City Agencies Research Articles

Problems in Property Surveys and Right-of-Way Maps

The difficulties and variations encountered in the preparation of accurate plans and maps for right-of-way acquisition are ever increasing, causing delays in construction and flooding of the courts with claims for just compensation. Analysis of these inherent difficulties begins with record data required for surveys. A review of units of measurement, deeds, title documents, road boundary descriptions, existing monuments, subdivisions, private and public surveys, photo surveys, and easements brings out the most apparent errors and difficulties. Relief distortion and its effect on scale of aerial photographs is particularly important. Variations exist in standards of acquisition, right-of-way, layout, rule, and damage maps, prepared under the authority of the state, comity, city, town, and other agencies. Every possible avenue of information necessary for proper surveys must often be examined for land acquisition surveys. Right-of-way mapping procedures would be improved if one map could serve the title examiner, appraiser, land negotiator, the courts, and many others serving this whole complex of land acquisition.

A comprehensive radiation control program in New York City.

For many years the Board of Health, which is the legislative body concerned with health affairs in New York City, and the Department of Health, which administers the protective health services, have been interested in the problem of protecting citizens against ionizing radiation. Early efforts were directed to shoe-fitting fiuoro-scopes. These were put under permit in 1948, at which time they were regulated by the Board of Health, and inspectors were trained to supervise their operation, maintenance, and use. With the greater realization of potential dangers in ionizing radiation, both the Board and the Department began to study the problem more intensively. Activities of the Atomic Energy Commission in New York City in policing radioisotopes were reviewed, as was the problem of transportation of radioactive material within the city. It was finally decided that the City Health Code should have a special section concerning radiological hazards. At the same time, the New York State Department was working on the problem and passed a code applicable to the rest of the State. The State Department of Labor also developed state-wide regulations. A mandatory registration system was set up by the City Health Department and became part of the law on March 19, 1958. At that time, the Department had a small radiological control unit made up of a number of sanitarians whom it had begun to train in 1950. It was not, however, until early in 1959 that a group of highly trained persons under the direction of an experienced radiological specialist was established. Because many different city agencies were developing radiation control programs, the Mayor's Advisory Committee recommended that responsibility for overall planning and co-ordination be placed under the direction of a single person who would work within the framework of the Department of Health. The Code The Radiation Code Health was widely circulated and public hearings were held for its discussion. It was passed, becoming effective June 15, 1958. The Code provides for the registration of all radiation sources within New York City and requires compliance with recommendations of the National Committee on Radiation Protection (N.C.R.P.). There is a registration fee of $15.00 for the first two years and a subsequent $10.00 biennial re-registration fee. Office Of Radiation Control An Office of Radiation Control was established but, before a program could be adopted, a study was necessary to determine the most effective means of meeting the city's various radiation problems. An Advisory Committee on Radiation was accordingly appointed by the Mayor, with Dr. John C. Bugher of the Rockefeller Foundation as Chairman and a membership including radiologists, radiological physicists, a dentist, and representatives of industry and health insurance, all of whom are experts in some area of radiation use.

Let's Take a Boat Trip

professional knowledge and experience. The leader of the trip was the school's director, Lillian Ohrn. The postgraduate school offers oneyear courses in administration, teaching in schools of nursing, and social work. The preparation for the trip, which was part of the school's professional program, was planned in co-operation with the nurses' associations in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. We planned to visit hospitals, schools of nursing, and public health agencies in the largest cities on the southwest coast of Sweden and

Take Rochester, for Example—

In many cities of the United States a surprising number of agencies are involved in providing occupational adjustment for the entire community. They include public and private schools and colleges; industrial, civic, and social welfare groups; city, state, and federal agencies. With the cooperation of the National Occupational Conference, Occupations presents a general overview of adjustment activities in one of these cities in the hope that the account will provide stimulation for other communities to take stock of all available resources.

Specific Expenditures and Personnel of Official Health Agencies in Certain Cities

Specific Expenditures and Personnel of Official Health Agencies in Certain Cities

The New York State System and its Problem of Reorganization

THE New York system is a combination of public and private effort in the care of the dependent wards of the state and involves the cooperation of governmental agencies with the institutions and societies maintained at private expense and engaged in some form of philanthropic endeavor. The thirty-seven state institutions include hospitals for the insane, prisons, reformatories, institutions for the mentally defective, homes for veterans, a tuberculosis hospital, a hospital for the treatment of crippled and deformed children, an institution for epileptics, a school for Indian children and a school for the blind. The county, city and town institutions and agencies are the penitentiaries, jails, workhouses, almshouses, lodging houses, hospitals, boards of child welfare, dispensaries, a reformatory for male misdemeanants and an institution for mental defectives. In connection with these should be considered the county, city and town Poor Law officials. The work of these public agencies is supplemented by some six hundred private institutions which receive payments from counties, cities and towns for the maintenance of at least a portion of their beneficiaries, and more than that number maintained entirely at private

The Garbage Pail, a National Thrift Barometer

amount of waste handled by the city agencies but these same reports reveal the lack of permanent influence of this campaign. The amount of garbage handled in our larger centers in November, 1918, increased from 10 to 25 per cent over the amount of material handled in the previous month. It was not necessary to consult the news dispatches to ascertain that hostilities had ceased,-the garbagespail revealed that fact. Here is a measure of the effective-