The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-01-13

A Consolidation of Street Cleaning,
Repairing, Garbage Removal and
Street SprinISling suggested-The
City Engineer Also I'm Favor of
the Use of Macadam for Paving
Durable and Not Very Expensive.
City Engineer Claussen unfolded his
plan for a consolidation of the street
cleaning and repairing, garbage removal
and street sprinkling, under a superin-
tendent appointed by himself, at a meet
ing Of the special committee on street
cleaning and garbage, held at the mayors
office yesterday afternoon. The idea Oh
the city engineer is to have the city as
sumo charge Of this work rather than
have any part of 1t done by the CONTRACT
system. From data and information Sc
cured from other cities the city engineer
arrives at the conclusion that the city
would save money and have the work
better done under his proposed plan In
lis report he says:
A few cities, among them st. Paul.
wash the asphalt-paved business olstr .I
with hydrant stream Ihls removes Tue
fine dust from the asphalt and mas las proven proven
"
sive do not believe that the service
can be improved upon. Considering the
area Of the city of st. Paul, its SIZE pelng
about three times that OF sucn cues 3, az :
Milwaukee and Toronto, and twice Inat
of Pittsburg, Detroit and Kansas CITY,
the cost of our total expense OF street
cleaning per- capita Is extremely low IN
comparison with other cities. 1t appears,
however, that. as far as our paved streets
only are concerned We are spending as
much money for cleaning as do other
important places but our dirt streets, oW-
ing to insufficient funds, have not re-
ceived the attention they should
COST GETS GREATER.
In St Paul the cost of cleaning, the
asphalt streets for 1899 exceeded that for
1895 considerab fyy-owing mainly to the ~ IN
crease in new payements during tne
year 1900 it is expected the cost WI f eH
Improvement of streets, and increasing
from year to year. Thus the funds re,
manning for the repair of dirt streets VIII VIII
be decreased year after year, unless the
for maintenance Of streets, etc, is
changed. 1t would seem eXped1ent, IN
order to increase the cleanliness or tne
streets, as we'll as the efficiency, ana from
the standpoint Of economy, to agltate the
paving of streets at every opportunity,
The pavements that are now in vogue in
st. Paul, being brick. sandstone and
asphalt, are very expensive, costing from
81 So to $500 per square yard, and some
durable pavement of good construction,
but of decided reduction In cost shoulq
be advocated. AS such a pavement l
would recommend macadam. We have
first-class material for this close at hand.
Macadam can be built for from 90 cents
to 81 per square yard, and IN my estl-
nation will make q flrst-class street for
certain thoroughfares in the outlying dis
tricts that are much traf1cked.
The city of New Bedford, Mass, with
forty-six miles Of macadam streets, built
Kansas CityE has, constructed sixty-f1ve
miles of macadam streets at an average
cost of 20 cents per square yaro, WIN
the high-pricedi pavements,S sucn as
holders cannot be expected, nor can they
be Induced, to- pave the Streets or late
years our city has spent about S4OUUo per
annum for the repairing OF DIRT stree 81
$4,000 per annum for cleaning same, 49,
900 per annum for the repair OF about
thirty miles Of wooden block pavements.
The bulk of the above amount for clean
ing and repairing dirt streets is spent on
the more important and heavy traffcked
streets. The repairs on the wooden block
pavements did not, and. could not, be
made to prolong, the life OF: the pavement
streets passabie 1 estimate that if the
more important streets in the outlying
districts and the thirty miles of wooden
block pavement were replaced largely py
macadam, and the balance with stone,
brick or asphalt. the same amount OF
money as now spent, viz, $4,000, would
secure to the city much cleaner and more
efficient streets.
TEAMS BY THE DAY.
At the present time the city in carrying
on the work of keeping the streets clean
and in good repair Is put to the expense
of hiring by the day a good many single
and double teams. During 1885, the en-.
gineering department has employed $500
double and 200 single teams, paying
therefor at the rate Of S. per day per dou-
Bile team and $3.50 per day per single
team The total. expense resulting there
from amounted to above $50 O0O,5 constitute
ing the principal item OF expense in
maintenance OF streets.
If the city weHld undertake to run its
own stables and hire, the men Is id LEY err
the same service could be had for $2g,0OO
thus saving $4,000 per year on the above
item. NV figures are based on the prices
the CITY pays for labor at the present
time and on what it costs the st. Paul
fire department to take care OF their
horses per head per year
I consider identified with the matter. OF
street cleaning and street repairs the
sprinkling Of our streets and the disposal
of garbage, refuse and ashes. In the
proper execution of this work these vari-
Gus municipal functions are closely inter
woven. The same teams can be used for
various purposes. In our climate there
would be a demand for teams during the
summer months for the purpose of street
cleaning and street sprinkling, street re-
pairs etc. while during the winter season
the same teams could be employed for the
removal of snow, ice, sanding of walks