Omaha daily bee., 1909-04-10
COUNTY BOARD ACTS ON BILL


counts ut Meeting.
The county supervisors put in a larg,
part OF the time OF Thursdays session
wrestling with a big grist of Board o
Health bills from the CITY and othe,
portions Of the county. Many OF thes,
bills were rejected for one cause or another
but principally because a number of then
were not tented.
The bill Of ]. r. Macrae, city quarantine
officer" for his salary was one OF tho
claims rejected after it had been referred
10 the county attorney. In his opinion re-.
garding officer Macrae's claim the county
attorney said: 1T would appear from the
provisions of the law that all expenses of
establishing. maintaining and raising
quarantine must be paid upon accounts
allowed by the local Board of Health and
allowed by the Board of Supervisors. The
officer In question was employed by the
Board Of Health to act as its officer and
for 1t in establishing and raising quar-
antines and therefore 1t would be proper for
this board upon a bill properly certified,
to allow the claim. You would rave the
right to take into consideration the services
rendered and allow such sum as you think
is proper for the services.
The board, however, decided to reject the
bill for the reason that it is not in the
form of a stated bill and the board is not
able to determine whether or not the bill is
reasonable for the services rendered and
nothing in the law authorizes a salaried
officer for such services"
Mr.. Macrae has served as city quar-
antine officer for the last two years and
this is the first time that the supervisors
have rejected his salary claim.
Another bill which was rejected by the
board was hat Of DR.. A. A. Robertson.
health officer OF Crescent. In his capacity
as health officer DR.. Robertson attended
the convention of the Iowa Association of
Health Officers at Des Moines last Oc-
tober and his bill of expenses amounted to
s14. Rule No. % of the States Board of
Health, relative to the duties of a health
officer, says: HE shall also attend and
represent the local board at the sanitary
conferences called by the States Board of
Health, his actual expenses therefor being
allowed and paid by the local board of
health so represented" The board, after
consulting with County Attorney Hess.
practically held that the State Board of
Health exceeded its authority in making
any such sule.
The claim of A. Johnson for janitor serv-
Ice in the court house at Avoca brought up
another question of liability on the part of
the county at yesterdays session of the
supervisors. The board, while 1t finally
allowed the claim, took the position that
the city of Avoca should pay for such jan
itor service, repairs, heat and all other ex-
connected with the maintenance of
the court house in that city.
The statute provides that where terms
of court are held in any city or town not
the county seat. such city or town shall
provide and furnish the necessary rooms
and places for such terms free Of charge
to the county" Whether this provision
contemplates that the city shall furnish
heat, janitor service and repairs is the
which the board yesterday prac-
tically would have to be decided by a
suit in the courts. Heretofore the
board has allowed all bills in connection
with the maintenance of the court house
at Avoca without questioning them. There
has. however, been at different times agt-
tation in favor of transferring the place
Of holding court in the east half of the
county to Oakland, the citizens of which
place stand ready to- pay all expenses.