The Washington times., 1901-09-14
SW WEEPING THE HIGHWAYS.
The Annual Report of the Superin-
tendent of Street Cleaning.
An Exhibit of the Work Done In
Various Branches of the service
Garbage Removal. Collection OF
Dead Animals. Disposal of Snow.

Warner Stutler. the Superintendent OF
Street Cleaning, yesterday submitted to
the Commissioners his annual report OF
the operations of his department. cover
ing tho Hscal year ended June 30 1871.
t...I. .u..yfrg exhibits present state
..... ~ .'e workings of the department
o - . aid year, and following them
.stluate OF the amount necessary
goper conduct Of the Office for
year ending June 30, 1896, to-
lin such recommendations as in
i,r's opinion will improve the
port shows that the following
were appropriated for the sew
ms of work:
sprinkiing. sweeping and cleaning,
deficiency for sprinking, sweep
nd cleaning, $3.50; for snow and ice
81 e0; for salaries, $24. 700; fer col
m and disposal of city refuse, in
ing inspection and incidental ex
..l SIS. Sl1a,a10; deficiency on garbage con-
It, 5000; total, S5iO940.
he amount appropriated for street
aning has been expended, the distribu-
H-n having been made at the beginning
the year-among the different branches
If the service in accordance with the
amount of work to be done under existing
c0-tracts a-t unde- the direction Of the
Commissioners without contract.
tabular statement gives the number
Of men. horses. and wagons employed in
tho handel, aning service for each month
in The year. the area cleaned. the cost
and number OF cubic yards of debris re-
moved from the streets. The totals of
this summary show that 20S men. using 90
horses and 9 wa gons. worked 2631h days
They cleaned nS, ,765.02S square yards. re-
moving q 7Sa cubic Yards of debris, at
cost of &c7. 1856. The several additional
items in the expense account are:
Hire of team during July and August,
81 62l.G3; cost of brooms and scrapers s. :
So; cost of bags. $3.50; cost of live v
horses. S2.92i.66; cost of shoeing horses,
S574.l2: other incidental expenses, $500;
total cost hand cleaning. S16.4}9.47. Ccst
per l.eo9 square yards. Is cents.
Mr.. Stutler then recites the efforts made
to secure a contractor TO perform the
work of hand cleaning and the circum-
stances which led to undertaking the task
as municipal service. quoting the sew
eral orders issued by the Commissioners
authorizing the same
preparatory to commencing the work
on July /, 1880" he says, IAN outfit was
purchased consisting of bag carriers.
hrooms, scrapers shovels, sprinklers. etc
The area Of the streets scheduled for
daily hand cleaning amounted to !, So. .S39
square yards, and the force required to
clean said area was z0j laborers at a sal
airy OF Sis per diem each During July
and August. teams were hired to remove
the sweepings from the streets, which SER
vice proved to be unsatisfactory and ex-
pensire- after which eighteen horses and
nine wagons were purchased for use in
removing the sweepings.
The daily area cleaned during the year
was divided into eight divisions of about
200 000 square yards each An inspector
was assigned to each division, in charge
of twenty-five laborers, each laborer be-
ing assigned TO a certain block, which he
Is required to Keep clean during the dav.'
Mr.. Stutler submits a statement show
ing the comparative cost of hanl cleaning
by day labor and the cost ofSthe same
class of work under the last contract, in
which he states:
THE contract rate for hand cleaning
during the fiscal year ended June 30 1900
was 2lA cents per 1000 square yards.
whereas the cost of the same work by
day labor without contract, as shown by
the foregoing statement, was IS cents. or
3A cents per LOCO square yards less than
the cost Of sthe-work under contract. In
other words. to Clean the total area of
us, ,16o,O2s square yards cleaned last year
it would cost, at the rate paid under the
last and lowest contract, s139, ,25o.6S per
annum, or So, ,Sll.21 more than it cost to
perform the work by day labor. The re-
duction in the cost of the work from year
to year has enabled US to enlarge the
daily area cleaned from 100000 square
yards in 1895 TO ]. .565. .S09 square yards dur
ing the past year.
AT the beginning of the current year
hand pickup sweeper was adopted. by
the use of which the laborers can clean
one-third more area than they could with
the hand brooms, and at the same time
10 the work better The further reddc-
lion In the cost of the work on account Of
the use of the hand machine, which
amounts to $50 per day. or A.300 per an
mum, has enabled us to enlarge :he daily
yards. thus making the daily hand clean
ing schedule for. the current year 100000
square yards. At the end of the current
year We expect to be able 10 report
hand cleaning by day labor, which rate is
II cents less per 1000 square yards than
was paid under contract during the fiscal
year 1898, the rate for that year oeing -
cents per 1,000 square yards"
The monthly schedule OF machine
sweeping is presented in tabular state
ment, which shows that the machines
worked Ao days, sweeping an area oe et
q 80
cubic yards of debris, at cost OF sSz'-
317.s4.
''The six schedules for machine clean
ing" Mr.. Stutler continues. which give
the area to be swept each night during
the week, averaged at the beginning OF
the year, 600 square yards each, the
schedules having been prepared In ac-
cordance with the amount of money
available for that class of work During
the year the schedules were enlarged by
adding thereto the newly paved streets,
which averaged about 5000 square yards
per schedule, making the average area
swept each night svv,OW square yarus at
The end of the year.
Machine cleaning Is done at night be-
tween the hours Of ,. m. and ) a. m.
turing the spring, summer, and autumn
months, and in the day time during the
winter months. The extension of the
hand cleaning system for the current
year which includes 10000 square yards
1f area that were swept by machine last
by machine three times per week, instead
Of two times as was done last year, and
still keep within the bounds of the ap-
propriation and the contract provisions.
by sweeping the streets scheduled for
machine cleaning three times per week a
great Improvement is shown in this
branch Of the service, and 1t Is hoped that
our future appropriations Will be suffi-
cient to continue the present service, as
nothing less than three sweepings per
week will keep the streets in a cleanly
condition.
"The contract price for cleaning unim-
proved streets for the fiscal year ended
June 80, 1901 was s64 per day for fur
nishing thirty-six laborers. twelve horses
and carts with drivers, and all tools
necessary to do the work. This consists
Of keeping the roadways clean. and the
drainage of the cutters clear and free
from weeds and grass. The contract
further provides that extra laborers and
horses and carts with drivers will be sup
piled. when ordered. at sl.35 and sl-75, re-
spectively.
"It has been necessary during the year
to have extra force in connection with
this class of work. the cost of which