Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-02-13

floating of municipal loan at the
coming fall election.
Again, it must be determined
whether it might not be more eco
nomical, if practical, to have mu-
| nicipal garbage collection and contract
separately for it's ultimate disposal by
] some approved method.
! Wants Prompt Action
Should municipal garbage collec-
ton not meet with your approval at
this time. specifications, bids, ETC.,
must be promptly prepared in order
| to award u new contract and provide
the necessary appropriation therefor
in the annual appropriation budget
| for 1913.
Another important matter to de-
termine is the advisabiIity of request
ing separate bids for garbage collec-
| ton alone for ashes and rubbish
alone, and for dead animals, and joint
or combination of bids for the re-
moval of all city wastes.
Should q contract be entered into,
the life of the contract should be most
carefully considered"
/ DR.. Raunick called attention to the
fact that present collection of all gar
bage. ashes and refuse is costing the
city less than cents a week for each
| household.
Il
! Because of the numerous difficulties
and problems connected with munich
pal garbage collection, DR.. Raunick
advised Council to require household
ers to dispose of ashes through pri-
vate collectors.
In case of municipal ash collections
| provisions will be needed, DR.. Rau-
nick stated, to have uniform sized
containers, separation of paper from
ashes and penalties to enforce COM
pliance with regulations.
Referring to finances for the Health
Department, it was explained that
while the bureau appropriation totals
used for ash and garbage collections.
The remaining $13, 600 allows an aver
| age of IT cents per capita annually
for health protection.
Wants More Officers
In asking for additional sanitary
officers DIR. Raunick declared that the
i, Health Bureau can no longer cope
with present conditions with only two
men handling this work.
For more than twenty years the
city has had but two sanitary in
spectors and to-day with our phe-
nomenal extension and increased pop
ulation we cannot be expected to rem
der this additional health service re-
quirement without additional in
spectors.
Thinks Police Should Help
las suggested before, our city police
force could materially assist our bu-
reau by enforcing health regulations
the same as all other municipal laws"
Another local health need which
DR.. Raunick emphasized was legiSla-
ton to improve housing conditions,
and revision of building regulations.
Speaking of this need he said: "Our
statistics show very plainly the bad re-
fTip
gether in certain districts and it
would be most interesting to note to
what extent this lack of decent living
standard influences the work of our
courts, aside from the question of
health.
This question is of such vital i'm
port to our community that we invite
and urge the closest cooperation of
all civic, church. social and all other
business organizations and persons in
terested in the health and welfare of
our people"
Wants Contagion Hospital
DR.. Raunick also suggested floating
loan to provide for a contagious dis
ease hospital, should the people favor
1t by majority vote. In pointing out
this need he referred tothe recent ty-
phoid epidemic, and the possibility of
serious disease epidemics unless facil-
tiles are provided for isolating serious
contagious disease cases.
Because of the increasing number
of food inspection regulations, Health
Officer Raunick. in taking up that
branch of the department work, ad-
vised Council to provide for more in
spectors. Need of legislation which
would require screening of poultry,
fish. bakery products, candies, butter
and other foods which are exposed in
markets when offered for sale.
Urges Graded Milk Standard
Certified and graded milk standards
in accordance with the requirements
of the Milk Commission of the Harris
burg Academy of Medicine, should be
promptly adopted, DIR. Raunick said.
Without entering into any contro-
versy as to milk production cost, it
cannot reasonably be assumed that
dirty milk and clean, safe, milk should
both command the same price, and it
is proposed to grade the product on
an average score system based on the
combined scoring totals of the place
of production, archaeological findings
and score of delivery and storage ia
cilities
"Such a system would entail a large
amount of work and further impresses
the need of additional inspectors and !
increased laboratory facilities, which I
should be promptly provided for this |
important work.
while our general retail milk sup
ply was pIOlupIly pliC0u dDoNS SuSpi- |
cion during our recent typhoid epi-.I
demic, the very fact that a large num-
Der of cases occurred on dairy farms,
makes it imperative to use every ef-
fort to promptly locate possible ty-
phoid carriers, and guard against the
exposure of our foods to this particu-
larly dangerous source of infection.
This is matter of such moment /
that only by the closest cooperation
of the public can periodic typhoid
outbreaks resulting from these dam
gerous carriers be avoided in the
future" \
Increase I'm Death Rate
In the vital statistics reports a slight Il
increase in the death rate was noted.
During 1915 the rate WAS 1871 per
thousand residents; and last year 1913 II
per thousand. In mentioning the II
large number of typhoid deaths. DIR.
called attention to the fact !