The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-02-22
Sidewalks.

Improvement III une dmouHt anu
kinds of sidewalk laid.
During the season there was laid &c, :
334 square feet of walk, divided as fol-
Sawed stone 800, wood 3, 800,
cement 81, 754.
Under this. head, Mr.. Thompson says
Considering alone the costs of dam
ages and claims for damages for injury
arising from defective walks, amount
ing to 1919. 33 in 1900, and the cost for
city inspection (about $450), it would
seem the part of wisdom to prohibit
the building of wooden walks except
in cases where the grades are too steep
to permit the safe use of stone or
cement.
For the outlying parts of the city I
would allow the building of gravel
and cinder walks. They are cheaply
made, easily repaired, and make a good
foundation for cement or stone walks
when the time demands a better walk.
Street Department.
The operations of this department
were conducted on an economical basis
in fact some repairs that really
should have been made have been left
undone for lack of funds.
The total expenses for 1900 amount
to S., III. %, divided as follows: Pay
rolls So, 366. OF, street commissioner,
five months, $75, stone and cement
$657. SO, lumber Including sidewalk
repairs)s 81, 1876. 70. hardware and black
smithing So, 30S. 1, miscellaneous 1884 60
The only contract for the season was
for building culvert On Pleasant street,
which was built by Thomas Dunlevy
for $500. so.
About /, 075 feet of cement curbing
was put in by private parties under
supervision of the engineering depart
ment.
A considerable item of the expense
of the street work is in repairing the
streets above Fourth street, and in
cleaning the cutters between Front
and Fourth streets.
The cross streets above Fourth have
roadway of about 60 feet to accom-
modate a travel in most cases of
about 20 teams per day, and of neces-
sity have so little crown that the water
in the center runs the whole
of the block before getting into
the gutter.
As it is now we haul dirt to repair
the hills, and after the next rain clean
the same dirt and more with it out
from the cutters below and haul it to
the refuse dump. 1 would recommend
all the roads leading up the hills
be narrowed as much as is consistent
with the surroundings and needs of
travel, and then all be curbed and gut
tered. In many places %guttering alone
do. l would further suggest
that Fourth street, from Jackson to
Cherry, be provided with an upper
and a lower roadway, the upper one to
be as the street now is, and the lower
one to be made by obtaining the old
right-of-way of the Omaha railroad at
that place for street purposes. The
old roadbed would be the grade of
the new roadway. At Cherry street
there would be steps leading from
lower to upper roadway, but no drive
way.
The SIP between roadways could
be at slight expense made into a small
park, and the expense for right-of-way
and grading of street and parkage would
not be as great as the expense of grad
ing street alone if done by filing
Cherry street, and there would be no
damage whatever to property or change
in existing grades. If this plan be not
then it seems inevitable that
in the e future there will be an at
tempt on the part of some to further
cut down Fourth street at Cherry, and
of others to fill Cherry from Broad to
Fourth.
Either plan would be a needless de-
of property values in that
vicinity. The interests of that part of
the city demand that those grades be
established permanently at the earliest
possible moment.
The total cost of street sprinkling
was So, 119. 81, and the rate of assess
ment on Front street was five cents,
and in district No. Q was 3 Lilo cents.
Park Superintendent's Report.
Park Supt. Blake makes several rec
concentrations. He says that the pic
mic grounds at Sibley park have be-
come too small, and the tract between
the mound and the river should be
added. OF at least enough land acquir-
ed for a driveway around the north
side of the mound and to enlarge the
picnic grounds. He also recommends
that Poplar street and Mound avenue
be graded, to make a more direct and
safer driveway to Sibley park. A
work shop in Sibley park is needed,
with a basement in which to store
tender plants in winter. Given street
should be opened and a crossing made
over the railroad tracks.
MI. Blake recommends that Capitol
square be improved by clearing off the
rocks and planting trees.