St. Paul daily globe., 1895-09-22

common council who is ex-officio pres
ident of the board, and three members
who are appointed by the mayor; they
have charge of the streets, sewers,
bridges, etc., purchase all supplies
needed by the city, act as water COM
missioners, and have charge of the
lighting of the streets. In this place,
the total cost of the street work ap-
pears to be charged to the property,
the sidewalks being charged by the
front foot to the abutting property.
The grading and paving o. the streets
are assessed to the property fronting
upon the improvements; the charge be-
ing made in proportion to the assessed
value of the real estate exclusive of i'm
provements. Sewers are divided into
public sewers, which appear to mean
the larger main sewers, and district
sewers. All public sewers so-called are
paid for out of the general fund, while
the cost of the district sewers is as
sesSed upon all of the taxable real
estate included in the district, each
lot or tract being assessed in proper
ton to it's area. The cost of side
walks and curbing is assessed on the
property in front of which the improve
ment Is made.
In st. Paul the law requires that all
assessments for public improvements
be charged against the property in pro-
portion to the benefits. That, and the
many notices required in preparing an
assessment, adds greatly to the ex-
pense when compared to other places
where the method of assessing is made
specific, as, by the front foot, or by the
area of the tract being assessed, or in
proportion to the assessed value. In
either case the work is greatly reduced
and may be done by clerks at compare
lively little expense. AS an example,
1 was informed by the city engineer of
Omaha that one or two clerks are suf-
ficient in that city to make all of the
assessments, and they have adopted a
system of apportioning the assessment
by rule in cases where the lots front ON
the cross streets, by which the amount
to be charged to the second or third lot
back is determined by simple calcula-
ton, governed by it's position with ref
erence to the street that Is being i'm
proved. This system and the rules be-
ing recognized as conforming to the
law, the necessity for numerous meet
ingS and long sessions of the board of
public works to listen to almost end
less arguments made to prove that the
board have erred and have charged
some lot or tract with greater benefits
than it will receive by the contempIat-
ed improvement, is avoided.
I find that it is impossible in a
tabulated statement to show a compar-
ison of the cost of cleaning the streets,
an item which in st. Paul is quite
large, but 1 am satisfied that the
streets of st. Paul are better cared for,
notwithstanding the great area COW
cred by the the city, than either Omaha
or Kansas City. In st. Paul the
amount expended under the head of
city parks was almost entirely for the
care of parks, while in Minneapolis
very large proportion of the total in
cluded in the statement is for the pur-
chase of lands. In Omaha the total ex-
penditure appears to nave been made
in the care of the parks. In Kansas
City the board of park commissioners
have but recently been organized, and
have as yet only done the preliminary
work towards a comprehensive park
system, the amount expended being
very small.