The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1954-05-06

matters that had accumulated since
the regular meeting, held on April /.
The meeting convened at 7:30 p. m.
and did not adjourn until after mid
night.
Even then, all the matters that
came up were not disposed of and
as a result, another special meeting
was held on Tuesday night.
The regular monthly meeting will
be held tonight
At last Thursday nights meeting,
there was lengthy discussion re-
garding some % elderly employees
of the city, who did not choose, in
1949, to take advantage of the state
retirement plan and were, therefore,
placed in the position of not being
eligible for any pension when their
age and health would make it inn
possible for them to continue to be
employed.
Most of the men concerned are in
the low wage brackets and eight of
them are now 70 years of age, or
over.
Mayor Winslow F. Burhans sug-
gested that the Council might con-
slider a plan whereby these elderly
men, when they are no longer able
to work, be pensioned by the city at
the same rate they would have been
pensioned under the state plan had
they joined it, with the understand
ing that, in order not to place them
in a better position than the city
employees under the pension plan
who pay in a certain amount of their
wages every week towards their re-
tirement, they be paid the regular
pension for their wage scale, less the
amount that would have been taken
out of their wages, had they joined
the state pension plan.
It was pointed out that when the
state plan went into effect, all en-
ployees were given the opportunity
to join the state fund, but at that
time it was not compulsory. How
ever, today all employees hired by
the city must, once their status be-
J comes permanent, pay into the re-
tirement fund.
The case came to a head when one
of these elderly men, in the Street
Department, was not rehired after
being off some time due to illness,
during which he was paid his wages
in full.
The Council unanimously agreed
that this man should be put back on
the payroll Immediately and remain
in the employ of the city until some
sort of pension plan for these elderly
people can be worked out, and it is
expected that the Council will come
up with a definite plan in short
time.
Mayor Burhans then informed the
Council that he had been advised by
the engineer of the State Roads Com
mission that they would like to have
the authority of the city to relocate
Route 40, west of Hagerstown. The
Mayor said that the Commission
proposed to have the Dual Highway
from the east continue on w. Frank
lin Street and the traffic from the
; west continue on Washington Street,
with the following changes:
Franklin Street would be continu-
ed beyond the present dead-end, to
a point west of the city and east
bound traffic would enter the city
over an extension to be built to
| Washington Avenue.
At the present time the west bound
traffic turns left at the end of Frank
lin Street on West Side Avenue and
then right on to Route 40, and east
bound traffic comes into the city on
the present regular Route 40.
This change, of course, when the
new roads are built, would make
Washington Avenue one-way
street.
t The proposal of the Roads Com
t mission was studied at some length
and it is expected that the Council, al
their regular meeting tonight, will
| authorize the State Road Depart
ment to make the change.
} Councilman John Valentine, Of
Ward l, again took up the matter OF
providing sewerage for number Of
homes on Nottingham Road and il
was finally decided that the Mayor
and the entire Council would make
5 an immediate inspection of the road
/ and then decide, at tonight's meet
: ing, what could be done to solve the
l problem.
ii The matter of the pensions was
( brought up again at the second spe'
t cial meeting on Tuesday night anc