Few people in Omaha real ize what goes on in the Ser vice 1 department of the Util ities District, when they ring up and ask for service. Let ut trace the call and see what happen . The call first comes to the switch board of the office building. The PBX operator after questioning the consum er as to the nature of his trouble, will connect the party with the proper department. The orders are then made up by the order clerk at the main office and sent down by spec ial messenger to the Service Department five times a day. They are then sorted by the chief dispatcher, who allocates them to the three other dis patchers, who district' the orders and routes them out to the 105 Service men, who work daily out of the depart" ment. ..Complaints or calls out of the ordinary are! relayed to John Bruner, Superintendent or to Paul Laushman his as* sistant for final dicision and handling. * John Bruner is an old hand. He servied the department, when itwas located at 11 and . IT '— ae.v Jones in the old lamp lighting days, when they had 20 horses now the department operate' with 95 cars and trucks. John Bruner has aquired a national reputation for the service per formed by his Omaha Service Department. Charlie Doyle, office man ager is responsible for the in" stalation of all new refrigera tors and gas ranges. Barney Schulte, assistant office manager for the instal" ation of all new water hearters. The Department has 15 in" | spectors, cover the different ; distrits in the city. They hand" i le house heating troubles, the instalation and care of refrig problems of industrial heating. The Service Department mechanic starts on his route at 8 a.m. in a car or truck and telephones the dispatchers every two hourr to see wheth er there is' any additional ser vice calls on his route. In sev ere weather pipes must be thawed out with alcohol. Get us straight. The pipes belong t,o the gas and water applianc es and not to the service man. Every service operator is trained to know how to handle every kind of gas and water appliance. The takes constant study, since in the change over, they discovered 395 dif ferent kinds of hot plates, 65 different kinds of side arm water heaters, 106 different kinds of hot water heaters and 160 different makes of ranges. This mind you does not in clude different models of the same appliance. There is in addition problems of indus' trial heating, which are numer ous, for instance, there are over 100 different kinds of gas furnaces in operation in Om aha. To give you some idea of the ost of free servicing. Here are some 1946 figures, which are for an average year. Ser vice calls in 1947 due to the change over were much great' er than norm.al. made 137,471 free gas calls and 35.201 free water calls, this makes a grand total of 172,672 calls. These service men cer tainly get around. Let us now see what these free service calls cost the Util' ities. The figures show a charge ofi $108,830 for free ser vice, this is only for the time of the mechanics, add to this figure the maintence and de' -r*-- --— preciauon ot tne yo cars ana trucks and each service call which was made without echarg to the Utility customer, cost the Utilities $1.60. We are credited with giving more free service to our gas and water customers than* is done elsewhere in the count' ry. This should be a pretty good argument for ublic Own ership. This is the story of the Ser vice Departmnet of the Metro politan Utilities District. The servie 'men are a fine body of public servants. They are at your service any time day oi night. In the face of blizzard or flood they will answer your call. Their motto, “Service calls must and will be met.” Catching an Alligator The next time you want to chtch a live alligator, just hold his mouth shut and tie him up. According to the World Book encyclopedia, the animal's jaws are very powerful, but once they are shut, a man can easily hold them closed with his bare hands. •s8uiutpa;ui pue sp^uep '3ut -q;op aqeui oj sjaqy jaqjo qjtM gui -puajq joj jaqy jytui e st oepjjv WW uiojj Joqjj Jr OH .WELL/ — THE SOU i ■; IS JUSTONE &\Cr W... MADE UP OFNEG-ROSE , FLOWck GARDEN... f AND LILY-WHITES/f ,‘ i nf Sc«L'A5£U I* JIM STEELE < By MELVIN TAPLEY j 'ONT.f&STAL PCATUfitt I „ -41 • ; SUDDENLY... , lOOMINCr IN THE? » ££y VA6 A IWU^J-O^RlkE *E