Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1931-02-26
TO TAXPAYERS AND CITIZENS
OF MORGAN COUNTY

lady, connected with the Parent
Teacher association of McConnels-
ville-Malta, came to my office and
requested me to recommend to my
board of health that it employ a
school nurse for the year 1881.
l explained to her why l could not
do SO. She said the p. T. A. would
pay all expenses and the nurses sal
ary. / asked her how much money
the association had; and her reply
was that it had about $500 or $500.
/ pointed out to her that that was
not half enough money to secure
and employ nurse; that the nurses
and her expenses would run from
$500 to $500.
She went away dissatisfied-but
determined. / was not again ap-
preached by the lady nor her CO.
workers; but they went to DR.. Leep-
er, president of our board of health,
and asked him to call joint meet
ing of the health board and repre-
sentatives of the p. T. A. With my
ready consent, he did so.
The meeting was held; but the
less said about it the better. Twas
a noisy feast of unreason-with pas
sion and prejudice as tools of the
table. l sought to explain my rea-
sons for the stand / had taken: but
they gave little heed They desired
the board to make budget includ-
ing a fifteen-hundred-d dollars -a-year
nurse and her expenses-with only
$3.50 of aid offered by them. They
made promises freely-yes; but
promises don't go into budgets.
The meeting failed to accomplish
anything-except to stir up rancor
and animosity Under the law, my
board can not employ nurse,
clerk, or any other official, unless l
so recommend; and I firmly refused
to commend-because I saw that
in the end it would put further
burden upon the backs of the hard
hit taxpayers of Morgan county.
I thought the whole matter set
tied, the idea abandoned-until, on
the seventh of this month, 1 re.
ceived from DR.. Lippert, chief of
the division of child hygiene, state
department of health, copy of a
letter he had written in reply to
letter he had received from the lady
who first approached me upon the
subject of a school nurse. But he
sent me no copy of the lady's let
ter of complaint; he simply went
without his province to condemn me,
and suggest how 1 might be put out
of office-without my knowing the
charges against me or having an
opportunity to say word in self
defense
Such injustice aroused my ire
and l quickly went into action. II
wrote DR.. Lippert a rather curt and
caustic communication, demanding
a copy Of the lady's letter; and ! got
the copy-pronto; also 1 received a
letter of apology from DR.. Lippert. |
Speaking incidentally, I understand
that DR.. Lippert got hauling over
the Goals. by his superiors-that :
scorched his skin until it smelled
Now I'm going to tear the Iady's |
letter piece-meal, and comment up
on the parts l shall quote.
"Conditions in our health de-
partment are in an unheaval"
Well, who the heck started the |
"upheaval?"
I didn't!
My board didn't,
The lady further stated:
However, he refuses to certify |
to our board of health that we
should have this nurse, even though
we placed funds, held in trust, with
our budget commission, to operate
the service"
This is patent and fragrant at
tempt to deceive the state health de-
partment and prejudice it against
the health commissioner of Morgan
county. The best reply to such
prepared mis-statement is
the following from our county treas
urer:
'McConnelsville, o., Feb. IA, 1881.
This is to certify that I, w. H.
Norm, treasurer of Morgan county,
Ohio, have in my office in trust 4
check of $3.50, given by the Parent
Teacher association, to be used in
securing county health nurse
w. H. NORM, treasurer of Morgan
|,
So-that's that.
The other $3.50 of the nurses sal
ary and all her expenses would have
10 be paid by the county. And that
ISN'T all-isn't the beginning, hard
". A school nurse is not a bed
side nurse; she does not go out and
nurse cases. She may be sent out,
oy the health commissioner, to give
advice and direction in certain cases
that is all. And, as school nurse. [
she can only make Inspections
and measuring, testing Wis {