The herald., 1897-10-09
WILL COMBINE
City and County to Have a
Morgue
GRIEVANCES OF HACKMEN
Considered BY THE BOARD OF
PUBLIC WORKS
An Ordinance to Vacate Portion of
Street Declared Illegal
Street Signs

When the. matter of the establishment
of a public morgue is considered it will
be with a view to having such an insti-
tuition Jointly owned by the city and
county. For that purpose there will be
a Joint meeting of the county board OF
supervisors and the board of public
works Tuesday morning next at 9 o'clock
at the court house. 1t had been expected
that the latter body would settle the
matter one way or another at their reg
ular session yesterday, but beyond max
ing arrangements for the conference
with the county officers no action was
taken in the matter.
There was every prospect of contest
among the undertakers for before the
board met yesterday several of those
gentlemen appeared at the city hall and
patiently waited until the session Of
the board began. Instead Of taking up
the morgue petition first the board pro-
ceeded to the transaction of routine bus
mess. and intended to take up the other
matter as it happened to be reached.
After waiting some time, Senator Bulla,
who represented several of the under
takers, and who was prepared to con-
test the acceptance of the free morgue
offered the city by one of the under
taking firms. engaged the attention Of
the board for few minutes. He asked,
as it was desired to secure the co-opera-
ton Of the county supervisors in this
matter, that no action be taken by the
board of public works Until next week.
This was agreed to, and the under
takers left the room Half an hour
later they returned, accompanied by Mr..
Bulla, who stated that he had seen the
supervisors and had made arrangements is
for joint meeting for Tuesday mornin g
and asked if that date was satisfactory
to the board. The members agreed to
meet the county board at that time,
and the matter will then be discussed
between them.
The recognized inability of the city
to go to the expense at present of estab-
fishing a morgue and the fact that the
county would get almost as much SER
vice out of it as the municipality, has led
to the effort to have each bear a por-
tion of the expense. This would re-
lieve the city of large portion of the
burden and would at the same time
render unnecessary the establishment of
two morgues-one for the city and the
other for the county At the meeting
to be held Tuesday Messrs. Kregelo &
Bresee, who offered the city a free
morgue, will make the same offer to the
county, and the move will be vigorously
contested by the other undertakers, who
claim that the acceptance of such an
offer would result in their being shut
out of all the coroner's business re-
gardless Of the wishes Of the relatives
Of any person whose body is taken to
the morgue.
AN ILLEGAL ORDINANCE
1t now appears that the passage of tn 3
ordinance at the last meeting of the
council vacating a portion of the street
on which Occidental college is to be
erected was illegal. 1t will be rene M
bered that protest against the action
was filed with the council a the morn
ing session Monday and that at the
afternoon session the ordinance was
passed without considering the protest,
which was referred to the board Of
public works. When the matter came
up yesterday the protestant, Mrs.
Frances Mcdonald. was represented by
counsel, who claimed that her prop
erty was greatly damaged by the action
of the council Wher the matter wa
previo uSly before the board it was stated
that there was no objection to the clos
ing of the street, and that the property
owners had agreed that it should be done.
Mr.. Mcdonald, who represented his
mother, showed the board that the clos
ing of the street had been vigorously OBJ
1ected to al the time, and that such clos
Ing would damage her property. Assist
ant City Attorney Crutcher was called in
and stated that if the council had passed
the ordinance over the objection Of the
property owners without giving them a
chance to be heard, and IT, in the ab-
sence of unanimous consent Of the own
ers OF property, the ordinance had been
passed, the action was not legal. IF
there was objection, the proper course
TO nave been pursued was to have passed
the ordinance of intention and then post
ed notices on the street and set time for
the hearing of any protests. If any per
son was damaged the street could not
De closed Wlthou the payment of proper
damages to be determined by a COM
mission. The matter was taken under
adviSement by the board and person,,
investigation will be made. If If is
found that the property of Mrs. McDon-
aid has been damaged the ordinance
will probably be repealed.
STREET SIGNS
Samples of street signs were submit
ted to the board by the Noble & Chipron
Sign company. The samples were made
of steel and the names were placed upon
them in enamel like that used in cooking
utensils, the color being white and blue
These signs were in use in many eastern
cities The prices quoted were As cents
each for the smaller sizes in lots of 1000.
and 55 cents for the larger styles. No
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