JUSTIFICATION FOR RESTORATION It is respectfully recommended that all these items be restored with the exception of $25 for the Dennison Vocational School and $75 for the Banneker Junior High School. These two items are omitted because these school buildings will come into use toward the end of the school year. Restoration of the following items is requested: Equipment for beginning the establishment of a general science laboratory in the Abbot Vocational School___ Supplies for science laboratories at the following schools: Vocational, divisions 1-9: Abbot Vocational School: 1 general science laboratory at $50----- Phelps Vocational School: 1 general science laboratory at $50---- Junior High, divisions 1-9: Deal Junior High School: 1 general science laboratory at $50. Total... Not specified. Grand total..-- $225 This appropriation is used to provide supplies, apparatus, and equipment for science laboratories in vocational schools, junior-high schools, senior-high schools, and teachers' colleges. It is also for the purpose of providing for the repair and replacement of existing equipment in these laboratories. Establishment of general science laboratory, Abbot Vocational School.-Since the vocational schools were raised to the junior-high school level these schools are being gradually provided with general science laboratories and other educational facilities found in the junior high schools; $225 of the increase requested in this item is for the purpose of beginning the equipping of a general science laboratory in the Abbot Vocational School, which school does not now have such a laboratory. The establishment of this general science laboratory will make it possible to give instruction in general science comparable to the offerings in the junior high schools and other vocational schools. The standard cost of this equipment for a general science laboratory is $1,300. The $225 asked for will make it possible to provide a demonstration desk and a microscope as a start in equipping the laboratory. Supplies for laboratories, vocational schools and junior high schools.-The allowance of $50 for 1 school year for each general science laboratory in the several schools indicated is for supplies for use in classroom work and not for apparatus and equipment. During the fiscal year 1938-39 additions to the Deal Junior High School and the Paul Junior High School will be completed, each school being provided with one additional general science laboratory. No appropriation has yet been made for classroom instruction in general science in the Abbott, Phelps, and Margaret Murray Washington Vocational Schools. The present appropriation is barely sufficient to maintain the laboratories. The reduction of $1,400 for purposes not specified would result in reducing the purchases of supplies and equipment for the various laboratories to a degree endangering efficient instruction. This is particularly true in the face of rising prices for materials and apparatus as indicated in the following tables: (Tables on file with committee.) PUBLIC SCHOOLS BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS Page 32, line 14, change to "$64,000." The estimate furnished December 18, 1937, by Capt. H. S. Bishop, Jr., Assistant Engineer Commissioner, District of Columbia, amounted to $64,000, which is the minimum sum. LAND JEFFERSON JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL Page 34, in line 3, omit the period and insert the following language: "for the latter purpose without restriction as to the area in southwest Washington within which said building may be located." JUSTIFICATION The House restriction as to location of the school prevents acquisition of a site which may be better suited for the erection of a junior high school than a site within the restricted area. The District of Columbia government already holds title to a tract of land originally purchased as a site for this school lying outside of the circumscribed area, and it might prove not only economically more practical but also administratively sounder to secure additional land adjacent to this owned strip, or to secure an entirely new site elsewhere in the southwest. The restrictive language furthermore virtually compels erection of the new school on land immediately adjacent to the present structure-a procedure of questionable desirability because of its proximity to the railroad and because of the amount and shape of the land possible of acquisition for such a purpose. FIRE DEPARTMENT FOR REPAIRS TO APPARATUS Page 39, line 9, change "$35,000' to '$45,000." Estimate, 1939__ Elimination by House of Representatives.. Allowed.. 35, 000 This appropriation is used for the repair and reconditioning of the Department's firefighting apparatus, tools, appliances, and equipment; and for all replacements of minor equipment such as ladders, extinguishers, nozzles, gas masks, oxygenbreathing apparatus, etc. It is also use for the maintenance of the repair shop including supplies and machinery. Labor accounts for $24,388 of the charges against the appropriation, and with the reduced figure, this would leave only $10,612 for repair parts, replacement of equipment and appliances, shop maintenance, and repairs to the fireboat. It is understood that the House committee made the reduction in this appropriation because of the new fire apparatus provided in recent years, on the premise that such new equipment would be less subject to need for repairs, and therefore less costly to maintain. This is no doubt true, but it should be borne in mind that the department must maintain 107 pieces of wheeled apparatus in regular service, and approximately 23 in reserve; and that each year additional pieces of this equipment reach an age when repairs become more frequent. Also the new equipment carried in the 1939 Budget will not be received until toward, or after, the end of that fiscal year, due to the time required for soliciting bids and building the apparatus. Also, even new apparatus is sometimes extensively damaged in accidents, and repairs in such cases are often costly. For the above reasons it is earnestly requested that the Budget figure, $45,000, be restored. HEALTH DEPARTMENT Page 40, line 4, following the word "service" insert the words "without reference to section 3709 of the Revised Statutes." It is proposed to obtain these investigational services from the Social Service Exchange, an existing organization in the District of Columbia, where the information for which the appropriation is made is solely available. To remove any question of doubt as to the right of the Commissioners to enter into a contract with this particular organization, it is proposed that there be added to the appropriation item the words "without reference to section 3709 of the Revised Statutes." NURSING SERVICE Page 42, line 1, change "$143,440" to read “$151,540.” This difference in appropriation amounting to $8,100 would reestablish the addition of five junior nurses, at $1,620 each, as recommended by the Federal Bureau of the Budget. The department of health, in its Bureau for Public Health Nursing, operates at present with a staff of 84 field nurses. The standard for public-health nursing, according to the American Public Health Association, calls for 1 nurse for each 2,000 population. On the basis of this ratio the District of Columbia should have about 300 public-health nurses. Even when the nurses of private agencies, such as the Instructive Visiting Nurse Society, are added to those of the official agencies, the total of public-health nurses is less than half the required standard. It should be further noted that 18, or about one-fourth of the present number of field nurses in the department of health, are between the ages of 50 and 63 years. Obviously the producing power of this group of nurses, who must be on their feet all day in all kinds of weather, is materially lessened. Therefore, any addition to the department's staff of nurses will help to make this service more effective. TUBERCULOSIS SANATORIA PERSONAL SERVICES Page 44, line 11, change "$335,980" to "$362,740". For the fiscal year 1939, the Budget Bureau made very exhaustive studies in preparing the budget for the hospitals of the District of Columbia. They employed the services of a hospital expert who made many visits to the institution and considered the needs of the sanatorium in great detail. After this exhaustive study had been made, the Budget Bureau recommended an increase for personal services that would put the institution on a basis approaching accepted standards, and we feel that any reduction in the number of positions that were recommended by the Budget Bureau would very seriously jeopardize the work to be done by the institution and would handicap us in such a manner that we could not give proper treatment to the patients entrusted to us. As the bill stands at the present time, certain specific positions have been eliminated from the Budget Bureau recommendations-namely, 1 general mechanic at $1,680 per annum, 1 fireman at $1,320 per annum, and 22 minor domestic attendants for $23,760 per annum. We feel that a general mechanic is very essential to the proper maintenance of the institution, and it has been recommended by various agencies that our institution should be self-contained from the maintenance standpoint. We feel that this position is absolutely essential if we are ever to become a self-contained unit from the maintenance viewpoint. The Budget Bureau recommended that three firemen be allowed. In the power plant it is necessary, of course, to have on duty at all times one watch engineer. These men work in an 8-hour shift, and during the 24 hours there are three turns of duty. We have three watch engineers and one relief watch engineer. We had hoped to have one fireman to work with each of the watch engineers. If one fireman is reduced from the Budget as recommended by the Budget Bureau, we will have only two firemen to cover the 24 hours, 7 days a week. This quite obviously is an impossibility, and we feel that the minimum that we can get by with is three firemen. The Budget Bureau recommended 52 minor domestic attendants which at the present time is being reduced by 22. If we were allowed the total of 52 minor domestic attendants which we had intended breaking down into 26 ward attendants, 24 dietary servants, and 2 servants for quarters, we would have a total of 55 ward servants which would give us a ratio in this department of 1 employee to 11 patients. This is based on an expected daily average of 600, patients. Even this is far below the recommended ratio and is far from the ratio as practiced by the Veterans' Bureau Administration which is approximately 1 ward attendant to every 7 patients. The additional 24 employees that were recommended for the dietary service would give us a ratio of 1 employee to every 12 patients. This is also far below the recommended ratio which should also be approximately 1 to 7. It can readily be seen that if we are reduced by 22, the ratios will be even worse, and naturally we cannot give service as is rendered in other hospitals in the Government service if we must get along with proportionately fewer employees. REPAIRS AND IMPROVEMENTS TO BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS Page 44, line 20, change "$3,000" to "$5,000." During the present fiscal year we have been allowed $13,000 for repairs and improvements to buildings and grounds. However, $5,000 of this was specifically appropriated for painting in the children's unit which left $8,000 for general repairs and improvements. We felt that during the coming fiscal year, $5,000 would probably be adequate to take care of necessary improvements and repairs that would occur. It is to be remembered that we have buildings capable of housing 700 patients and over 300 employees and that during the coming year we will have completed and in use all of the buildings so that there will be a city of over 1,000 people living in this institution. We feel that an expenditure of $5,000 to keep the buildings and grounds in repair is a very small sum compared to the total investment, and while it may be stated that these are new buildings, nevertheless there are always small repairs that are needed, and we feel that the best possible investment in keeping the buildings in good condition is to take care of all small repairs as they occur. It is impossible to state at this time exactly how this money will be expended, but it will be used to take care of whatever develops in the line of repairs during the year. We feel that allowing us only $3,000 would be a very definite handicap to the institution. GALLINGER MUNICIPAL HOSPITAL PERSONAL SERVICES Page 44, line 22. Change to read "six full-time chief resident physicians to be heads of departments at $5,600 per annum each" instead of "six full-time heads of departments * * * "" Page 45, line 16, change $262,500 to $270,000. Attention has already been called to the straitened circumstances of Gallinger Hospital because of the overcrowded conditions. In many instances it has been impossible for the institution to give proper medical care to patients because of lack of funds and equipment. Owing to an increase in patients treated and a limited maintenance fund, the termination of the fiscal year 1937 found the hospital in extremely straitened financial circumstances, there having been used practically all available supplies on hand and numerous, keenly felt curtailments in procurement of necessary commodities having become imperative. In view of this general state of affairs, the mainetnance fund amounting to $270,000, appropriated for the fiscal year 1938, will again only be barely sufficient for the year by following the practice of eliminating the purchase of all nonexpendable equipment, and even withholding the purchase of ugrently required serums, important medicines, and other actual necessities. At the same time food and material costs have appreciably increased, while new biologicals, forms of therapy, and medicines are constantly being demanded if the hospital is to render modern treatment to the 800 to 900 patients continually under care. New X-ray equipment is needed, surgical instruments are worn until replacements are required, while kitchen ranges, food trucks, and many other items of equipment over 10 years in use should be discarded and substitute apparatus provided if any degree of efficiency is to be maintained. To meet these many demands an appropriation of $262,500 is inadequate, and unless this amount may be increased for the coming fiscal year, either a serious reduction in the character of service rendered will result or the forceful need for a supplemental appropriation must inevitably appear before the end of the year HEALTH CENTER Page 46, lines 12-15, change "$165,000" to read "$200,000" to bring this item into conformity with the recommendation of the Bureau of the Budget. The difference in the amount appropriated as presented in the report of the House committee and the amount recommended by the Bureau of the Budget is largely determined by the estimated cost of installing air conditioning. There can be little question as to the desirability of so equipping the new building. If air conditioning is at all desirable, then it would be better and cheaper to make the installation as the building is erected rather than to add it some time later. Page 46, lines 16-24: $165,000 for the purchase of the National Homeopahtic Hospital, to be used as a health center and convalescent home. This recommendation is objected to on the ground that the proposed building will be inadequate to serve either as a convalescent home or a health center. The institution is an old building with a capacity for only 50 patients. The rooms are on the so-called cubicle basis. As a convalescent home 50 beds will be an inadequate relief to the overcrowding at Gallinger. The operation, in turn, will make this small unit disproportionately expensive. As a health center the layout of the building is altogether unsuited to the service to be established at such a health center. Structurally the floors of the building are designed to carry a live load of only 40 pounds per square foot, whereas the health center needs will require 70 pounds per square foot. Furthermore, the purchase of the National Homeopathic Hospital for a health center and convalescent home does not carry with it any recommendation for either hospital staff or maintenance. At present there is a total staff at the Homeopathic Hospital of 75, of which 28 are nurses. It is recognized, of course, that in a convalescent home this number of nurses could be materially decreased but the majority of the rest of the personnel would necessarily have to be retained to meet the professional and labor requirements at the institution such as resident physician, interne, nursing superintendent, superivsor, general duty nurses, engineer, fireman, dietician, cook, porters, elevator operators, waitresses, diet kitchen maids, cleaning maids, laundresses, necessary aides, and orderlies. For the size of this institution the operating cost is necessarily out of proportion to the 50 patients that can be housed there. In fact the New York Hospital report indicates that the small hospitals of this type be either discontinued or amalgamated with other institutions on account of the cost of operation and mainte nance. The assessed valuation of the property is in excess of the amount of money provided in the Budget. No appropriations are made for remodeling or conditioning the building. It appears that there is no understanding concerning the purchase price. Furthermore, it is reasonable to presume that the hospital would not want to go out of existence until it has acquired a site and erected a new building. This presumably would consume more than a year's time and so defeat any immediate use of the building even if this were suitable to the needs of the department's service. The testimony before the committee concerning the "easy adaptation" of this building to the use both as a health center and as a convalescent home admittedly was made by persons wholly unfamiliar with the purpose of a health center and without adequate understanding for the needs of a convalescent home, and without any knowledge of the structural handicaps which the building represents. It is recommended that this health center, for which work drawings have already been completed at an expense of approximately $5,000, be erected on the Jones School site at First and L Streets, NW., as originally recommended, or, in lieu of this inasmuch as $17,500 were sequestered from the original appropriations for a health center in this district and were applied to the purchase of property on Pierce Street opposite the Douglass-Simmons School, that the health center be located on the property purchased out of the appropriation originally made for this purpose. JUVENILE COURT (Statement submitted by the judge of the Juvenile Court) Page 47, line 3, change "$62,270" to "$69,840." Attention is called to the statement on page 9 of report No. 1721 of the House Appropriations Committee to the Congress: "There is actually no reduction in the amounts to be expended." Therefore it is urgently requested that what appear to be errors made by the committee be corrected. In addition to the elimination of all increases approved by the Budget Bureau, the committee has further deducted one position at a salary of $1,080 which does not and has never appeared in the personnel set-up of the juvenile court. Another deficit has been made in eliminating a $1,440 position at the rate of $1,490, this latter figure being one which also does not and has never appeared in the list of salaries. This figure creates an additional discrepancy of $50 in the item for salaries. In addition to these deficits of $1,080 and $50, there is an annual lapse of $40, repeated requests for the restoration of which have been unsuccessful. Thus a total of $1,170 in the form of a deficiency faces this court at the beginning of the coming fiscal year if these discrepancies are not rectified. It is further urgently requested that three of the four positions approved by the Budget Bureau, namely two probation officers and one stenographer, eliminated by the House Committee on Appropriations, be allowed. The fourth position approved by the Budget Bureau was that of a custodial employee and is not requested here, all such employees having been transferred to the rolls of the superintendent of buildings for the District of Columbia. The figure given above, namely $69,840, is reached by deducting from the total approved by the Budget Bureau, $72,320, the sum of $3,480, this amount covering salaries for three custodial employees, namely, one at $1,320, one at $1,080, both of whom appear in our present personnel set-up, and one at $1,080, a new position added by the Budget Bureau. The efficiency of the juvenile court is impaired by the lack of sufficient personnel to handle the volume of business. |