Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-03-29
SWEEPING THE STREETS
Reasons Why 100000 is Needed for This
Work.
The Superintendent Gives Some Facts
Some Companions and Some Fig
ures-The Area Covered.

Relative to the necessity for an appropria-
ton of $4,000 for sprinkling sweeping and
cleaning the streets and avenues of Wash
ington, the superintendent of street clean
ing, in letter to the Commissioners today,
says:
There are now scheduled to be swept over
$4,000 square yards of streets every week,
an average of more than 1.2O0,0OO a day,
% 10000 a month. or 3j0.00o,900 a year.
The cost to sweep that number of square
yards would be Ss4 so a year. or s7.O72.5O
month, at "A IA cents per 1000 square yards
At the old contract price it would have cost
s122, 800. II the superintendent knew just
how many pleasant days we were to have
out of the 313 working days of the year he
would know just how much to allow out of
the $4,000 for every branch of his depart
ment. Last August, when the cholera scare
was on. and everybody was demanding ex-
treme cleanliness in all things, we swept
over 29,OOO.0oO square yards of streets
working twenty-six of the twenty-seven
working days. That sweeping cost S7O57. 40
"Of course, that average could not be kept
up: but If the appropriation were what it
should be- SO as to enable the department to
sweep the 100000 square yards every
pleasant day. without fear of overrea ching
the limit, it would be all We could reason
ably ask.
One Average.
From July l. 1893. to March ~, 1894
01O pleasant days., we swept $4,000, 900
square yards, or an average of over 1,OOo,-
coo yards day. This was 100000 a day.
or 39,1OO.0OO less than should and could
have been swept according to the schedules
had the appropriation been sufficient. In
other words. if the streets cut off by the
superintendent through fear of going be-
yond the appropriation had been swept as
per schedules, the cost would have been
s., 3S4 greater.
up to March - the sweeping for the
10 days cost 81 $50 -. Had the streets
been swept as scheduled the cost would
have been $51, 24O.72.
There are IS more working DAYS from
March % to June 80 in which to sweep the
IS,OO,UO square yards remaining of the
2Jo,O0o.O00 ii is proposed to sweep during
the year ending June 30, 1894 The cost of
that will be S1S.9lO which, added to the
Ai. S56.7 as above, will make the amount
paid $50. 1862.
Coming Year.
Now, there are ia streets scheduled to
be swept but once a week, whose aggregate
surface area is $4,000 square yards They
should be swept twice a week. To give
them ffty-two additional sweepings would
cost S1S.91O. To this add cost of sweeping
the 80. 1VO.OOo square yards cut off by SUI
perintendent S9.3SD, and We have $780,
O6O.12 as the cost of sweeping the streets of
Washington for the year ending June 80.
1885. which estimate. as will be seen, makes
no allowance for any additional increase N
area to be swept during the next fifteen
months, nor for cost of removing snow and
ice, which was S4,333 during winter of
1929
1T should be remembered that this ap-
preparation is not asked for the purpose
OF building new streets and avenues, or for
any constructive work, but for sweeping
and cleaning streets already existing, not
by request of the street and alley cleaning
department, but because of demands made
by persons interested in the prosperity of
the city. If Congress thinks 1t best not to
build new streets or extend old ones, or
construct sewers. and makes no appropria-
ton for such purposes, very we'll; 1t does
not require money to take care of some
thing not in existence. But ii Is quite
another thing to authorize street after
street to be paved, thus creating additional
demands for sweeping and cleaning them,
without making adequate provision for
complying with those demands. If streets
cannot be properly taken care of they
should not be built, and 1t is unreasonable
to suppose that while the work of construc-
ton goes on it does not require any more
money to keep them in good condition"