The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1949-08-11
News Of
City Hall

A short meeting of the Mayor
and Council was held on Thursday
night, at which the following action
was taken:
| Approval of dedication of new
streets in the new Hamilton Homes
addition to the city was given. 1t
/ is understood that the new addition
will provide close to 40 new homes.
The Mayor and Council ordered
all Hagerstown fire companies to
halt any plans they might have for
selling their extra fire trucks. This
was taken due to the fact that new
fire companies Zone in the South
End, one in the North End, and one
at Halfway are contemplated, and
these trucks might be well used to
get these companies started.
Approval was given of an or
dinance providing for a five-man
municipal planning and coming COM
mission. The commission will con-
sist of five members Gall serving
without pay with the Mayor acting
as a member exoficio and the
other four members are shortly
to be appointed by the Mayor, sub
ject to the approval of the Council.
The Board of Public Works met on
Tuesday night, and in addition to
routine matters, here is what took
place
Light Plant Superintendent Dan
iels reported on the status of the
new equipment in the Light Plant,
after which Commissioner Ward
stated that the plant was in very
healthy condition, with the gross
/ revenue for the first seven months
of 1949 being $4,000 over the same
period last year. As reported in
this column a couple of weeks back,
the commissioner also stated that
the electricity generated for the
same period was 100000 XIV
higher than last year.
Some weeks ago the board APP
proved contracts for the purchase
of gasoline and lubricating grease
for the coming year, and at Tuesday
nights meeting they approved the
following contracts for lubricating
oil: one contract was awarded the
Sherwood Oil Company for automo-
bile oil at price of 43 cents gal
Ion, and contract was also award
ed the Shell Oil Company for heavy
duty oil at a price of SO cents a
gallon.
On the motion of Police Commits
sioner Ellinger, authority was CIV
en- for the FBI to make a complete
survey of the City Police Depart
Iment and make whatever recon-
mendations they thought were nee
essary for its improvement. Com
missioner Ellinger pointed out that
the FBI has specially trained men
for this type of work and that they
are conducting such surveys at va
rious police departments through
out the country. He also pointed
out that the service is entirely free.
Also on the motion of Commits
sioner Ellinger, change was auth
orized in the set-up of the city de-
tective force, which consists of John
E. Rohrer, Clarence Carroll and
Norman Wolfe. Under the old set
UP Rohrer was the detective SER
geant, and the detective force work
ed as a separate unit, but under the
new set-up, the three detectives
will all have the same rating, and
they will work with the three po-
lice shifts, the three detectives ro-
tating each month from one shift
to another.
Commissioner Ellinger's mo-
ton, which was approved unani-
mously, is as follows:
ITO increase the efficiency of our
detective department with a view
to giving more complete coverage
for the city, l move that we abolish
the office of Detective Sergeant,
placing all members of the detec-
tive department on an equal foot
ing.
Furthermore, move that we
instruct Acting Captain Brown to
use one detective on each shift, I'M
der the supervision of the sergeant
in charge of that shift, rotating
shifts each successive month.
This change to take effect at
once, or when the next changeover
date occurs"