Daily globe., 1883-06-06


1905. ...................... S464 COZ 10
Respectfully submitted.
JOHN W. ROCHE, City Comptroller.
In the division of the city departments
THE BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS
has come to be one of the most important; :;
as all matters pertaining to local improve
ments of almost every description. includ-
| ing the projecting and supervision of all
| such improvements emanate from and are
to great extent controlled by that de-
| partment, subject of course, to the super
v1sory power of your honorable body. It
Will appear from a reference to the records
of that department that there was ex-
| pended in the year 1872 for local improve
ments the sum of $53,5S0.00, of which sum
| l1,12O was expended for cleaning and re-
| pairing existing streets and sewers, the
balance being expended for Improvements
Instituted and completed in that year. In
the year 1873 the aggregate amount ex-
pended for the purposes referred to was
| S14l,320OO, of which sum $17,670.O0 was
expended for repairing and cleaning the
| streets and sewers. In the year 1874 the
total expenditure was $2G3 12O, of which
! $19,SS0 was expended for clean
ing and repairs. In the year 1875 the
total expenditure was 5000, $4,000, of which
| $4,000 90 were for repairs and cleaning.
In the year 1876 the total expenditure was
$32,350.00, of which $11,150O were for
cleaning and repairs. In the year 1877 the
expenditures were $56,500.00, of which
$13:370 90 were expended for cleaning and
repairs. In the year 1878 the total expend-
itures were $110,47O00 of which SI2.25O
were expended for cleaning and repairs.
In the year 1879 the total expenditures
were $4,000, of which $12,450 were ex-
pended for cleaning and repairs. In the
year 1880 the total expenditures were
$70,520, of which 81, $40 were for cleaning
and repairs. In the year 1881 the total
expenditures were $179,7OO, of which
$2S, 100 were for cleaning and repairs. In
the year 1882 the total expenditures were
$396,O00, of which $36,950 were for clean
ing and repairs. During the present year
up to the present time, that is, from the
first of January to the first of June, there
has been expended the sum of $37O,OOO, of
which 81, 800 were expended for cleaning
and repairs. Making an aggregate ex-
pended for local Improvements since the
year 1872 and up to the first day of the
present month, of S1,704,000 of which
$203, were expended for cleaning and
repairs in the manner indicated. These
expenditures include all local improve
ments, such as grading and macadamizing
streets, building sewers and sidewalks, and
paving streets, and in themselves indicate
a continued and increasing current of pros
perity. The fluctuations observable in
the expenditures for local Improvements
are to be attributed to ordinary causes.
The years 1875, 1876 and 1877, when the
expenditures were least, were, as you know,
years which involved general financial
depression, that effected the entire coun-
try, and which our city in common shared
with all other localities. During the years
1879 and 1880 matters were, to a certain
extent, in a transition state, emerging,
as the country then was, from the former
financial depression, and matters were re-
arranging themselves, but since 1881 the
figures that 1 have given show continuous
and rapid development of Improvements
which were called for and necessitated by
the unparalleled growth of our city. The
question of the relation of the amounts
expended for repairs and cleaning streets
and sewers to the entire amount of the ex-
penditures will be in the future, as it has
undoubtedly been in the past, matter for
your close observance, and the exercise
upon your part of that sound Judgment
nhlSh thio OOOJ hoo ONANOASOO III
city affairs, and has been perhaps in the
past largely due to the fact that at the
time of their Inauguration many of the
Improvements were to certain extent
experimental. But that period has finally
passed in our city, and the time has now
certainly come when the character of local
Improvements will be substantial and last
ing, and the period of experimentation
has undOubt6dlv ceased
UNDER THE EXPENDITURES
to which l have called your attention there |
have been graded and macadamized 218 |
streets, containing a length of seventy-ni |
miles: there have been constructed twenty |
three and fve-eighths miles of sewers, and |
sixty two miles of sidewalk, and there have |
been laid four miles of wooden pavement. |
While it is true that the original orders for
these improvements emanate, as they
properly should, from your honorable bo-
dy, yet the advisability of their lnaugura-
ton, the question of their extent, the let
ting of the contracts for them, their super
vision while under construction, and their
final acceptance are controlled by the
Board of Public Works. And it therefore