Minutes 07/26/1949 - Laserfiche WebLink

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meeting, was taken up: following report of~ the Zonmng Co~mnission, laid on table at last ~'At a meeting of the Planning and Zon~ug Commission, held on July 7th 19~9, the Commission, ~ith the approval of the Department of Public Safety, approved t~e mak- ing of Queen Street, from Second Ave. to Godwin Htreet, a ~ne-way street; traffic b~L~gper- mitred in an easterly direction a nd parking limited to the south side of the street. The P1 ~ar~ing Commission requests the City Council t o adopt this rec- ommendati on." adopted. ~otion o f ~ro Wilson %~ concur in the Zoning Comrmission's r eport,was meeting, was taken up: ~ne following ordinance, placed on its first reading at the last ~AN ORDINANCE TO APPROVE TB~ SALE OF $~05,000o00 of SCHOOL BONDS, .PROVIDED FOR ~ ~ ORDINANCE ADOPTED BY T~ CITY COIR~CiL CN JUNE 14th, 19~9,~ AND FIXING TP~ ~TE OF INTEREST FOR SAID BONDS" following vote: On motion of ~[r. ~eiseman, said ordinance was adopted, and by the Ayes: Fox, B lmsoly, Duke, Grimes, Henderson, Houghton, Howard, Sturtevant, ~a~ren, TM ' ~,els eman, Wilson Nays: None The request of the Ches~ut Far~s Dairy to bring milk to Portsmouth from ¥~ashingBon, laid on table until this meeting, was ~aken up~ Houghton presemted the following: ~The thought strikes me that this Council should put itself on recor¢ with respect to a public policy regarding the distribution of n~il~k. As far as I am concerned, the interests of the people of Portsmouth, th~ ~babies and growing children v~mo need milk for thei~ health~s sake, come first above the interests of any private business operated for pro- f~t. ~ ~m cor~ident that all of you stand with me in tn~t view. However~ the interests of the men~ women, ~d particularly, the chil~hren of Portsmo?~th not only are r~ing co~uuter to the interests of the milk processors and distributors whose only interest is profit, but they threaten these profits. Hence, the strong opposition to the present p~oposal to permit com- petition to enter the fiel-d of milk distribution in P~rtsmouth~ud vicinity. I have shown you how the local distributors put on the market creazu marked Grade C, or -~amarked, in violation of regulations. There perhaps are other instances of violations with which I am not .fauilis~ all ~f which proves only one thing, that the milk distributors operating here ~ow do not have the interests of the public at heart, and that the Health Department exercise everypr~cau~_o~ to prevent low-grade products f~om being offered for sale in violation o f regulations. I would refer you to au article iht he Reader's DiEest for July,19~ en~mtled: ~%~y Aren't ~Ye ~rmnkmng the ~l~ilk ~¥e Need" on page 85, which was condensed fram an article in-the C~istian Herald. This article shows by statistics that the consumption of milk is declining alarmingly and gives as the. reason t he fact t~hat the i pr ce of milk remains so high as to be out of the reach of an increasing n~mber ~f families. Some .low income f~ni - lies with many children have to pay as much for milk as they do for rent. Thms effect on the health of the nation's children as the result of depriwlng them of milk tnroug~h exhe~bitant prices, is deemed ala~aing by outstanding people in the public health field. The reaenn for high prices for milk are listed in the article with thee main one the monopoly created by State ~ilk commissions, wh~ich fix minimum prices the public shall p~y , all such prices being based on figures supplied by the milk distributors. Nilk dealers in many cities would like to low- er the price of milk, but are stopped by the monopoly for fear~ mt would cut the profit of other dealers. ~ee la~ge milk companies were fined ~,000. in New -Fork in 19~, for ~lk price fixing. ~e article proposes as one remedy to relieve the art_~mcmal restric& tmons that lmmmt th? szze .of the a~eas ~fr.~m whm.cn cmt~es d~aw themr mmlk. l~_lk can be shmpp~d across the country ~n refrmgerated cars'and arrive perfectly fresh. Eoreover, the article says, mt ms ec.onom~cally ~e. aszble to.shz~ milk much ~farther than mo~t people realmze. ~mde- open book-keepmng by thee m~lk compa_umes zs another remedy. Having a monopoly, they should be open to phblic inspection at all times. Port~moutn alone can no~ do anythino to ~ emedy the general sztuatmonl but Portsmouth c~udo something for the relief of its own citizens. Some of the dairies dis- tributing milk in Portsmouth pay no taxes ~natever to the City, because of t~e tight State i~ilk commission ~aw. The City Council today has the opportunity to open the door to a modern, fully qualified dairy concern that desires to enter th_s fmeld and is willing to es- tablish its distribution facilities in Portsmouth, paying taxes on r salty~and trucks, besides making the inspection of its product easier for our own health dep~rtment. It may be that by taking the step to invite this competition to Portsmouth that the ~ouneil may pa~e the way to- wa~d cheaper milk for the babies and growing ehil&ren. It is certain that it will improve the quality of n~ilk offered for sale. No longer~ will it be a question with tbs distributors of mixing batches of milk to keep the butte~ fat content down to the leEal minimum, but each will have to improve the quality of his product to meet the higher quality product. As to inspection, I dare say that the quality of inspection service i~ut he milk shed from whence the new supply would come, would compare very favorably with that provided by ou~ own health department. 0~ health director can satisfy himself on that point very readily on one trip through the new milk shed area. Also, the milk supplied by ~ae new concern wouldhave to conform to Federal regulations and the District of Columbia regula- tions, and be sub]jectto inspection by its trained experts. Because all inter-State shipments would be bannsd if the Federal regulations were not complied with, we can be sure that the new concern would take every precaution to more than meet minimum requirements."