Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-12-05
STREET CLEANING
Past Year Remarkable One in De.
partment's History.

STR EET CLEANING.
| Past Year "a Remarkable One in De.
| partment's History.
| The past fiscal year was in MANY re-
| spects a remarkable one for the street
| cleaning department. In that year a tria
| was made. under the authorization OF
| Congress. of the relative merits and cos1
of street cleaning by hand under contract
and without contract under the direct con.
! troll of the Commissioners. The contracto,
was being paid ~ cents per thousand
square yards for the work of hand clean.
| ing; ana upon the positive assurance of the
superintendent of street cleaning that the
work could he done under the direct sll,
perviSiCn of the Commissioners for less
! than 90 cents per thousand square yards
| Congress granted an appropriation of SD
| 600 to be expended in such manner as an
experiment. OF the $1,000 appropriat ed
| the sum of S1316I 81 was expended and
| the total area cleaned for this amount was
| la.35f3S5 square yards, making the cost
| to the District per thousand square yards
about Is cents, a saving of IA cents Del
thousand square yards the contract
| price. or, in other words, the work was
| done for but little more than one-half of
| the price paid the contractor
The superintendent of street cleaning
paid the men employed by him on the hand
cleaning work S1.25 per day, while those
employed by the contractor upon the same
at 81 per day the superintendent could
easily have reduced the cost to 16 cents per
| thousand square yards, or one-half the
price paid the contractor.
Good Impression Made.
Congress dill not deem It best to place
the work of street cleaning under direct
municipal control but the showing made
by the superintendent of street cleaning
made a profound impression upon the
members of the committees and redounded
greatly to the benefit of the District. On
account of the showing made on the ex-
perimental work during the first four
months of the year provision was in
serted in the District appropriation act for
the cur, ent year limiting the rate to be
paid under contract to - cents or less
per thousand square yards; and the Dis
triCt was thereby enabled, by securing a
contract at pa cents per thousand square
yards. 20 further enlarge the daily hand
cleaning schedule to cover a daily area
Of 100000 square yards of street surface.
"A provision was also inserted in the
act requiring the contractor for the hand
cleaning work to pay the labOrers en-
ployed not less than Sl.25 per day for eight
hours labor The operation of the hand
cleaning system has met with such favor
from the citizens that almost the only
complaints received by the street cleaning
department have been caused by the fact
that it could not be further extended to
ants reside.
Another Reduction.
Another result OF the congressional linn
itation of % cents upon the price to be
paid the contractor is the very appreciable
reduction in the cost of machine cleaning,
which was under last years contract 252i
cents per 1,000 square yards, while under
the present contract 1t Is 10 cents-a saving
to the District of 6%i cents per 1000 square
yards. The machine cleaning under the
new contract is also being done better than
it was done last year. principally for the
reason that the contractors are using "a
much better sweeping machine.
1t has been impossible, however under
the present appropriation. owing partly to
the extension of the hand-cleaning system,
to sweep any of the machine-SWept streets
more than twice a week. This has caused
considerable complaint from the citizens re-
siding on the neglected thorOughfares es-
years been swept three times per week
1t is to be hoped that the appropriation
may be so increased for the next fiscal
year as to enable these streets and the new
ones which are being constantly added to
the schedule to have the attention they de-
serve
Attention is called to the statement of
the superintendent in his report with re-
gard to the large unexpended balance re-
turned by the department The greater
part of the balance was saved from the
special appropriation for the snow and ice
work, and this amount will be available for
use during the current year.
The past winter was without precedent
in the history of Washington for deep
SHOWS, and the street cleaning department
was taxed to its utmost capacity to keep
the streets in a passable condition. As
many as 100 labOrerS and iU2 horses, carts
and wagons, with drivers, We're employed
in one day in the removal of snow, and a
total amount of $40, 81 was expended,
leaving an uneXpended balance Of S1,770. 10
The Commissioners are constrained to
renew their recommendation of last year
That the work Of cleaning the streets, ave
nues and alleys of the District be perform
ed under their direct supervision without
the Intervention of a contractor