The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-01-18
II is NOT PRACTICAL
MankatO Not Yet Ready
for Paving.
A Member of the Board of
Public Works Gives His Rea-
sons For the VieW--Some
Brick Paving Talk.

eff | were to make a recommends
tion on paving now," said men,
Der of the board of public works this
morning, 81 should favor macadam.
Not because we do not need it, but
for the reason that Mankato is still a
small city in many ways and the treas
ury is in no condition to stand it.
eff Mankato is noted for anything
it is her honor of booms, debts and
useless extragavance in public inn
provements, and it is just these things
that have plunged western cities into
hopeless bankruptcy. We may be a
trifle slow, but it is better thus than
public disgrace through extravaganza
for which there is no particular need.
Our credit is good now and we cannot
afford to compromise it.
'"To pave now would be to take up
the paving again in year or two, and
whether it be brick, asphalt or cedar
blocks the expense would be just the
same. The gas mains, placed in the
ground some years ago, and originally
made of thin iron, have become so
rusty that they leak in many places,
and the ground is saturated with gas
Only short time ago some of our
workmen, while making repairs on
North Front street, were so nearly
overcome from escaping gas that they
had to suspend work for time.
These pipes occupy nearly all the
principal streets and must be relaid
in a short time. Considerable sewer
ing must be done also, and to re-
peatedly take up and replace the paw
ing means to break the harmony OF it's
appearance and effectually ruin it's APP
pearance of being symmetrical"
George L. Wilson, assistant city
engineer at St. Paul, returned Wed
nesday from a tour of inspection of the
brick paving in Chicago, Indianapolis
and Columbus. He had this to say to
a Pioneer Press reporter:
''In Columbus there is about seventy miles of
brick pavement. The authorities there and in
indianapolis are satisfied that the best quail
ties of paving brick-of which the Metropolitan.
which we have just laid on Summit avenue is
one-makes a good, enduring pavement when
laid on concrete. Much of the brick pavement
that has been laid was laid on sand or broken
stone and consequently gave away rapidly.
There are about four kinds of first-class paving
brick now made, and the results with any of
these have proven very satisfactory. The chief
paving materials in both Indianapolis and Col
umbus are asphalt and brick, and in both
places they are considered to be the best kind of
pavement. Columbus has about twelve miles of
asphalt, and intends to do more paving this
year both with that and with brick. In Chicago
they will put down from twenty-five to thirty
miles of the best brick pavement this year.
'Both in Ohio and Indiana they have an eX-
cellent law that keeps the property owners
from feeling the burden of improvements for
which he is assessed. This law, which is called
in Ohio, the Taylor law, and in Indiana, the
Barrett law, makes it optional for the property
owner to pay his assessments in ten yearly in
stallments. The deferred payments bear inter
est at per cent per annum. To pay the con
tractor the city is permitted to issue bonds,
which are lien on the assessed property.
SIN both Indiana and Ohio | found that i'm
provements were carried on by boards of public
works and there is no quarreling in that quarter
with the results"