The Washington herald., 1922-02-26
Three Inspectors Added
To District Building Staff

i Three field inspectors were adoed
TO the per diem pay roll o: the
District Yesterday. They will IN
spect the twelve doubtful thea
ters reported by the voluntary com
mittee of experts who inspected all
District th"aters recently and rec
commended closing OF seven last
Saturday night.
with the addition Of these men
Engineer Commissioner Keller &C.
clared the District was only He; in
a fair way To relieve Itself Of the
steadily growing congestion in the
Building Inspectors ONCE.
Since the Knickerbocker Theater
crash more than seventy-fve per-
mits for large buildings have bc"n
held up by the building inspectors
office. pending inspection Of :hc
plans. Col. Keller is personally ex-
amining plans for the larger struc-
lures. Building Inspector John p.
HeaIy is examining plans for all
buildings
Conditions in the inspectors
Work for Eight Men.
District Commiss ioners are rush
ing every means to complete both
inspection Of all old buildings aud
revision of the building regulations.
This work falls upon the shoulders
OF the already heavily worked stah
Of eight men in the inspectors
Office
As a means Of relieving conges-
tion the Commissioners turned over
to Thomas Donovan. District audi
tor. plans calling for addition OF
eight men to the building inspect
or's office. The plans are embodied
in a supplemental estimate bill be-
ing prepared by Mr.. Donovan. This
bill is expected to he completed to-
morrow and will be sent immed-
lately to Director Of the budget
Dawes
Every means at the command OF
the District to push the bill before
attention Of the appropriations COM
mittees of the House and Senate
will be resorted to. the Commis-
sioners intimate.
At the recent hearing before the
Senate committee the Commission
ers explained in part their plans
for reorganizinE the building in
spector's office and safeguarding Of
the public from a repetition OF the
Knickerbocker disaster. Favorable
comment was made at this time by
members of the committee. The
supplemental estimate will have to
go before the appropriations COM
mittee, however. and no indication
of their attitude has been gained
by the Commissioners.
Five to he Engineers.
II the eight men asked are
granted by Congress. five will be
employed as engineers. and three as
field inspectors. The five engineers
will be placed on special inspection
of structural work of all larger
buildings. This work is now left
entirely to field inspectors. en-
ployed at $500 a year and having
an average of $50 buildings each to
inspect in the course of Construc-
tion. This branch of the building
department will be inaugurated es-
pecially TO block against any repe-
tition of the Knickerbocker Theater
disaster. in which it was claimed
by expert engineers that faulty con-
struction and designing was found.
Two more theaters ordered closed
a week ago last night by the Com
missioners will open their doors to-
morrow night-the Cosmos vaude-
Vile and moving picture house and
Loewe's Columbia moving picture
house. Col. Keller has made per-
sonal inspections OF both theaters
and pronounced them safe. Only
minor changes were necessary in
each. The conditions presented
hazards to patrons but did not neg
essarily make the buildings unsafe,
Col. Keller said. The changes were
completed in both places last night