Evening journal., 1912-08-30
CITY GARBAGE
COLLECTIONS
Mr.. Ellison Makes Statement
in Reply to Councilman
Higgins

In reply to the statements made
last nignt In City Council by Council
man Higgins of the THIRD Ward. that
he did not think the present garbage
contractors weIe doing justice by the
people OF the c,ty in the matter Of
collecting garbage. adding that many
complaints were being made daily of
their dereliction of duty, Secretary Ell
lison. Of the Board OF Health. today
issued the following statement, as
coming flom the members of that
board:
Il understand that Hr. Higgins made
the statement that the conecaon Of
garbage is worse now than any pre-
vious time The Board of Health
would like to know where he secured
his information. As secretary ! have
searched this Office for the records Of
the non-collection Of garbage Of tho
4 previous boards and as yet have fall
ed to find any by which a comparison
could be made. and II such record
does exist this board would like to
have t. This board keeps an accurate
record OF all complaints sported,
which are open TO the inspection Of
the public or anyone interested. Three
of the four districts have been and
are being attended TO as we'll as Is
possible under the present system OF
collection The other district has
been bad, which Is the same district
the previous board had trouble with
but this board took steps at It's last
meeting TO remedy the collection and
since that time the garbage In that
district has been collected and ths
complaints have dropped Of rs per
cent.
Halt OF the COMPLAINTS received
by this board are unfounded. as af.
ter due investigation We found thai
the garbage had been inaccessible by
reason OF the ya-d gates being lock-
I'd ard numerous other causes. Some
poop e are as much to blame for the
garbage trouble as the collectors. IN
numerous cases their garbage cans
will not hold the remains OF on,
watermelon: also their cans airs
without covers and when II rains they
I'll with water They then call uT
and complain of their cans overflow
ing
"Since this aboard recinded the con.
tracts of the previous board anC
thereby saving the city $4,000. Their,
]
a conversation with a-member Of thl
p. evious board he told me that thel
intended to keep this garbage oues
ton stirred up and from indications
they have been doing IT, Numerous
complaints that We have received
over the telephone. after due inves
tigtion, We have found them 10 .bl
trumped up, as people living in thu
houses complained Of later STATED
that they had never complained.
"As / have stated before, the en-
tire system Of garbage collection
wrong. as garbage could be collects
} every day in the week. and the peopl
could call up over the phone an
state their garbage cans we're full
and they would like to have It re
, moved. We have no way of deter
mining whether the garbage had bee
collected regularly OF not, cons
quently such q complaint would I
entered on the complaint book an
q contractors notified 70 collect garbae
D again. The contractor would the
! state he had collected Il accordin
} to the specifications and we woul
. again have no way % determinin
whether the party who complained @
. lut tNlArNiOI Ndc at idhils
THE only way this board has G
, determining whether the garbage
collected or IL not is by means G
complaints. For instance, garbag
} might be kept in an unaccessibl
place and be missed by the collector
and unless a complaint was entere
of the collectors failure to collec
garbage it would be liable to renal
there for a year.
las previously stated. We have n
J means Of knowing whether garbae
is or is not collected
D This is not meant as an excuse "a
< the non-collection OF garbage but
let the people know the position (
, the Board of Health As Counc
: seems 20 question, we think II woul
be well for them 10 become enoue
interested TO help the board remed
this matter by appropriating enoue
q money TO pay one or two men to d.
d vote their entire time TO the colle'
o tion of garbage
There Is no doubt that some OF n
A collectors are imp udent. but whe
i. one takes into consideration that II
: contractors have considerable troub
in securing men ~ DO this undesirab
: class Of work, this is not to be VOL