Minnesota Highways, August 1955

              mm
wmwam
VOL.  4,  NO.   10
1246  University Ave., St. Paul 4, Minn.
AUGUST,   1955
Torgerson, Meskal, Welch
Promoted to High Posts
Appointment of Albert O. Torgerson, a long time administrative engineer in the Highway department, to be assistant
state highway commissioner, has been announced by Commissioner M. J. Hoffmann. The appointment is effective September 1.
^^ At the same time, the commissioner announced the pro-
5B01   of George A. Meskal to engineer of maintenance, beginning August 15.  Meskal, a veteran of 23 years in the department, has been assistant maintenance engineer since 1952.
Torgeson succeeds O. L. Kipp,
who retired August 1 as assistant
commissioner and chief engineer.
L. J. Zimmerman, former Hennepin county engineer and before
that with the Highway department,
became chief engineer on August
1. His appointment was reported
in the July MINNESOTA HIGHWAYS.
Meskal   Succeeds   Motl
Meskel will replace C. L. Motl,
who is retiring to assume a highway engineering post in Egypt.
To succeed Meskal as assistant
engineer of maintenance, Commissioner Hoffmann named George F.
Welch, district maintenance engi-
<tt| fe of Maintenance district 1, at
^Bjfmia. Kenneth V. Pearson, relief district maintenance engineer,
was assigned as acting district
maintenance engineer at Virginia,
pending a permanent appointment.
Division of the previously dual
post of assistant commissioner and
chief engineer into two positions
will relieve Commissioner Hoffmann of a larger share of the
increasing duties of the department's general administration. At
the same time it will permit the
chief engineer to give his full attention to engineering problems
concerned with highway construction and maintenance.
In the engineering field for 45
years, he retired January 1 as district engineer of Construction district  4,   and   became   a  rural   life
O.  Torgerson
commissioner for the Evangelical
Lutheran church. However, he returned to the department in February in a part-time consulting
capacity to assist in the handling
of  top   administrative  activities.
Torgerson, a native of Cottonwood county, was with the Northern Pacific and Canadian National
railways, a resident engineer on
highway construction in Beltrami
and Aitkin counties, and Otter Tail
county engineer before he entered
the Highway department in 1921.
He was first at Grand Bapids for
three years as resident engineer,
at Detroit Lakes briefly, and then
State Suggestion Plan
Will Reward New Ideas
Do you, as a Highway department employee, have an
idea by which some part of your work can be done at less
cost, more efficiently, or to give better service to the public?
Do you have such an idea about any other operation of the
state government?
If you do, and it is accepted for use, the State of Minnesota will pay you money for your suggestion.
All Minnesota state employees
now have an opportunity to win
individual cash awards by submitting acceptable suggestions to improve the operation of the state
government in the matters of economy, efficiency, and better service.
The opportunity is provided in
the new State Employees' Suggestion plan, which was authorized by
the 1955 State Legislature, to go
into effect August 1. Ten thousand dollars was appropriated for
its operation during the present bi-
ennium.
The awards will range from $10
to $50, according to the value of
the suggestions. To administer and
control the operation of the Suggestion plan, Governor Freeman
has appointed a Merit Award
board, consisting of five state employees, with the appointments to
run to February 1, 1957.
Suggestions for minor improvements will be as welcome as for
major ones, because lesser projects
added together will accomplish
major results.
To   Speed   Pay   Raise
From the employees standpoint,
one important objective for accomplishing new economies in the
state government's operations is
that such savings will speed the
day when the state government will
have sufficient funds to put into
effect the state salary increase plan
authorized by the 1955 Legislature. The Legislature, while authorizing the pay increases, did not
appropriate the necessary funds to
pay the increases.
(Continued on page 7)
Meskal
assistant maintenance engineer at
Morris for four years. In 1929,
Torgerson returned to Detroit
Lakes as district construction engineer.   He continued in that post
(Continued on page 2)
Interesting sidelights on the development of Minnesota's trunk
highway system from dirt roads
to year around paved highways
are revealed in the report on page
2 of the retirement from the Highway department of O. L. Kipp, assistant commissioner and chief engineer, and C. L. Motl, engineer of
maintenance.