The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1947-12-04
Around Town Will.
The Editor
The die has been cast.

The die has been cast.
BY the votes of Councilmen j.
Frank Elliott, Jack Hellane and T.
Aubrey Kemp, constituting ma
jority of the five-man City Council,
the Board of Street Commissioners
has been ordered and directed" to
purchase diesel engines to augment
the output of the Municipal Light
Plant.
What the result of this action will
be, only time can tell-and like
wise, how many diesels will be
ordered, or when they will be in
stalled and actually in operation, is
another question mark.
The Executive Board of the Man
ufacturers Bureau held a meeting
on Tuesday night, but the results of
their deliberations were not avail
able up to the time we went to press.
/ understand, however that a state
ment from the Bureau may be ex-
pected in few days.
A combined meeting of the Mayor
and Council and the Board of Street
Commissioners is sheduled for to-
night, and no doubt they will de-
eide on the procedure to be follow
ed in carrying out the directive of
the Council.
Presumably they will have to call
in engineering experts-it will be
interesting to see how their present
consultant, Mr.. Woods, reacts to the
councils directive, since he is known
to be opposed to the use of diesels-
and they will also, I presume, dis
euss the possibility of the light plant
losing some of the industries that are
now using city current, and what
effect that would have on the plant
from both the immediate emerg-
ency and the long-range expansion
program points of view.
My Congratulations to Winslow
Burhans for his series of articles on
the schools, illustrated with his own
pictures, that have been appearing
in the Daily Mail. They constitute
a terrific indictment of the Wash
ington County Boards of Education
Of the past twenty years.
The articles-and particularly the
pictures depict condition that has
existed in many of the county
schools for years and years, with
little or no attempt being made to
remedy them Every time the
school building program is discus
sed, mention is made of the county
schools-some nineteen or twenty
in number-that have, for years and
years, been without running water
or inside toilets. But when funds
are voted for school building pur-
poses or maintenance, they have
never been used to remedy this dis
graceful condition.
In this column, in our issue of No
vember IS, 1 stated that Mr.. British,
superintendent of schools, phoned
me that plans were well underway
to install toilets and running water
at Mt. Lena School, and that he ex-
pected the work to be completed by
the end of the J Ear l am told,
however, by M Burhans, who
visited the school while writing his
series of articleSy that there is no
sign of any work being started.
And I also understand that the bid
the Board of Education got for the
job was $4,000, with the result that
the Board is now trying to get new
bids.
At the reception the Elks Lodge
gave for the High School football
squad on Tuesday night, Eddie Sem
Ter, their head coach, made an ell
oquent plea for modern stadium
for the high school; other groups
want new schools built; and l I'M
derstand that there is talk of a pub
lie meeting being called to discuss
the whole question
If'and when that meeting is called,
4 hope that, whatever other action
is taken, top priority be given to
the modernization of the schools
that lack water and toilets-and that
ia resolution will be passed unani-
lmously at the meeting, calling for
the correction of this deplorable
condition before cent is spent for
any other purpose.