Smyrna times., 1945-01-11
LEGISLATORS
MAKE TOUR
Visit State Welfare Home,
State College for ColOred
and Delaware Colony
REQUESTS FOR POSTWAR

Members of the 1945 General AS
sembly who spent three days visit
ing state institutions in prepara-
tion for the sessions at which budg-
cts will be planned completed their
tour Monday with visits at the
State Welfare Home, State College
for Colored Students, and the Del
aware Colony. At the colony and
the welfare home they were pre-
sented with requests for immediate
and postwar repairs and additions
to cost S870,90O. The State Col
lege also listed a building program
but its cost was not estimated.
Welfare Home Has Program
DR.. c. ]. Prickett, superintendent
of the State Welfare Home, out
lined repairs, improvements and a
10-year building program, totalling
1854, ,275. The most urgent build
ing need, he said, is for unit for
Negroes. The present building he
explained, is greatly overcrowded.
He recommended building to
house $50 residents, estimated to
cost $244, 900. Space for the ad-
mission of chronically ill cases
would be provided in such struc-
ture. DR.. Prickett said that the
buildings of the home need paint
ing, caulking, roofing, plumbing
and heating repairs, replacement of
electrical equipment, and other re-
pairs, estimated to cost total of
$33, 400. Listing needs for a To-
year building program, the superin-
tendent said the home needs a SER
vice building to house cars and a
repair shop at $26,S75; and a new
sewage disposal plant, at $4,000.
He also recommended special
building to house 100 cases of
senile psychosis to be transferred
from the State Hospital at Farm
hurst. DR.. Prickett said the home
has 1858 guests, and operates at a
cost per day per guest of 96.8
cents, which legislators said is ap-
parently the lowest per capita cost
among state institutions. He said
the home is greatly undermanned,
having SO employees where 80 are
normally. required. The home has
five vacancies and waiting list of
16.
Delaware Colony
Howard T. Ennis, superintendent
of the Delaware Colony, which is
for the feeble-minded presented a
building repair program to cost
S336,625. He said new cottages
are needed to care for delinquent
mentally deficient boys and girls
for whom there is now no special
provision. A separate cottage to
house about 40 boys would cost
about $4,000, he said. The need
for similar cottage for girls is
less urgent, he continued. All the
mentally deficient except idiots
should be trained to the limit of
their capabilities, to help them be-
come as useful as possible to them
selves and society. Mr.. Ennis said
that 200 to 800 of the colony's 469
patients are inadequately trained
because of the lack of facilities. He
recommended construction of a
school to cost $4,000. Also need
ed, he said, are living quarters for
the staff, at $4,000; warehouse
at $4,000, nursery cottage at
$50, 900; and an athletic field at
$4,000. Another major addition
suggested is the construction of
two cottages for epideptics at a
total cost of $4,000. Mr.. Ennis
recommended that all epileptics be
committed to the Delaware State
Hospital, but said that if they are
not the new buildings should be
provided at the colony. In addition
he listed urgently needed repairs
and requirements to cost S36,625.
The superintendent said the insti-
tuition is practically self-sufficient as
to food, and operates at daily per
capita cost of S1.04. There are rs
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