The herald., 1897-10-13
STREET SWEEPING
WHY CLERK REEDS HEAD IS
WANTED
Too Particular As to Deductions From
the Contractors Reports-Inside
Facts Brought to Light

When 1t became known, that on Mon.
day four members Of the city courci
had made an effort to oust Clerk Reed
of the health department., and that theii
only reason for not so doing was the
most excellent one that they could not
! secure the necessary fifth vote, it did
not appear what their motive was That
| the scheme had something to do with the
| recent scandal in. the street sweeping
department which resulted in the re-
moval of Inspector Mcclellan, was
stat d yesterday, but then it was not
known just how much the effort was
connected with the street sweeping
matter. The facts came 10 light yes
terday. and 1t is now known that the
mere fact that Reed has been doing
his whole duty was the cause for the at
tempt TO remove him.
Among his other duties Reed receives
all the reports of streets swept. These
reports are made every morning arsd the
total distance covered is stated in feet
on the reports. 1t is within he province
of the health department to disallow
claims for portions of streets claimed, to
have been swept when the work is not
up to the standard Up to short time
ago the distance to be covered on each
street was given as whole, while the
length OF the blocks making up the
portioU of the streets 10 be swept was
not given. If. therefore, it became nee
essary to reject the work on any por-
ton of the street ii was done by deduct
ing the feet in proportion as the part to
be deducted was to the total number of
feet, or in other words, to guess at the
amount. The street intersections were
for time counted twice in places where
two streets to be swept crossed, and this
item alone made the total number of
feet reported swept really greater than
the work really dor,e. In order to be
perfectly fair both to the city and to
the contractor as we'll, Reed secured
from the city engineer the lengths Of
the several blocks making up the
streets swept, and also secured the
width of the street intersections. He had
prepared a specially graduated rule
with which to measure the distances on
the map. 1t was therefore possible for
him to deduct exactly the number of
feet from the whole which were reported
as having been sighted. The result was
ton in the number of feet for which al
lowances were made, but as the figur-
ing was done on an almost exact basis
it was not safe for any of the interested.
persons to raise objections, as Reeds
work was not only fair to the city but to
the street sweeper. 1t did not satisfy
some body, however. 1t was too exact
to suit the purposes for which the re-
ports were made. There was not
enough margin ON the side of the sweep
er, so it was decided 10 oust Reed if
possible. How and why this attempt
failed is already known.
There is am interesting incident in this
connection which escaped notice until
yesterday. 1t has been heretofore the
invariable custom CT the street sweeper
to file with the health officer each Mor.-
day morniCg his weekly reports of work
done so that the allowance for it may
be made that same day by the city coun-
cil Monday morning for the first time
in a long while these reports We're rot
filed and therefore they did not reach
the council on that day. 1t now appears
that it was the intentioC4 of those behind
the scheme to oust Reed, to elect an
other man in his place who would not
be so particular as to the correctness of
the measurements, and after his induc-
ton into Reeds position to have him
pass upon the reports to the satisfac-
ton of those interested. But the whole
plan failed because of the lack of that
one vote, asod' Reed Is still deductirg
streets poorly swept from the reports.