Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-03-03
FOR new SYSTEM
Council Provides for installation
of Modern Methods of City
Accounting.
n. F. BUTLER is EMPLOYED
Is to Design and Open Books for 81 LOCO
Electrician TO Be Added to
Fire Department.

The city is to have an entirely new
system of accounting, and when the
present books in use i'll the city
clerks Office are replaced in May by
the new books, the system put in use
will be modern, up-to-date one. The
council last evening voted to employ
II. F. Butler, the expert accountant
who made an investigation OF the city's
books last year, to design and pre-
pare forms for complete system of
accounting for ali departments, and to
install the new books and methods
when the printing has been completed
The present books in use in the
clerks Office will be exhausted by the
beginning of the new fiscal year, and
the clerk, Mayor Schaffer, and the
aldermen feel that to install a new
system at such an opportunC time will
effect great saving to the city i'll the
future. II is proposed to inaugurate a
modern accounting method with mod
Crn record books, so that the work Of
bookkeeping will be greatly reduced
The waterworks department alone has
$500 accounts of attachments, and
there are thousands of accounts to be
kept. Each item under the present
system is recorded seven times. and
this entails an enormous amount of
unnecessary work.
The city clerk can not devote his
time to the preparation of new sys-
TEN, and the proposition made by Mr..
Butler, to prepare all forms and to
open the new books with two weeks
records, for $1,000 and the necessary
expenses of himself and an assistant,
is very reasonable one. Propositions
were submitted by Mr. Butler and Hos
kin & Sells, the latter's estimate be-
ing $4,000
Prepare for Election.
The aldermen made preparation last
evening for the coming spring election,
by naming the judges and clerks, ac-
cording to the requirements of the
law. The full list of those appointed
appears elsewhere in the official rec
ord of the proceedings of the council.
To Improve Department.
A measure which will greatly i'm
prove the efficiency CT the fire depart
ment was suggested by Alderman
Smith. He proposed that the council
take steps to secure the services of a
competent electrician as a member OF
the department, showing that such a
man is greatly needed in the depart
ments work, Notwithstanding the rule
of the Peoples Power company to send
a lineman to the scene OF fire when
men are on duty Naturally the cor
pOratiCn's employees seldom report al
a night fire, and as the large proper
tion of serious fires occur during hours
when these men are not available, th<
work of the department is more or les.
handicapped when the men come, il
contact with problems requiring spe
Cial skill in electricity.
Chief Hastings supported the sug
gestion of Alderman Smith. and stated
that he considers the employment o
an electrician as an essential move fO
public safety and the protection o
property by the department The cit!
attorney, on Alderman Smiths motion
was instructed to report at the mex
meeting an ordinance for the employ
ment of such a member of the depart
ment, at a salary of $75 a month
A bill from Searle e Marshall, 70
500 for services in the contest owe
the objections filed by property owl
ers in the Sixteenth street paving case