Morning journal and courier., 1893-02-08
MAYOR sARGENI,s MESSAGE.

cAAlou Co O1Oe1 Oy I0eAuoAs MCA$oA o1 sAo board of councilmen. Councilman Shaw was appointed a committee to escort the mayor to the chamber, who. after his arrival, read his message, the main features of which are as follows:
 Gentlemen of the Boards of Aldermen and
 Councilmen:
 It is the custom, sanctioned by the usage of the mayors of the city from the be- ginning of New Haven's city government, for the mayor to read an annual message to you assembled in joint session. now follow the custom, and give you a summary of the condition of the work done by the various departments of the city government during the past year, with some statistics showing the condition of some of the other departments, most of which will be given more fully in the an- nual reports.
 We have been chosen by our fellow oiti- zens to take care of the public interests during our respective terms of office, and ! by the acceptance of our trusts we have put ourselves under 8 solemn obligation, forgetful of self. to do our duty to the | city. We must legislats not only for the present, but kesp constantly in view the future interests of tae city, and of the people of the coming generation. We
 
 greatest number without doing injustice to | any.
 STREET PAVING. During the year 1899 York street from Chapel street to Elm street WAS paved, out side of the horse car tracks, with vitrifed brick, as an experimental pavement, at 8 cost of nearly $4 900, or at about $1 84 per 1 square yard.
 Hillhouse avenue was paved with tar concrete from the railroad bridge to Grove street st a cost of $1 ,862, and the old pave ments from the railroad bridge to Sschem street were recovered at cost of $914. about ons and three -fourths miles of streets have been paved with broken stone at a cost of sb ut S15 221; the average cost is about 40 cents per square yard. The cost of repaira on broken stone pave msnts previously laid wss about $13,Oo0, making the years expenditure on broken atOra pavements over $2S 900. Ths total length Of paved streets in the city Is about 374 miles, of which 20a miles is broken stone.
 Much has been said against the great cost Of broken stone pavsments, including first cost and repairs; but 50 long as tnay ere laid at :hs public expense, while two thirds of tlle cost of the better pavements | must bs paid by aba.tinx land owners, tLoEo soSAS tO OS l1LtlS lppS Ol D51uS dOtS to dispense with the services of stone crushers and road rollers
 Ten years ago soms statistics of cost of repairs of pavements were gathered and | made the subject of report by the board of public works to the court of common council. A comparison was made of the cost of repairs of Charel street Belgian stone pavement, from Olive street to East street, with the Wooster street Telford pavement, from Olive street to East street The cost for repairs on the Wooster street l Telford pavement for ths previous ten l years, had bsen $11 ,000 The cost for re pairs to the Chapel street Belgian block stone pavement for the game time was only $4OO. These two streets were coneidered 1 good streets for comparison, from the fact that they are parallel and only one block spart, and that they present to the 1 carriage driver and the cartman & choice of routes of equal distance between the { business center of the city at ons end and the Hartford railroad freight station, New York steamboat wharves aud manufac- turing district at the other end. But l while atatistics giving bare facts and fig ures may be true 80 far as they go, they l seldom tell the whole truth, and conelu- sions drawn from them may be altogether
 wrong. Observation shows that the great
 majority of all kinds of wheel travel pre-,
 ferred Tetio:d rather than the Belgian
 block stone pavement The result If this preference Is that wnils there are parallel
 streets on each side of Wooster street, and
 only one block distant that are we'll paved
 with Belgian block stone, Wooster street
 has the bulk of the travel, both light and
 heavy, although Water street is much
 moro direct line for great part of the
 heavy csrting, which perhaps would go CT | a "ofl aty c%
 for the weGrisome delay at the Water street
 railroad crossings between Union stfee,
 and Custom House square.
 ! Much of the annoyance to residents and
 wear of broken stone pavements wonld be
 avoided by the passage of an ordinance
 forbldaing the watering of these streets by
 residents and requiring the board of pub
 lie works to water all of them, nodera. ely
 and regularly. once or twice per day in dry
 weather.
 The increase of the 25 per cent. in the
 price paid by the city for water for public
 uses may hevo been intended for such street watering.
 BRIDGES.
 Only ore new bridge has bssn construct ed during the past year, that being Dewitt, street bridge over the New York railroad
 It was constructed by ths railroad comp paay | HAN Dhil t0S SApCuoC Odl0 Oy tlt Clby. l A new bridge ie much needed over West
 river at the proposed new crossing in the
 line of Oak street The old wooden bridge
 that crosses the river in the bend of the
 cid street ia continually out of repair and
 often unsafe. Oak street is regular route
 from the city westerly, and especially to the extensive Saint Lawrence cemetery on ths westerly sids of the river. Long pro- sessions of we'll filled carriages cross the bridge 30 closely together that several car riages are on the old bridge at ths same time.
 The half of the construction that belongs ] to New Haven to do has been ordered by 1 the conrt of common council and the money to cover the cost has been appro- priated more than once, but the suthori- ties of the town of Orange have not taken measures to join with New Haven in the erection of the bridge and approaches. I took the precaution to duly advertise that application will be made to the general as sembly for an act to compel the town of Orange to do it's proper share. Whether such application shall be made depends upon your instructions to the corporation counsel
 Sewers have bsen constructed during the year in twenty nine streets, the partic- ] dA0i5 oA "A1S1 WAL oC AlSOh III IA0 lcpOEI of the city engineer; making total length of ewers constructed for the year 1899 about four and six-tenths miles, with all proper catch basins, msnholes and other | appurtenances Included in this is the Boulevard sewer, which has been extended about 1890 feet, and is now being pro- tected by earth filling placed around it, which, when completed, will make new drive from Derby avenue to Oak street.
 The total length of sewers in use previ- ous to the year 1892 was sixty nine miles Add construction for 1899, and the total now in use is over seventy-three miles.
 Thorough inspection of all material and labor has been rigidly adhered to, and grading is as nearly exact as possible.
 The average cost of sewers constructed during 1892, including necessary catch basins. manholes, etc., has been about $4 30 per lineal foot, an unusually high average on account.of the high cost of the Boule- yard sewer from Oak street to Derby ave- nue.
 The total cost of the sewers constructed in the year 1892 was about $l04, 4,566 This includes some of the covering for the Boule- yard sewer.
 There has been delay in the construction of the sewers in the northerly part of the III II Al