The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-09-18
STARTS AT LAST.
Meeting to Talk of Kansas
Avenue Is Called.
Property Owners Will Talk Re-
pavement Thursday.
l MUNICIPAL PLANT.
viii Be Discussed
at the Meeting.
City Engineer McCabe COntin.
ues His Opposition.

An entering wedge will be driven
Thursday evening for the repaving of
Kansas avenue.
A mass meeting of Kansas avenue
property owners will be held at the Ma
tional hotel Thursday evening at 1880
for the purpose of petitioning the city
council to purchase a municipal asphalt
plant with which to resurface and re-
pave Kansas avenue.
The meeting is being worked UP by
City Attorney Dreaming who said: ST
have secured the support of W. e.
Sterne, A. Newman and Charles Jewell
who either own Kansas avenue prop
erty or who represent interested prop
erty owners. 1 have still others who
are willing to lend their endorsement
to the scheme. Councilman VIM. Green
thinks favorably of a municipal asphalt
plant and he is an owner of Kansas
avenue property. Jonathan Thomas
another property owner, is interested in
having the matter agitated. I think
that we will be able to get enough sign
ers to the petition to carry it through.
The petition will be presented to the
council and we are going to try to get
every owner of property along Kansas
avenue to place himself on record. We
are going to go after this in the same
way that we went after and secured a
compromise with the Edison Illuminat-
ing company and a reduction in the
rates for lighting"
City Engineer McCabe, who has I'M
dertaken the task of defeating the
municipal asphalt plant, today gave
out letter from manufacturer
(name unknown) who. says that a
plant large enough to lay 1900 yards
day will cost $4,000. The point
he is hammering at is that it would
cost too much. Here is the letter.;
"a plant with 1900 yards capacity
will furnish all the material that one
not much object of having a greater
capacity unless you double the amount
so as to have two full gangs. When
we say 1900 capacity we mean by this
1900 working capacity under normal
conditions, which means that a plant
should have at least 1,400 or 1,500
yards capacity. 1 suppose you under
stand that asphalt machinery is
rough, heavy machinery and that the
work is rough, heavy work and there
is more or less trouble all the time
with the machinery on account of its
having to work in sand and grit all
the time, and no matter who makes
your machinery you will not be able
to run it up to its full capacity prac-
tically all the time, and you must ex-
pect more or less shut-downs. A plant
of this size would cost probably about
$4,000.
IF you could arrange to buy your
plant early this fall or place your order
early this fall you could probably get
quite per cent reduction. During the
fall and winter months the machine
shops are usually slack on work and are
willing to take orders at close figures,
and this is especially true of asphalt
machinery. The following list of rollers
and tools is what [ would buy if / were
fnr my
I have taken as being the lowest:
One fire wagon, 1925; one five ton roll
er, 81 $50: one half ton hand roller, $3.50;
II hampers, $24; IL smoothers, $42; SO
square point shovels, $40; "a picks, SIS;
IL steel shovels, IS; 4 scoop shovels, 50;
steel wheelbarrowS, SIS; rakes, $780,
There would be some other small tools
probably such as wrenches, hammers,
screw drivers, ETC., which would proba-
bly, amount to ten or fifteen dollars.
AS to the cost of laying the material,
that would depend very largely on your
ability to manage the business and ham
die the help. The list below I think
would be necessary to lay 1900 yards in
a day.
One plant foreman, $25 per week:
one engineer. $500; three yard men
at $500 per day each; one night
Waterman, $3.50 per day. On the
street you would need: one street
foreman, $25 per week; shovelers,
man, % men to dump wagons, hand
roller men, one water boy. Average
wages about $500 per day. One steam
roller man, $3.50 per day. The cost
of material I quote as follows: Trim
idad Lake asphalt $500 per ton;
Bermudes asphalt, $500 per ton;
California, $500 per ton; Obispo.
$1,000. Cement per barrel, $l-5S.
Residium oil per gallon in tank cars.
So cents. Texas maltha, cents.
Sand per ton, so cents. l could not
say what the cost per yard would be
to YOU but you could make quite
close estimate from the above figures.
I estimate from SIS to rs cents per
yard including a reasonable allowance
for sinking fund to pay for your plant
and maintenance of same. As to the
salary for the expert which you might
mention I would say that the average
wages in this vicinity is from $4,000
to $4,000 per week. The principal
ability that is required of man is his
executive ability, as any man with or
binary intelligence can learn all that
is known of the business in a very
short time. I think I could take a
man with ordinary intelligence and
teach him the whole business in two
weeks The old com panies, in order
10 keep out competition, try to make
a great secret of the business and
would have the general public believe
that it required n long experience in
order to successfully handle it,"