Hunter Is Chairman

Of First Republican Board of Supervisors.

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Elected Unanimously

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The board of supervisors met Monday, the first Republican board in many years, and John L. Hunter will preside over their deliberations. His election as chairman of the board was unanimous. He was nominated in the Republican caucus, and the Democrats gracefully voted for him.

There were 25 supervisors present when the board was called to order. On motion of Supervisor Childs, Supervisor Beach, of Lima, was made temporary chairman. The board adjourned until 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the Republican members going into caucus. The names of Supervisors Hunter, Bibbins and Case were heard in connection with the chairmanship of the board. A caucus of the Republicans was held, and John L. Hunter, the veteran supervisor of Ypsilanti township, was unanimously nominated. The Democrats, learning what the Republicans had done, decided to join in voting for Mr. Hunter.

This afternoon the board met and elected Mr. Hunter chairman.

The board of supervisors met Monday and the hours were set for the regular order of business. This will include a junket to the county house on Thursday.

Supervisor Biggs kicked on going in a body. He said it was an expense, and, while it was a nice thing for the supervisors to go and get a square meal, he thought it was the duty of the supervisors to be economical. He suggested that a committee should be appointed to do the work.

The supervisor from the sixth ward of Ann Arbor was frowned upon by several members, and there were cries of "out of order."

Chairman Hunter ruled that the report of the committee on order of business had already been adopted.

Supervisor Childs said that on Thursday every supervisor should go to the county house with the idea of seeing if the building could accommodate a portion of Washtenaw's insane for detention purposes, and they should try and devise some means of making this kind of an arrangement.

Clerk Schuh read the appointments of Chairman Hunter, who explained that he had put a new member on the committee on equalization, "so as to educate him," and all the city supervisors looked at each other, as if they knew what that meant. The following are the committees:

Equalization—Case, Whittaker, Allmendinger, McCullough, Collins.

Criminal Claims, No. 1—Bibbins, Beach, Biggs.

Criminal Claims, No. 2—Damon, Brown, Shadford.

Civil Claims—Kenny, Mclntyre, Kingsley.

To Settle with County Officers—Fowler, Walters, Bacon.

Apportionment of State and County Taxes—Bacon, Clark, Schneider.

Public Buildings—Krapf, Whittaker, Case.

Rejected Taxes—Biggs, Hall, Fischer.

Examine Accounts of Superintendents of the Poor—Childs, Hall, Burtless.

Finance—Kingsley, Voorheis, Prochnow.

Fractional School Districts—Shadford, Seyler, Voorheis.

Drains—Allmendinger, Walters, Damon.

Printing—Childs, Dresselhouse, Fowler.

Contagious Diseases—Burtless, Clark, Dresselhouse.

Per Diem—Collins, Mclntyre, Krapf.

County Expenses—Fischer, Beach, Bibbins.

Business was rather slow Tuesday at the supervisors' meeting, and a well known member was quietly enclouding himself in large rings of cigar smoke, so that Supervisor Childs began making motions as though he were swimming. When he emerged he made a few preliminary remarks about how he could smoke as much as anyone else, no matter how many times the cigars were passed around; but he wound up by offering a resolution to prohibit smoking during sessions of the board. For a long time nothing was said, but finally Supervisor Kingsley was merciful and supported the resolution, and Mr. Biggs did what he could to put out the fire. A vote was taken and the pipe went out.

Supervisors Childs, Kingsley and Biggs were appointed a committee to enforce the will of the board.

At the meeting of the board of supervisors Tuesday, the Republican majority started in with "cleaning house." The election of school examiner was the special order for this afternoon and M. J. Cavanaugh, democrat, expired, the board electing Ira Savery, of Salem, in his stead by acclamation.

Judge H. Wirt Newkirk appeared before the board of supervisors Monday and made a plea that the county should provide some place where the mildly insane could be cared for while awaiting admission to the state asylums, which are overcrowded. The judge stated that there had been as many as seven patients at one time who had been adjudged insane, awaiting admission to these asylums. Only two out of seven are violent, but the families of the others are such that they cannot properly care for them. He instanced the case of a day laborer with a wife and three little children. The wife was insane and if he [stayed] about the house to care for her, he could not earn bread for the children. Most of these insane people could be cared for the same as children. It was an outrage to put insane people, who had lucid intervals, in the county jail. The disgrace had a tendency to render them incurable. He had tried to arrange with the Dearborn retreat to care for these cases, at an expense of $5 a week. After he had sent a patient there, they informed him that they found they could get more from private patients and so they had been shut off there. Other counties in the state had made provision for their insane, and in no county was there a more crying need of it than in Washtenaw.

An informal discussion ensued indicating a leaning of the supervisors towards the idea that rooms could be fitted over at the county house. Finally Chairman Hunter suggested that the board were to visit the county house Thursday and if Judge Newkirk would go along he and the building committee could look over the county house and see what could be done.

A. F. Freeman, member of the state tax commission, appeared before the board of supervisors Monday and made a plea for them to get all the property on the assessment rolls at its true cash value. He said that if all the counties would do this, then the question of equality of taxation would be solved. He said that in some of the counties of the state the supervisors were working on a one-third basis, some on a half and some on a quarter. The county that approaches the true cash value is consequently paying more than its share and the lowest county is escaping. Menominee and Delta admit that they are on a one-third and one-quarter basis. "I have reached the impression," said he, "that farm properties and small real estate holders in the southern counties of Michigan are paying more than their share. We are very searching in our investigations and are loading up for next year. In order to get at the true cash value the supervisor will put everybody on oath next spring. They will also be furnished with a list of all live mortgages in their district and the supervisors must ascertain how much has been paid on the mortgages. Next, the commission is going to have a list of all transfers from the register of deeds office from July 1, 1898, to July 1, 1899. The exact consideration, as shown by the revenue stamps, will be given. The county treasurer will look up the tax rolls for three years back, and footing up the considerations and the assessed valuations, will determine just what ratio the real estate is assessed to its true cost value. The tax commission, if it finds a county is keeping the assessed values down, will go into the county and make up the rolls themselves."

The republican majority on the board of supervisors isn't doing a thing but going from one room to another in its house cleaning operations and installing new officers.

Monday came the hour for the election of a drain commissioner and, notwithstanding the good work done by Dan. Barry, J. F. Towler, of Augusta, was elected in his place by a vote of 15 to 12.

The democrats present gave Mr. Barry a solid complimentary vote, while the republicans were equally solid for Mr. Towler. Mr. Barry was one of the best drain commissioners the county has ever had and he leaves the office with a record that is a credit to him. Mr. Towler, the new drain commissioner, has served seven years as highway commissioner of Augusta.