St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-12-12

as mucn-needed SANITARY measure, IN
creased water service by the water works of
the city land in this connection it Is proper
to suggest that the Water Board invariably
decline TO lay pipe in any ungraded street).
TO meet this imperative public demand
will involve the opening and grading of
many new streets, the grading of a large
number of streets already opened, the paw
ing of streets yet unpaved in the business
district of the city, and possibly some resi-
dent streets. like Summit, Dayton and
Western avenues, and probably Mississippi
street. from Grove street to Acker street,
the construction of several miles of sewers,
and of very considerable amount of per-
manent sidewalk. together with miles of
wood sidewalk and croSswalks.
Under the City Charter this Board cannot
originate any public Improvement, and
therefore it would be out of place for it to
suggest to your honorable body what i'm
proNements in its opinion are proper and
necessary to be inaugurated and prosecuted
to completion the coming year.
There are some suggestions, however,
relating particularly to the time of ordering
public improvements by your honorable
body which this Board believes they may
properly make, feeling assured that they
will be received and considered by the Coun-
Gil in the spirit in which they are offered. and
which, If accepted and in practice adopted
by the City Council, will greatly facilitate
the business, not only of the Council and
this Board. but also of the business of the
City Treasurer and City Comptroller, and all
persons having business with those officers
growing out of the public improvements of
the city.
The Board of Public Works are clearly
and unanimously of the opinion that all the
TO oil
grading, street paving, street openings,
sewers and stone and wood sidewalks and
crOsswa;ks that can be anticipated as being
necessary and proper to be made during this
coming year, for which there will probably
be an urgent demand. should be ordered at
the present time. or at least as soon as the
same can conveniently be done without I'M
necessary delay.
And to this end, and for the purpose of
facilitating the public business, this Board
would respectfully suggest and recommend
to the Council that the several members of
your honorable body, each for his respec-
tive district, prepare and have passed by
the Council and sent to the Board of Public
Works, as soon as may be, preliminary orders
for any and all public improvements in his
district which will probably be called for,
or which on the ground of public interest
prosecuted to completion the coming year.
This Board would give all such orders
immediate and due consideration. and it the
Improvement ordered is necessary and
proper would return the same with favor
able reports, accompanied as the law re-
quires by the proper final order for the i'm
prOvement contemplated. If such final or
ders should meet the approval of and be
passed by the Council, the Board could
at once send them to the Engineer for
plans and specifications, and advertise for
bids and award contracts.
If this plan of ordering public improve
ments should meet the approval of and be
adopted by your honorable body, two very
important results will follow, viz:
First-A very large proportion. probably
more than three-fourths of the contract
work for public improvements for 1885,
could be put under contract by the list of
March. certainly as early as the LIST of April,
1886, and the work on such improvements
could and would be commenced as soon as
the frost is out of the ground, and be prose-
cuted and completed at much earlier day
in the year than work has been put under
contract in past years, under the present
system of ordering Improvements.
In the years 1884 and 1855, more improve
ments were ordered and put under contract
after the middle Of July in each year than
were ordered and put under contract prior
to that date. If improvements are ordered
and put under contract as recommended by
the Board, work thereon would be COM
menced and completed in the early and bet
ter part of the season. instead of, as at
present and in the past, in the later and
most uncertain ION account of the fall rains
and heavy frosts) part of the season.
SncOn0--W9 ShOu16 get hottnr work of
very considerable less cost from 10 to rs
per cent, two very important considerations
for the individual taxpayer and the public.
1t is an unquestioned fact that every i'm
provement, with a single exception (St.
! Claire street. and we are informed that the
council is to be asked. by the contractors
for that work, not to approve the contract
| awarded to them by this board, so that even
this street may not prove to be an eXcep-
tom, for which contracts have been let,
since about the middle of July. 1856, has
cost from 10 to 25 per cent. more than SIM
liar improvements contracted for prior to
that date.
Why is this so? The reasons are plainly
obvious. The weather is generally better
and more certain prior to the middle of
July or the 1st of August than it is later in
the season. Labor and teams are more
plenty and cheaper before than during and
after harvest time. which begins to call for
men and teams about the middle of July, and
then the price of labor and teams immedi-
ately advances in proportion to the increased
demand therefor.
There is still another important consider
ton bearing upon the question of the ex-
pense of onr public Improvements, if they
shall be ordered and contracted for as rec
commended by this Board. viz: Contract
ors could and doubtless would purchase all
necessary material, such as lumber. blocks.
gravel and curbing tor paved streets. pipe,
lumber, cement and brick for sewers. stone
and cement and lumber for sidewalks at
season of the year when such material can
be purchased at minimum price. There
could not be during the winter months any
pressing necessity to unduly hasten the
putting of an improvement under contract
This Board, in advertising for bids, could
give much longer notice than has been
the custom in the past. 1t could give
twenty or even thirty days notice, instead
of ten days. This would enable contract
ors to take time to look about and make
the most favorable contracts for material
to be used on the Improvements.
The same suggestions are equally
true with reference to our
ordinary graded streets surfaced with
gravel or the best material found on the line
of the street, and they are also equally true
Of our macadam streets.
There is scarcely a street graded in this
city on which there is not a shortage or a
surplus of material. If some other street.
in reasonably near proximity to street Or
dered to be graded. cannot be found, which
can. under the provisions of the municipal
code. be ordered to be graded with such
street under one contract. the contractor Is