The herald., 1896-12-06
ADVISES A CONSOLIDATION
Says There Are Too Many Divisions Of
the Department
Great Sums Expended for Street Work In a
Year
Complaints of insufficient Help and
Some recommendations - Special
Meeting of the Council to Extend
Contractors Time

The annual report OF street Superln-
tendent P. A. Howard was filed with the
city clerk yesterday. 1t is a volumin-
Gus document, showing in detail the great
amount of work done during the past
year. The superintendent begins his
report by referring to "the diminutive
force" allowed to his department. which,
he says, is not sufficient TO give satisfac-
, tion to the travelling public. He urges
material increase in the number of la
borers allowed him. He says that "the
time has come when the Legislative body
of the city must take the matter in
hand, and in conjunction with the street
superintendent together be open to the
criticism of the public regarding the con-
dition of our streets, and by harmonious
ly acting much better results will be OBJ
tained. Without the complete support
of the city council the hands of this
department are effectually tied" The
superintendent then says that the con-
dition of the streets, while it might be
worse. is sufficiently bad to bring forth
from the people a demand that some
thing be done for improvement. Pres
ent conditions indicate that something
has been lacking in the methods of con-
structing graveled and paved streets.
The superintendent then specifies the
condition of certain streets, which he
says are bad by reason of faulty con-
struction, aided by frequent mutilation
to repair pipes and lay connections. AS
he truthfully says, 1.-The tearing up and
cutting through the paved streets of our
city is an evil that demands the imme
diate attention of the proper officials to
see that way is provided. making it
compulsory for all necessary pipes to be
laid of double strength before paving.
so that an avaricious corporation or n
penurious property owner will be unable
to ruin an entire block of street by dis
turbing the street after it is laid"
The superintendent says that another
evil which can be remeded only by the
city council is the division of street
work into so many different offices.
Street sweeping, street sprinklng, gut
ter cleaning and everything pertaining
to the condition of streets properly be-
longs to the Office of the street superin-
tendent The durability of pavement
depends materially upon its being kept
clean and the amount of sprinkling it
receives. 'rhe street department is sup
posed to keep the pavement in repair
but the claiming and sprinkling are in
two separate denartments, which is not
consistent ana is productive of disputed
authority and auestionab BILE responsible
lty, where by the tax owner is unable
to decide to whom the evils of an improp-
erly kept street are due"
Forming large part of the report Is
tabulated statement showing the amount
of street work done in the year. The
average number of employees per month
in the department from November 80.
1895, to November so. 1896, was 52s4
During that period the department has
repaired and cleaned graded streets.
removing 94S1 LOADS. or 1861 cubic yards
of earth In the repairing of graded
streets 5456 cubic yards of gravel have
been used and 724 cubic yards of broken
stone. The department repaired 44.1se
feet of asphalt paw roent laid 756 lineal
feet of cobble stone gutter. put in POO
lineal feet of stone drain ard cleaned and
repaired 600 feet of drsi~s On addition.
The expenditures of tho fepa ttment for
the year were: Salar'y st8 38T: station
cry and printing, S1958 lpenses and re-
pairs, $10,467: total s5e 19S
During the year s523S was received as
fees for permits. The street work done
under the bond act of February 27. 1893.
amounted to total OF s1S3 493. and un-
der the bond act of March 1S 1895 was
$329,574, with nineteen contracts still in
course of completion, not included in
these tables
besloes the work enumerated before,
there is given long list of Jobs that are
completed or in course Of completion
under private contract.