the capacity of
the asylum must be gagged by the cap
| acity of its most limited accommoda-
tons. The capacity in some respects
is sufficient for sixty or more, but in
other respects it is not enough for forty
as those for cooking, washing and
bathing. The state board tolerated this
at first, because the state was very
much crowded with insane. But there
is no need of it any longer. Grant
County is better able to build than any
other county, and the state board will
no longer tolerate such lack of accom-
modations
Mr.. Elmore said the state board had
favored Grant County more than any
other county. They had allowed it to
run the asylum under the execrable
contract system long after they had
abolished that system in every other
county. Mr.. Ryland had asked the
state board to give the county time, as
it had lost $4,000 in bank failure.
But according to the contractors own
statement of his receipts and expenses,
the county had lost another $4,000 in
eighteen months by hanging onto the
contract system. He referred to Rock
County, which had miserable rookery,
full of bed bugs, for an asylum. II
had paint shop and other shops under
| it. The state board told the supervisors
they must make better arrangements,
and the latter said they could not. The
state board served them a notice that
the state would not pay them cent foi
the care of the insane until proper ar.
engagements had been made. The chair
man OF the board Immediately had the
necessary arrangements made at cos
of $4,000, and at its next session thC
county board unanimously ratified The
action: and they said they saved enough
in fuel the first year to pay the expense
incurred. He said the state board haC
never made recommendation which