The Daily Alaska empire., 1944-09-28
CITY ENGINEER
 TELLSCHAMBER
 OF CITY NEEDS
Hugh Antrim Informs Civic Group of Improvements
 Required in Juneau

HOlilJlllS OuJ VO SlldiiibCl VI OOlli- merce members, as the largest group of taxpayers in the going business of the City of Juneau, " that the City needs many improve ments in it's streets, sewers and building inspection, City Engineer Hugh Antrim pointed out that the city of Juneau spends $250,000 a year for maintenance and improve ment of city property and func- tions. However, he said more had to be done in the way of improve ment.
 He said the sewers always needed repair work and that some of them were inadequate and others "just not there" Antrim said it would cost an estimated $4,500 to put in 500 feet of pipe in downtown Ju- neau so 20 buildings and houses could be connected to sewers.
 Antrim then said that out of l21a miles of streets in the cor porate city limits, three and one fourth miles were paved but out of streets now paved, one and one half miles must be paved over again. This, he said, would cost at least S40.000.
 Boat HarbOr Repairs
 The small boat harbor, which he said, brings revenue only indirectly to the city by persuading fisher men and other small boat owners to make their homes here, is in constant need of repairs. At present new piling are to be installed and installation of piling costs a lot of money.
 Antrim said these were just three of the problems facing the city and at present there were no funds in the city treasury that were not all ready appropriated elsewhere. In concluding this part of his talk he said, T do not propose the answer, I leave the problem to you"
 Under Fire
 Antrim then pointed out the du- ties of the building inspector in enforcing the building code He stated he had been under. fire several. times for attempting toeen- force the codes which he calls, mot an arbitrary piece of paper" He said, When I first took over the job one taxpayer came to me and said, You had better not start in on my property until you have Joe Doakes, the big taxpayer, fix up his. If you do will get your job"
 Antrim then asserted it was his duty as City Engineer and building Inspector to enforce the codes i'm partially. Building codes are necessary part of civic law" He then pointed out that eight fires had been started in the past few weeks by defective wiring, a con- dition which "could be remedied."
 Fire Hazard
 The City Engineer added that de- fective or improperly built chim- neys could besa fire hazard, saying he had GA buildings on his list with metal chimneys going out through the roof Some of these are in the Indian village, over which the city has no jurisdiction.
 The Chamber of Commerce Ex- ecutive Committee is sending a letter to the City Council asking that Roberts Row be condemned, as it constitutes a fire menace to the Juneau Lumber Mills, being built alongside their storage shed.
 Antrif4 said that condemnation Iof any building is up to the council, the engineer merely being able to post vacate sign on dan- gerous structures.
 Other business to come before the Chamber at it's meeting was letter to the council asking for |check-up on all autos using city streets. The letter stated that many autos were defective and thus con- stituted a danger, especially to children.
 The Chamber members voted to send a letter of coincidence to Mrs. H. L. Wood, whose husband, Pastor H. L. Wood, of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, and an active Chamber member, was killed last Sunday in the crash of his plane at Kaasan Bay.
 Guests at today's meeting were Clarence Bands of Sitka, Max Try mucha and Edward R. Herzog of Seattle.