St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-02-10

difficult for bidders to estimate closely the
cost Parties engaged in building stone side
walks aud having no knowledge Of the con-
structiOn OF wooden walks must depend upon
some one else 10 complete their bid, aud
undoubtedly must add percentage for profits
10 both parties
The next item Of importance in miscella-
ncous contracts is the completion Of the Wa
5asha street bridge in iron. This work is
now in progress, and will undoubtedly be
finished before the ice goes out in the spring.
part OF This contract consisted in the con-
structiOn OF the ice breaker for one of the old
piers which was damaged by last springs
Hood, aud wish to call attention to the con-
dition of this old work. In taking down the
old ice breaker FOR the purpose Of recon struc-
ton we find the body Of the pier TO be built
up Of very slight acing backed with rubbish,
ana as this facing is of St. Paul limestone,
which, in many places Is falling 10 pieces, II
Is evident that the piers will have to be
either entirely reconstructed or re-faced
with some better material within a very short
time.
In the work done by the street force the
item FOR cleaning and repairing streets is
noticeably the larger. In this work Is in
cludcd all the cleaning both OF paved and un-
paved streets, being $50 miles in length. The
paved streets were cleaned at least once each
week and sometimes as often as twice
week, depending on the weather. In wet
weather the mud accumulated faster aud
neccssitated more frequent cleaning. In
the care OF the uupaved streets We iud that
pretty thorough scrspiug up of the street
with the road scraper in the spring so As to
give tue surface suitable crown is o. great
advantage, ami the practice has been To 20
over the street as rapidly As possible
in the sprng with the road scraper
and afterwards TO take advantage Of wet
weather When the suriacing material is soft
cned aud run over the streets once or twice
near the center. This gave very satisfactory
results, keeping the streets quite even aud
IA good shape, 50 a 20 carry the surface
water from tue center Of the street into the
gutter.
In t6is department We are very seriously
crippled and greatly ineouvsuiencedf for want
Of proper storehouse for our tools aud ma
terials, which are nnS scattered in various
places about the city IA large number OF tools
being in possession of the laborers-our steam
road roller standing On one Of the public
Streeis-0ur stone crusher in \ stone quarry
on the other side Of the river making
it impossible to properly care for
the tools, aud necessitatiug tie pur-
chase u materials for the use Of the depart
meHt ia small quantities. To overcome this
difficulty lot should De procured and proper
sheds erected 50 that the tools may not only
b. properly cared f1r, bat that they may De
within Convenient reach when wanted. in
stead Of being scattered abou; the city
There having been considerable discus
sion aooGt the establishing Of a system
whereby the refuse constantly accommodating
arouDd both dwellings aad business hOases
might b conveniently removed and thus
avoid the accumulation OF 9TH in back yards
and alleys. and prevent he s;rsSiug OF such
matter IN the pubic streets where IL soOa De-
comes widely scattered, and from Ehicn il
has % be removed % the street force AZ great
ct'st. ! would respectfully sgEEest. II Il Is
deemed expesieJt 70 Organize such a system
aud 70 10 the Ecrk AZ the ex-
peuse e the general public that
II can Be started. a. very Title increased ex-
! pease. By tire use Of ne present street force: