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Fair Haven’s Sanitary Regulations Adopted 1911 After several years in the process, soon the municipal sewer system for the Village of Fair Haven will be completed. The project has not lacked for contentiousness; indeed, it is one of the newest in a list of health and environmental issues and projects confronting the village. For example, as early as 1921, Mr. Roy Turner of Fair Haven looked into creating a public water system for the village. At that time, the main purpose of the water system was to be for proper fire protection. However, the majority of the voting citizens turned down the proposal. In 1939, Wellington W. Reynolds, MD warned that the water used by Fair Haven residents from their wells posed a “definite health hazard due to the changeable and often unsanitary character of [the] drinking water...” He noted that “the majority of wells in the village [were] unfit for human consumption,” writing that in the summer of 1938, many cases of intestinal disturbance occurred in Fair Haven, “90% of them water-borne infections.” (Unlabeled but possible Letter to the Editor of the Fair Haven Register). He explained that the proximity of wells to sources of human and animal wastes was a health menace. He encouraged a yes vote to build a water-works. On October 23, 1939, voters said yes to a water system, 93 in favor, 58 opposed. (Raymond T. Sant, Fair Haven Folks and Folklore, 1941, p. 112). In 1940, a newspaper article‘s headline read “Fair Haven Water Project Under Way.” “The long awaited...has at last arrived. After several years of struggle and debate Fair Haven is about to have a water-works system.” (April 18, 1940). Prior to this time other public works issues such as village sidewalks and street lighting (via lamp lighting) had also been controversial and proved difficult projects for which to gain public approval. Further, to protect village citizens the village had to reckon with other health and safety issues such as those concerned with the sanitary regulations below. In 1880, Fair Haven was still a relatively new village. Many residents kept at least one cow and chickens. Some had horses, sheep and pigs. All had outdoor privies. A stench nuisance and sometimes health hazards were the result. Other public ---PAGE BREAK--- concerns as well confronted the village. In 1880, several health and safety ordinances went into effect. A few are listed here: Persons are not to keep a brothel in Fair Haven. Ball playing or sliding down hill on village streets is forbidden. Horses are not to stand in the street nor be hitched to shade trees. Animals running at large are to be impounded. No horse is to be driven faster than six miles per hour. (Sant, Trails, Sails and Rails, 1973, p 31). Laying Water Pipes on Lake Street, 1940 A new set of Sanitary Regulations was adopted by the Fair Haven Village Board on April 10, 1911. These regulations are shortened, omitted or paraphrased for the purpose of this article. ---PAGE BREAK--- 1. NUISANCES defined: whatever is injurious to life or health, overcrowded building or cellar, inadequate means of entry or exit, buildings not sufficiently supported, ventilated, sewered, drained, lighted or cleaned, whatever renders soil, air, food or water impure are declared to be NUISANCES and to be illegal. Every person creating or contributing to or retaining any of them will be guilty of a violation and will be liable for a penalty as well as for expense of repair or remedy. (This and several other regulations are probably adopted from State or County laws.) 2. Privies, cesspools, reservoirs, stables, and sinks not be exposed to flies and must be drained to avoid pollution of soil near homes, wells, springs or other sources of drinking water. No overflow is to be discharged into any public place where it might cause injury or danger to health. Every privy pit, cesspool, reservoir, stable or sink must be cleaned and contents removed according to the board of health. Penalty: $5 per day of noncompliance. Fancy Two-door Outhouse at the Pleasant Beach Hotel (built in 1910) ---PAGE BREAK--- 3. Stables and barns shall be kept clean and sanitary. Manures shall be removed frequently to avoid offensive odors. Penalty: $5 per day of noncompliance. 4. Pig pens and chicken yards will not be allowed within the Village without approval of the board of health. Penalty: $5 per day of noncompliance. 6. No house refuse, dead animals, offal, garbage, etc., shall be thrown upon any street or public place nor kept in any premises for more than 24 hours. Penalty: $2.00 per day. 7. No unwholesome food--meat, fish, milk, vegetables, and food shall be brought into the village. All must be fresh or properly preserved. No flesh from any animal that was sick at the time of death shall be brought into the village or offered for sale, nor the carcass nor meat of any calf less than four weeks old nor any pig less than five weeks old. Penalty: $25 per day. [Electric refrigeration was not available.] 8. Grocers, butchers, etc. must cover food such as milk, meat, fish, vegetables, candy and cake to protect them from flies, dust and insects. Penalty: $2.00 per day 9. Contaminated ice shall not be sold where it might be used in contact with food supplies. Penalty: $2.00 per day. 10. Upon the death of any animal within the village, except those killed for food, the owner must notify the health officer and remove the carcass to where the officer or board directs and dispose of it in approved manner. Penalty: $25 per day. 11. No person may build a slaughterhouse within the village without consent of the board of health. Slaughtering, preparation and storage of meat, fish, birds, or animal food must be in a manner to continue their wholesomeness as food. Any market must be kept clean and pure and all offal, blood, fat, garbage and unwholesome animal matter must be removed at least once every 24 hours. Counters and woodwork must be painted or whitewashed. Floors must be built to prevent blood or foul liquid or washings from settling into the earth beneath. Penalty: $25 per day. (Below is a photo of Bradley’s Meat Market taken about 1910, courtesy of Maria and Jim Kawar. Note the unrefrigerated meat as well as sawdust on the floor. This building still stands on the northwest corner of Lake and Main Streets.) ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- 12. Every head of household must notify the health officer within 12 hours of having any case of communicable disease within that house. No clothing or other article shall be removed from that house nor anyone change residences without written consent of the health officer. Penalty: $10 per day. 13. Physicians must report in writing to the health officer within 12 hours any communicable disease he or she believes has not been reported. The report must specify the name, age and residence of the patient. The following diseases must be reported: poliomyelitis, anthrax, bubonic plague, cancer, spinal meningitis, cholera, diphtheria, hydrophobia (later stages of rabies), leprosy, measles, ophthalmia (eye infection from STD's), neonatorum (infant eye infection), pellagra, pneumonia, scarlet fever, small pox, tetanus, tuberculosis, typhoid fever (bacterial infection from diseased fleas to rats to humans), typhus (type of salmonella bacteria from infected food or water), whooping cough, chicken pox and yellow fever. Penalty: $5 per day. 14. Quarantine cards shall be given by the health officer at once to be placed on a conspicuous part of the house in which the patient resides. The quarantine card will announce the name of the disease and forbid entry or exit unless the health officer gives permission otherwise. No articles shall be removed from the house. No child nor teacher residing in the home shall be allowed to attend school or public gatherings. No quarantine card shall be marred nor removed from the house without consent of the health officer. Three degrees of quarantine exist: A. An absolute quarantine means all rules will be enforced. The village will become responsible for supplying provisions to the quarantined individuals if needed. Diseases included in the absolute quarantine include bubonic plague, cholera, diphtheria, leprosy, scarlet fever, small pox, typhus and yellow fever. B. Modified quarantine--members of the house may enter and exit if isolated and articles taken out if disinfected. Diseases involved include poliomyelitis, meningitis, measles, typhoid fever. C. Observation quarantine--the health officer shall observe and keep vigil on a residence to decide how to best conserve the health of the people of the village. The house shall not have a quarantine card during this degree of quarantine. The following diseases qualify for this type of quarantine: cancer, tetanus, ophthalmia, neonatorium, pneumonia, tuberculosis. ---PAGE BREAK--- Examples of Quarantine Cards 15. No person or article liable to spread a communicable disease shall be brought into the village. Penalty: $10 per day. 16. No persons shall move an infected patient, dead or alive, from one building to another except by permit from the health department. Penalty: 17. School and library books shall not be taken into homes where the diseases listed under absolute quarantine (14A) exist or did exist except when the home has been thoroughly disinfected under the direction of the health officer. ---PAGE BREAK--- 18. Spitting on the sidewalk, crosswalk, public square, floor of any tenement house or public hall, theater, church, school house, store or factory, depot or station, railroad car or platform is forbidden. Penalty: $2.00 for each offense. Owners or lessees are required to provide sufficient and proper receptacles for expectoration and disinfection of them once every 24 hours. Brass Spittoon 19. A public or church funeral shall not be held for anyone dying from those diseases under absolute quarantine (14A) without a written permit. The family of the deceased shall limit attendance to as few as possible and take precaution to limit exposure of people to contagion or infection. ---PAGE BREAK--- 20. Any person owning or caring for an animal with any suspected contagion such as glanders (bacterial gland disease mostly of horses that can spread to other animals and humans) or anthrax shall immediately isolate that animal and notify the health officer. Any animal with such disease shall not be led nor driven over any public land or street, nor allowed to drink from any public trough or spring. A diseased animal must be killed and carcass immediately burned. Bedding, excrement and other items around the animal shall be burned. Dirt such as in a stable or pen around the animal shall be removed to a depth of four inches and burned. Harnesses, wagons, and posts must be thoroughly disinfected under the direction of the health officer or qualified veterinary surgeon. Penalty: $10. 21. Every childbirth must be reported for the granting of a birth certificate within 36 hours, be it the physician, midwife, custodian or family member in attendance. Penalty for failure to report: $2.00 22. In the event of death, the last attending physician is required to fill out a certificate of death and probable cause and deliver it to the bureau of vital statistics within 24 hours of the death. If an inquest is required by law, the coroner or his assistant shall fill it out. If no physician attended the patient, the health officer shall fill out and file the certificate. Penalty for failure to report: $5.00. 23. Any undertaker, sexton or other person having charge of a corpse shall acquire a burial permit from the local registrar or health officer. No corpse may be moved until a death certificate has been filed and burial permit has been issued. Penalty: $5.00. These Ordinances shall take effect on May 1, 1911, signed William Turner, President of the Village of Fair Haven William Dougherty, Clerk C. N. Brown (Trustee?) Ira Hill, Health Officer * * * * * * * * * * * A few points should be clarified; the germ theory of disease was still in relative infancy. It is obvious by these ordinances that it was believed that proximity to illness caused illness to spread. ---PAGE BREAK--- It was thought that cancer might be contagious. It was not known that pellagra was caused by a niacin deficiency rather than some sort of germ. Finally, electric refrigeration was not available. Electricity did not arrive in Fair Haven until about 1920. Disinfectants were not readily available for purchase.