The Penn's Grove record., 1919-06-27
Mayor and Council Meet
New Building Inspector Appoint
ed. Many Street Grades
To Be Made

The Mayor and Council met in reg
ular session on Tuesday night. Mayor
Fisher presided and all the members
answered to roll call.
\ large amount Of routine business
was transacted, such as paying bills,
hearing reports of the various com
mittees and listening to citizens seek
ing the help OF the Council for various
improvements in the n~eighborhood in
which they live.
Joseph Moreland, surveyor, present.
ed profile maps fixing the grade for a
number Of streets in the Borough and
explained his work to Council. It was
also decided 10 establish the grade on
quite a number Of other streets in or
der that property owners may put in
heir eurbs and sidewalks.
Last year Assessor J. \. Layman
was required to make two assessments
Of all property in the Borough under
a new law and some time ago he pre-
scented a bill for extra compensation
for the service. 1t was held up to de-
.ermine whether such extra compensa-
tiontion could be paid a salaried officer.
Ii lIlt IlCdlllIIllc LIit Ley ISldLttlE pass
ed a law allowing assessors a sum not
in excess of one-half of the regular
salary for such work. Mr.. Layman
presented his bill on this basis and it
was ordered paid.
Treasurer D. P. Featherer presented
the following report:
Balance on hand at last
meeting .~ooO,ozo.oo
Received since last meeting, 2,142.44
Paid out on orders........ 24,533.21
Balance on hand .......... 8,435.82
Board of Health, bal. on hand 589.17
Public Building account, on
hand loo.UO
A list of properties owned by the
Borough, acquired by tax sales and
otherwise, was turned owe to Treas
arer Featherer for the purpose OF col
lecting the rents.
Borough Clerk Walter a. Hunt has
been acting as Building Inspector
since the resignation Of Thomas P.
Morgan several weeks ago. There
has been quite a number of applicants
acted upon during that time but
Council was unable to make a selec-
ton. 1t was finally settled at this
meeting, however, by electing John
B. Pontiere to the position. The
salary is $500 a year.
Counsel S. Rushing Leap sat with
Council throughout the entire meeting
and rendered valuable assistance IN
enlightening the members upon the
legal side of many important matters
that came up for discussion, prepared
several resolutions in proper form
and answered clearly the many ques-,
tions with which he was bombarded
during the long meeting, which lasted
until after l o'clock on Wednesday
morning. There was a little clash be-
tween the Mayor and Police Com
mittee which was finally Strengthened
out.
Several months ago the police were
placed wholly under the control OF the
Police Committee, the Mayor desiring
to be absolved from the responsible
ity. Recently, however, the Mayor
took one of the men from the force
for plain clothes work to secure EVIL
dence against speakeasies, lmmoral
places and other violations OF law
that he considered could not be covered
so efficiently by the uniformed men.
Bills for the extra expense entai!ed IN
this work were presented and the
Police Committee baked on auditing
them because they were not consulted
and officially knew nothing of what
was being done.
The Mayor made a brief statement
to the effect that this cleanup work
was necessary. He had been in CON
sultation with the Prosecutor of the
Pleas about it and as there seemed to
be no activity on the part of the police
or the Police Committee in securing
evidence, he had taken up the matter
himself, which he claimed he had
W to do as Mayor of the Borough;
The bills were finally ordered PAID
and in the future there will be closer
~co-operation among all concerned.
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