The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-11-13
COUNTY BOARD
VOTES RELIEF
AT POOR FARM
First Step Taken, After IA
Years Effort, to Better
Living Conditions.
SHEARER FIGHTS MOVE
Commissioner Says Letting
of Dormitory Contract Is
Absolute Waste.

After fourteen years of inadequate
housing facilities at the Marion
county poor farm, county authori-
ties today took the first step to allie
viate crowded conditions under
which inmates are living.
Contract for construction Of a
mems temporary dormitory, work to
be started at once, with view to
relieving crowded conditions this
winter, was let today by county
commissioners to the Elliott-Myers
Construction Company, on a bid OF
$14,873.
The contract was approved by
Commissioners George Snider and
Dow Vorhies, majority members of
the board, with John E. Shearer,
minority member, refusing to ap-
prove the project.
Awarding of the contract paves
way for partial solution of evils
which have been pointed out by
every grand jury since 1914.
Relief Urged for Years
These grand juries, some of which
bitterly condemned the poor farm
facilities as examples of a politi-
cally managed institution" in al
most every instance urged inmedi-
ate relief for the aged and infrm
residing in the institution.
Refusal of Shearer to approve the
contracts and to sign bonds for the
construction echoes long fight be-
tween commissioners, in which
many plans were advanced as So
lutions.
Shearer today branded the prof.
ect IAN absolute waste OF county
money, in view of the fact that the
entire institution is to be moved to
Julietta in 1884"
The transfer will be made under
agreement with the state, in which
the Central State hospital is to
move insane patients to the present
infirmary site.
Called Immediate Need
Snider and Vorhies asserted that
inmates must be housed warmly
through the winters of 1922 and
1888 "a.
'The dormitory is an absolute
need, if further fire hazard is to be
prevented" they declared.
Erection of the new dormitory
will solve to great extent, &C
cording to commissioners, the perils
under which male inmates are forced
to live in the present structure. The
latter is a three-story, brick build
ing more than thirty years old, and
has been condemned by state fire
marshal's Office as "a fire trap, I'M
fit for human occupancy"
Less than a year ago State Fir
Marshal Alfred Hogston issued al
order for immediate vacation of tn,
building, but the order was rescind
I'd temporarily to permit county au
thorities to arrange for substitute
quarters.
Byron Carter, acting superintend
emit of the irffirmary, recently statet
that space limitations in the men
quarters constitute a grave question
this winter.
Place Is damned
More than 500 aged men ar
TANNED into the building, with onl
bed space allotted to each. Straw
tick cots have been crammed int
dark and unsafe corridors to accom-
modate the eyer-increasing popula
ton, Carter said.
Possibility of suit contestin
award of the bid to the Elliott.
Myers company doomed today, witt
charges Of Floyd M. Cooley, head o
the Cooley Construction Compan,
that the contract was not awarded
to THE lowest bidder.
Coohy's bid was $11,700, NOR
than $4,000 under the Elliott-Myel
bid.
In a statement to The Times
Cooley charged commissioners will
ignoring his bid, and indicated h
will file suit contrasting legality o
1ettinv the contract to ElliOt-Ndyel