The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1949-05-19
AROUND 7sDWA
WITH THE EDITOR

and said that if the old Municipal
Stadium was turned over to them as
a non-profit organization they would |
make an up-to-date stadium of it
and run it on behalf of the city. This
was agreed to, and in furtherance of
their plans the Field Athletic Asso-
citation put on ''Dollar-A-Board'
campaign to build fence around
the stadium, which the baseball fans
of Hagerstown subscribed to to the
tune of some $4,000. This gave the
Athletic Association somewhere
around $4,000 to work with, and
that money was used to build the
present grandstand and the fence.
Now the Council has just ordered
the City Attorney to kick the Field
Athletic Association out and repos-
sess the stadium and all its assets,
completely losing sight of the fact
that, apart from the injustice done
the Field Athletic Association who
have worked for years without any
remuneration of any sort, have
practically invited .Oren Sterling,
the president of the Hagerstown
Baseball Club, to make other ar
rangements for his ball club. For
it seems to me that anyone with
grain of sense could see that no pro-
motor of professional baseball would
take the risk of signing a contract
with a Mayor and Council, which
could be changed at the whim of
the Council each season.
l sincerely hope that this hasty
action of the Council in ordering the
City Attorney to repossess the ball
park, will be reconsidered, and that
the matter will be approached in a
proper businesslike manner and not
settled until all the facts in the
case have been established.
We are all used to various city
and county organizations and de-
partments who receive funds from
either the city or county, or from
Doth, sending out printed or mime
ographed financial report each year,
but it remained for the Washington
County Public Health Association,
of which Gen. Joseph w. Bryon is
president, to go step further than
this and to invite the public to their
annual meeting last week, so that
they could hear first hand just eX-
actly how the taxpayers money is
being spent.
/ Another refreshing part of the
! meeting was the presidents state
ment that the organization was get
ting ample funds from the city and
county, and that he and members of
his organization felt that the tax
payers should know just exactly
! how their money was being eXpend-
ed and why it was being expended.
And with this thought in mind he
called on the various officers of the
Health Department to give brief re-
ports on their work.
For instance, Mrs. Schroeder, the
nursing supervisor, explained the
necessary qualifications for staff
nurses, and then introduced each
of the nurses, and they in turn gave
reports on their own actual work,
such as cancer clinics, tuberculosis
mass surveys, orthopedics, crippled
children's work, the school health
program, children and maternity
clinics, and the like.
Doctor Prather, county health Of
ficer, also touched on other phases
of the Departments activity.
When the meeting was over ev-
eryone present had clear-cut pic
ture of what the Washington Coun-
ty Public Health Association was
doing, and they left the meeting
with firm conviction that it was
not only doing a good job, but that
its activities were ably directed
Let's have more of these public
meetings of organizations whose
funds are supplied by the taxpayers.