Minnesota Highways, June 1953

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aiiifl
VOL. 2, NO. 8
1246 University Ave., St. Paul 4, Minn.
JUNE,   1953
Maintenance   Has   New  Office   System
The long awaited change-over of administrative systems
in the sixteen maintenance districts becomes a reality July 1.
At that time all district offices will "cut in" on the centralized
accounting system which had been given a preliminary try-out
at St. Paul Park in January, then installed at St. Cloud, Mankato, Morris and Marshall by May 1.
The centralized cost accounting system thus follows the
yroll and time and leave record functions into the Central
Office.
A direct result of these procedural changes has been the re-evaluation of the organizational pattern
of the Maintenance Central and
District Offices. A primary reason
for the move was to reduce the
clerical work performed by the engineering  personnel.
While the district maintenance
engineer retains the responsibility
for the conduct of his office, he is
now in a position to delegate the
office work to the Highway District
Clerks. In like manner, the Chief
Maintenance Engineer is permitted
to delegate non-engineering administrative details to a non-engineer
assistant.
Each District Clerk is responsible
to his District Maintenance Engineer for the duties and responsibili-
s of his position; but will receive
b technical direction, supervision
and review of his work from an administrative supervisor.
The implementation of these organizational patterns brought in the
establishment of a number of new
positions. Responsible to the Chief
Maintenance Engineer for all non-
engineering functions of the Maintenance D i v i -
sion is the Maintenance Administration Super-
visor. Filling
this position is
Ingram W.
Morehouse. He
moved into the
Central     Office
MOREHOUSE
some time ago from District Clerk
at St. Paul Park. Since then he had
been assisting Personnel Directors
ife. C. Ferderer and Dan McGraw
in the preliminary studies and experiments that developed into the
final procedures that are now being
installed.
As Supervisor, "Ing" exercises
line authority over two new Field
Supervisors and the clerks in Districts 9, Hopkins, and District 11,
St. Paul Park, because of these
districts being contiguous to the
Central Office.
His major responsibility will involve that of developing proper administrative procedures, instructing
the District Clerks and reviewing
their work. Typical tasks include
cost accounting data and reports;
budgets, equipment and supplies;
stock room controls; cost studies
and similar administrative functions.
out in the field
are two well-
qualified men
who have had
experience both
in the central
office and the
field. Herb
Schultz will
headquarter at
St. Cloud with
direction of the
clerks in Districts One through Seven—Virginia,
Duluth, Bemidji, Brainerd, Detroit
Lakes and St. Cloud.
Serving as liaison between the
Central Office and the districts,
these men will train the District
Clerks in proper administrative
methods, procedures and techniques; they will install new procedures and review the work of
the  district  offices  to insure  that
Helping "Ing"
Winning the industrial safety award for 1952, Crookston
district was awarded a plaque by the department. J. E. P. Darrell,
L, made the award to DME Lee R. Boyd, second from right, as
C. L. Motl, R, and Safety Chairman Lester J. Duckworth looked on.
policies and procedures are consistently and equitably applied in
all districts.
Buss Johnson, with headquarters
in Mankato will
give line supervision and direction to the
clerks in Districts Eight,
Ten, and
Twelve through
Sixteen—Morris,
Willmar, Rochester, Owaton-
johnson n a,     Mankato
Marshall     and     Windom.
Two assignments of District
Clerks were also involved in the
personnel changes, with the promotions of A. W. Wing, from St.
Cloud to St. Paul Park, and Fred
Brandt, to Hopkins from the Central Office. Mrs. Bessie Shippey at
Morris and Mary Sakich at St.
Cloud were appointed as District
Clerks, completing the roster of
permanent clerks in all districts
for the first time in several years.
Another man well known thru-
out the Maintenance Division was
affected by these changes as Oscar
Lofthus, who had handled many
of these duties in that division,
transferred to a new position in
the Personnel Section. This eliminated the duplication which had
existed between Personnel and
Maintenance respecting personnel
activities and records.
One welcome result of the many
hours of study which preceded the
centralization of administrative
procedures was a comprehensive
statement of duties and responsibilities of the District Clerks.
Should anyone feel that these
are routine clerical positions, the
listing of these duties takes over
two typed pages, covering general
office management, accounting,
stock room, and a variety of miscellaneous details. District Clerks
must have a knowledge of civil
service rules, expense and subsistence charges, budgets, accounts,
contracts, billing, requisitions, inventories, leases, permits, and many
others, that comes only through
a number of years of actual experience and study.
Maintenance, on page 6