SPECIAL MEETING
February 4, 1944
A Special Meeting of the City Council of the City of Dover was held on the 4th day of February, 1944. The Meeting was called to order by mayor Woodford and on roll call the following members answered present: Messrs. Hinkle, Downes, LeFevre, Burton and Keith.
MUSICAL CONCERT
Upon motion of Messrs. Keith and LeFevre, the Mayor was authorized to make the necessary arrangements to secure the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra to give a concert in the Field House of the Dover Public School on Sunday, February 20th, 1944 at 3 P.M. The Mayor was authorized to spend $150.00 toward helping to defray expenses of this concert.
ORDINANCE
An ordinance entitled “AN ORDINANCE REGULATING SLAUGHTER HOUSES IN AND ADJACENT TO THE CITY OF DOVER” was passed upon the following vote:
Mr. Hinkle, yes;
Mr. Downes, yes;
Mr. LeFevre, yes;
Mr. Burton, yes;
Mr. Keith, yes.
AN ORDINANCE REGULATING SLAUGHTER HOUSES IN AND ADJACENT TO THE CITY OF DOVER
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF DOVER IN COUNCIL MET:
Section 1. That the first paragraph of Section 6 of Chapter 13 of the Ordinances of the City of Dover relating to sanitation and public health be and the same is hereby repealed, and the following inserted in lieu thereof:
That from and after the passage and approval of this ordinance, it shall be unlawful to build, erect, construct or maintain a slaughter house or abattoir for the purpose of slaughtering cattle, sheep, swine, calves or other animals used for food within the City limits of the City of Dover, or within a radius of one mile of the corporate limits of the said City of Dover, until the owner, proprietor or operator of such slaughter house or abattoir shall have first received a permit from the Council of the City of Dover, and no permit shall be granted pursuant to the provisions of this ordinance except upon the following conditions:
(a) That the owner or operator of such proposed slaughter house or abattoir shall first make written application to the Council of the City of Dover for a permit to erect, construct, maintain and operate such slaughter house or abattoir. Such application shall be in such as Council may require, and shall contain such data as Council may from time to time require. To each application there shall be attached plans and specifications in detail relating to the erection, construction, operation and maintenance of such building or structure, and also a statement or plan showing the method of disposing of the offal, refuse, hides and other waste material. The written application shall fully disclose the full name and address of the owner or operator of such establishment, and if there be more than one, then the name of each of such persons interested, together with their addresses, shall be supplied.
(b) Applicant shall agree and oblige himself or itself to comply with the rules of the State Board of Health and of the Board of Health of the City of Dover relating to the use, operation and maintenance of a slaughter house or abattoir at all times, and shall agree that upon the violation of any such rules and failure after notice of such violation to make compliance therewith, to close said building or structure until such time as compliance shall be made.
(c) Applicant shall agree that the proper officers or persons designated by the City of Dover or by the State Board of Health shall have access to the property where such business is carried on at such times as may be desired in making inspections of such plant or plants.
(d) The construction of such plant or plants shall be in keeping with the standard requirements for slaughter houses or abattoirs as shall be established by the State Board of Health or the Board of Health of the City of Dover, and all equipment used in connection with the operation of said plant shall be approved by and acceptable to the said State Board of Health and the Board of Health of the City of Dover.
SECTION 2. That Section 7 of Chapter 12 of the Ordinances of the City of Dover relating to sanitation and public health be and the same is hereby amended by adding the words “within the City of Dover or” between the comma after the word “thereto” and the word “within”, as the same appear in the second line of said Section7.
Passed February 4, 1944
____________________
Clerk
Approved February 4, 1944
______________________
Mayor
DISCUSSION OF CITY AFFAIRS
After some discussion by the Mayor and Council regarding the present affairs of the City and the activities during the administration of the new City Manager, Mr. Gilbert L. Wilcox, the floor was turned over to Mr. Wilcox and the following report was read by him.
Mayor J. Wallace Woodford and Members of City Council:
Five months of service as City Manager has afforded an opportunity to investigate the condition of the various City departments, functions and utilities, to make a critical inspection of their status as a result of the previous managership and to judge their adequacy with respect to immediate necessity and their condition with respect to the urgency of more than a minor amount of maintenance and repair.
In hiring the present City manager, you employed the education, training and experience received during twenty-one years of management of construction in all parts of the country, and the opinions stated in this report are based upon the experience gained in working with cities and utilities of all sizes in all locations throughout the country.
May of the departments and governmental functions under the supervision of the City Manager were found to be in sound working condition, but an equal number of things showed a lamentable lack of engineering foresight, construction of poor quality and very necessary preventative maintenance almost entirely omitted. In general, it has been found that many very important things had been allowed to become run-down and in such poor shape as to either endanger the uninterrupted service of that particular department or utility, or, in an apparent attempt to save money, maintenance has been omitted to a point where a greater cost is involved at the present time to rehabilitate these things than would have been necessary with periodic and continuous inspection and repair. Efficiency of organization and orderliness of management procedure has apparently received little thought in the past.
One of the points on which your City manager has had no previous experience is in the proper cost of the operation of a city this size; and with that in mind, figures were obtained on the cost of municipal governments in cities comparable in size with Dover, from all over the country. Twenty-five small cities were picked at random and the governmental costs of these cities as of October, 1943 were tabulated. Most of these cities own and operate the same utilities as the City of Dover, although some of them has less public utilities under their management, and consequently the average cost of government for these cities should be less than the cost for Dover. All of the twenty-five cities have the same form of Council-Manager government as Dover.
In averaging the cost of government for these cities, it was found that the average of the populations produced a hypothetical city of 6,500 people, which is almost exactly the number of inhabitants in Dover at the present time.
The total monthly payroll for the City of Dover as of December first, 1943, was less by $70.00 than the monthly payroll of the hypothetical city under consideration. This total figure for the City of Dover payroll includes the salary of the City Manager and the salary of the Chief Power Engineer. You will note that the payroll for the hypothetical city dates back to October of 1942, being the latest figures available; and an arbitrary increase of 10% was added to their payroll costs to include probable wage increases during the last year. This shows that the cost of government in Dover from the standpoint of total payroll has not been exorbitant, but has been less than the average of twenty-five similar cities in other parts of the United States.
In judging the financial status of the City of Dover against the expenditures which seemed necessary, due consideration was given to the difference between expenditures on account of immediate urgency and expenditures of convenience or for general improvement as a postwar measure. A list of many of the things which were considered to be run-down and in poor condition, or were thought to be necessary additions to present structures and utilities, is presented herewith. I have also included in this list a statement of the condition of governmental functions in general which are in need of study, revision and improvement, with or without an appreciable expenditure of money:
General
Spare of standby equipment in case of the breakdown of other operating equipment is almost negligible. There are many weak points where the failure of one piece of apparatus might cause an interruption due to the lack of an alternative method of taking care of that particular function or the substitution of spare equipment.
Very little in the way of maps, drawings or engineering records were kept to permit the evaluation of existing utilities; and in many cases the instruments in use to produce those records which were kept were fond to be incorrectly calibrated and not dependable. The present City mapping program supplies a portion of these deficiencies.
As previously reported, a review of electric and water rates has seemed very desirable in view of the inequity to the City of payments for these services. The study electric and water rates has been in progress.
The City of Dover operates under an inadequate, and in many cases, obsolete, building code. It is to be hoped that a revised building code can be put into effect.
The automotive equipment owned by the City was found to be in a deplorable condition due to the lack of responsibility of any one person for proper inspection and maintenance. It is probably that the upkeep of automotive equipment has been far more expensive than it would have been had foresight been used in trying to prevent breakdowns before they occurred. The present automotive repair department was instituted as a result of this condition.
The steam flow meter measuring the steam sold by our power plant to the Latex Corporation has been inoperative since last spring and the Latex Corporation has not been billed for steam consumed since July. The flow meter has been moved to a new location and will be placed in service during the week of February 7th.
Painting has been omitted almost entirely from structures and equipment owned by the City. This not only gives visually evidence of a run-down condition and poor supervision, but also results in the more rapid deterioration of these structures and equipment. The grandstand, bleachers and fence around the ball park were in such poor condition that it was considered a hazard to permit use of the par in as much as a serious accident could occur to anyone as a result of the failure of a portion of the grandstand or bleachers. It was necessary to completely close up the ball park.
INSURANCE
Only $1000 worth of insurance has been carried on the main switchboard in the power plant.
No fire insurance has been carried on the Water Street Recreation Center.
The limits on public liability and property damage insurance on automotive vehicles is not the same for all pieces of equipment, although there is no apparent reason why there should be a greater risk by the use of some equipment than by others. It was found that no PL & PD at all was carried on a few vehicles which travel the City streets and which are just as likely to be involved in an accident as any others.
No comprehensive PL & PD insurance is carried to protect the City against suit as a result of the many risks to which the general public is exposed. A plan for comprehensive insurance of this character is being prepared and will be submitted to Council at a later date. no holdup insurance is carried upon the City payroll in transit between the bank and the City Hall, nor while the money is kept in the City Hall. No collision insurance is carried on any fire equipment. An insurance survey has been made, and the general insurance carried by the City is now being reorganized by your City Manager.
PURCHASING AND STOREKEEPING
In the past, purchasing was carried out in a very disorderly and inefficient fashion with few records kept, and store keeping was almost negligible. Requisitions for the purchase of any material or equipment were made verbally, and in many cases the actual purchase was completed verbally, with a formal purchase order submitted at a later date. Material received was never delivered at one central point, but was dropped off at the City Hall, the power plant, the warehouse or the sewage disposal plant by the vendor’s truck, without regard to the ultimate destination of the articles; and no plan was put into effect for the proper checking of such materials, nor any receipt of material furnished to the City Clerk for his authorization in paying the invoices on bills submitted.
SEWAGE DISPOSAL PLANT
There is need at the present time for an addition digester tank in order to permit the efficient operation of the various portions of the plant.
In the construction of the plant, no provision was made for the measurement of the volume of total sewage handled. This is one of the most important “yardsticks” for the management of the sewage disposal works in order to judge properly the adequacy of the plant at different times in the year and with the increase in the population of the City. The sludge house is too small, and an addition should be built to permit the proper drying of sludge.
WATER DEPARTMENT
The National Board of Fire Underwriters is recognized as the highest authority in judging the needs of any community with respect to the capacity of the water supply system to take care of fire demand. You are advised that the total well capacity, or the total pumping capacity, of the City of Dover is only about 55% of the amount recommended by the Board of Fire Underwriters for a city the size of Dover. Water storage in the one tank owned by the City are in many cases so old as to be inoperative, and HTE spacing of fire plugs in various localities is hardly in keeping with the valuation of the properties to be protected and creates a definite hardship upon the Fire Department to find enough water to fight an ordinary fire. In many cases the water mains are too small for proper fire protection, and the fire Department has experienced much difficulty on many occasions in obtaining sufficiently large fire streams to permit them to operate efficiently. The possibility of a disastrous fire due to lack of water is not beyond conception. No fire alarm system has ever been installed, even in the business section of the City, to enable the Fire Department to be notified with the greatest possible speed after a fire is discovered. Anyone noticing a fire during the night would have to go either to the City Hall or the Fire House in order to report the existence of such a fire.
SEWERS
In many sections of the City sewers are inadequate due to the grades being too flat, the size of sewer too small or the fact that the sewer has been laid too close to the surface of the ground to permit extension with the growth of the City. No separate storm water system has been installed, resulting in the sewage disposal system being loaded to capacity during heavy storms. Insufficient catch basins have been installed in various sections of the City to adequately take care of storm drainage. The sanitary sewer from some of the buildings near State Street and Loockerman Street discharges on the grass in the hollow east of the City Hall.
POWER HOUSE
There is no proper grounding system in existence for lighting arrestors and the grounding of equipment, and it is proposed to install an adequate system along with the installation of the new switchgear. Lighting arrestor connections should be improved.
A temporary arrangement of lighting has been installed to improve the lighting of the old switchboard. Other lighting changes are contemplated throughout the entire plant such as the providing of centralized cabinets which will remove lighting circuits from their present hazardous location behind the old switchboard, and which will be arranged to relieve overloaded circuits. All power and lighting circuits are to be traced and blue-printed, and also steam and water piping. A new toilet and lavatory have been installed to replace the old ones which were obsolete and unsanitary.
An office was installed for the use of the Power Engineer and may be used as headquarters for the line foreman. A small laboratory has been installed for the testing of boiler feed water to replace the inadequate box arrangement which was in use. This laboratory will also serve as an office for the plant engineer.
A new steam-driven pump has been purchased to replace the existing make-up pump which was second-hand when installed and which is now worn and patched beyond further repair. The present basement pump is small and the basement pump now in use is not capable of pumping against the present head. Experiments with a new discharge piping arrangement will be tried before nay radical changes are made in this instance.
TRANSMISSION LINES
The distribution system should be equipped with a grounded neutral secondary in accordance with the Underwriters’ code. Ground rods and lighting arrestor connections should be tested and checked. Poles are to be replaced in various sections, and transformers are to be painted where rusting. More suitable insulators should be installed on 6900 volt lines as partial answer to complaints of radio interference along the Bay Road.
Underground sections of cable in the vicinity of the Air Base are to be equipped with pot heads to prevent further breakdown due to moisture.
There are a large number of poles throughout the entire system which should be guyed and many others whose guys should be tightened or relocated. In many instances guy arm braces should be provided. Guy insulators should be installed in all guys not now so provided. There are several broken insulators to be replaced. Dead end insulators should replace pin insulators. Many poles are leaning badly and should be straightened. Installation of a third phase wire to Little Creek to relieve the unbalanced load condition on the so-called Little Creek circuit is recommended.
On the west end of Division Street, and in the vicinity of the Booker T. Washington School, the present cross arms should be replaced by standard six pin arms to allow wider spacing between lines. In several areas throughout the distribution system, excessive slack in the lines should be taken up.
Instruction and practice in artificial respiration is to be started this month, with the line crew and members of the operating force participating.
The line truck has been furnished with several necessary, small tools. Rubber gloves have been tested and rubber blankets, sleeves and pigs have been inspectied.
PUMP HOUSES
The door at the water tower pump house has been repaired and the interior wiring will be improved as soon as possible. The motor control contacts have been cleaned and reparied and this pump is now in service.
The two pump buildings at the power house should be replaced by more durable structures. The doors on these buildings have also been repaired, and a new watthour meter has been ordered to replace one which is several times overloaded.
A safe platform has been installed on the coal tower to replace the exceedingly unsafe planks which were in use.
HOUSE SERVICES
All meters in accessible locations are to be installed in more accessible outdoor locations to facilitate meter reading.
WAREHOUSE AND GARAGE
All wiring is being renewed as rapidly as possible to safeguard against fire.
DISPOSAL PLANT
An electric heater and necessary conduit and wiring are to be installed in the chlorinating room to guard against freezing at night. A control switch with suitable protective devices should be installed on the blower motor and also a safety switch of suitable size where the circuit taps on to the heavy entrance switch.
Minor motor repairs are necessary on the circulating pumps.
A number of testing instruments, including a meggar for the testing of insulation resistance, have been ordered, but are not received up to this time.
The immediate requirements of the City of Dover as disclosed by my investigation, and as outlined in the above paragraphs, made it desirable to increase the City payroll by the addition of a few men to take care of those jobs which seemed of greatest importance. In as much as the electric utility has increased its load by about 33% during the past year, and as the electric utility is the biggest money maker for the City of Dover, there seemed no question in the mind of the City Manager but that the weaknesses in the power plant and in the distribution lines were the first things which should be attacked and gradually cured. Since the tabulation of figures, mentioned earlier in this report, concerning the total cost of government of Dover and other cities of the same size, we have added two electricians and one helper to the City payroll. We have also added an additional maintenance man at the power plant.
The purchase of tools and material has been authorized by the City Manager for many departments, in order to bring them out of their run-down condition and to gradually rehabilitate the electric utility and, to a lesser extent, the other departments of the City. There is no question but what the cost of government of the City of Dover has been slightly increased since September 1, 1943 as a result of the direct orders of your City manager. The grapevine system has brought to my ears the fact that considerable criticism is being directed against me due to the fact that the present cost of government of this City exceeds the cost under the leadership of my predecessor. I admit this fact; and rather than feel that I am unfair to my employers the City Council of Dover, I am proud to feel that I am making these expend8itures when the urgency of them is so clear, at least to me, and when the result of these expenditures will produce a better and more efficiently managed City. I would rather subject myself to the criticism of spending money and accomplishing something thereby than to be able to show a comfortable bank balance to the City Council while the City itself is badly in need, in many cases, of very necessary repair and modernization. You are paying now at a much higher cost for expenditures which should have been made during the years past, when it would have been much easier to keep the City functions operating efficiently than to let them become run-down.
The purpose of this report is to outline to the members of Council the conditions as I fond them when I took office in September and my plans for the curing of the evils now existing. This report is more necessary in view of the fact that the criticisms directed against the present management have not been voiced openly to your Manager, nor an opportunity permitted for him to answer these criticisms, but have been discussed on the street and in stores and offices to the disparagement of your present Manager. It is my wish that Council will give consideration to this report and will indicate to me either their disapproval of my method of mangement or their confidence in me in carrying out the plans I have started.
Respectfully yours,
GILBERT L. WILCOX,
City Manager
Upon motion of Messrs. LeFevre and Hinkle, the City Manager was given a vote of confidence and the mayor was authorized to publish an article in the Dover newspapers showing the progress of the City affairs during the administration of our new City Manager.
Letters
A letter was read from Lt. Birchfield, the Post Engineer at the Dover Army Air Base, regarding the failure of electric service at the Dover Air Base during the last few months.
A letter was read from Thomas E. Baker, Chief of the Fire Department, reporting shortage of water supply and fighting fires in certain locations of the City and making recommendations for improvement in this service.
Council adjourned at 10:15 P.M.
Signed: (Joseph O. Willis)
City Clerk