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Show County Salaries Were Low In 'Old Days' Of '46 Ever wonder why county offices don't have a great many "takers" come election time? Usually a good man or woman holding a county off ice runs and is elected each time until he or she decides to quit, and many times they stop running for office because be-cause they can't afford it. County Clerk Porter Merrtll, tackling the annual year-end tack of cleaning out payroll and purchase pur-chase vouchers and cancelled checks, ran acrass an intertsting comparison in salaries , and prices paid for goods and services by the county 10 years ago. Kept 10 Years All such vouchers and cancelled checks must be kept 10 years, then destroyed. It's quite an accumulation. ac-cumulation. And its quite interesting to see that 10 years ago, the county as-sessor-Levi Anderton, then got the grand salary of $104.76 per month. Sure, prices were low, them , but not that low. And today the job pays only $250 per month. Of course, it's a steady job, but theser's no "merit raises" or longevity" lon-gevity" increases. Road workers 10 years ago got 65 cents per hour, now it's $1,3712. still not a lot for work that gets prety hard. In those days, the sheriff got only $135 per month, considerably improved now. Deputies got $73.-50,. $73.-50,. about twice that now. 50c4 Per Hour Usually, deputy clerks and other in the various offices got only 50 cents per hour, or about $20 per week. Not much, even at 1946 prices. In the old courthouse, the custodian got only $70 a month, a job that now pays about $280 but with a lot more responsibility. Vv O. Gollyer, familiar as a patrol pat-rol operator, got $7.00 a day for operating the machine on county roads. The machine, by the way, costs about twice now what it did then. Justice Goes Up The price of justice, too, has increased considerably. Jurors got just $3 for each day's duty, then. The price now is $8. Most commodities purchased by the county have gone up in accordance ac-cordance with general prices-with the notable exception of wood preserver pre-server for bridge ties, $1.25 per gallon them, $6.50 now. Oh, yes, the "boss's" pay has gone up, too. Commissioners got only $40 per month, then. It's $100 now. |