Evening star., 1895-06-12
THE STREETS
Superintendent NICK Defends the Con-
tractors Work.
The Sums Expended and the Force mt
Work Why Dust is
Made.

receiving complaints from citizens against
the prevailing methods of cleaning the city
streets. number of communications
have been printed from time to time crit
fcising the WORK. Superintendent Mcken-
zie. who has charge of this branch of the
District service. when asked about the
matter by a representative of The Star
today. said: "Yes, have noticed the COM
nun:cations that have appeared in The
Star in relation to the cleaning of the city
streets. My reply to them Is this: The
work Of cleaning the streets is well done,
ard IL there are any streets or parts Of
streets that are not we'll cleaned 1t is their
duty to send the complaints to this office.
The superintendent and inspectors are paid
to see that the work intrusted to their care
is thoroughly and economically done, so
far as it Is possible, and without fear OF
contradiction 1 assert that they do so. An
examination Of the books of this Office will
show that it has been our invariable' Gus
tom to deduct from the pay of the con-
tractor for work badly performed.
"If the authors of any of those communi-
cations will take the trouble to come to
this office and examine the books they will
see at a glance all the workings of the
Office. We have no desire to hide anything,
and upon investigation l am sure many
things which now appear difficult to under
stand will be made plain. The raising OF
dust in the work of street cleaning must
and will occur in either Of two ways; one
directly in the operation of the sweeping.
where the street has only been sprinkled
sufficiently to enable the machines to sweep
up the dirt, and the other by the street
being so sa turated with water that no dust
arises at times of sweeping, but reSdy to
do so the next day. why? Why. because
being so wet the machine brooms cannot
remove the dirt to the gutter, but smear
1t on the pavement, which, drying, leaves
the dirt in the shape of dust to annoy the
rpSiHnnfl n
Which way shall ii be done? Certainly we
strive to do it the best way.
Money Expended.
II see 1t charged that the contractor is
allowed to do the work, which has been
largely increased with an insufficient force,
and receives 10000 more for the present
fiscal year than he did last year. If this
were true, then indeed. would there be
just cause for complaint. But let US see
The facts are that the contractor for street
cleaning for the fiscal year 1894 received
in round numbers s6O,GOO for the work.
For the fiscal year ending June 80, 1885,
he will receive in round numbers about
$1,000. This is about $4,000 less than it has
been charged he receives. Now the entire
sum that was available for street sweeping.
after setting aside the amount necessary
for other purposes, was $4,000. This sum
would have been expended in street sweep
ing had the weather permitted. but we eX-
pended out of that sum $1,000 in removing
snow and ice last winter. Now, as the in
crease for sweeping this year over last
is $1,000 and not $4,000 let me see If that
cannot be accounted for and at the same
time show the error of the charge. that
tha contractor is permitted to do this work
WITH an insufficient force, in other words
that while he had more work and con,
sequertly increased compensation, he did
not increase his force accordingly.
Force at Work.
this Office show that the average daily
force of the contractor in sweeping streets
and avenues was u 81 machines, sprink-
lers, 80 carts and AZ broom and hoe men.
For the current fiscal year his force has
averaged 10 2-7 machines, 5 sprinklers. 81
carts and 4S broom and hoe men. To sum
up this is an increase of machines,
capable of sweeping 2jOCOO square yards
each day or night, one sprinkler, an in
crease of one-fifth in that direction and
amply sufficient to keep pace with in
creased work. In 1894 the average daily
sweeping for the year was about 1,00O.OO0
square yards: in 1895 our daily average
will be about 1,23oO0O square yards, while
there was an increase of carts and broom
and hoe men. They cut no particular fig
ure, as the fact remains that all dirt from
the streets swept was burned up and re-
moved.
'It would seem, therefore, that the state
mentS mace Dy those correspondents are
somewhat different from what are actual
facts. In regard to the capability of ma
chimes to sweep all classes of streets.
asphalt block, Belgian and cobble l can
only say they are the best 1 know of any
where, and are in use in all of the prin-
cipal cities of the country. We have tried
pickup machines, but there are none L
have seen that work successfully. Now,
while there may be occasional bad work on
the part of the contractor, 1t is generally
good. When there is slovenly work it is
deducted, either by the inspectors or by
myself.
II do not beg the question when l say
that it has been several years since there
has been as much excavating of all kinds
going on in the city as there has teen for
the last ten months, and will DC for some
time to come"