Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-06-02
REPAIRING SIDEWALKS.
Should Is Dons " han Who Gould
 Give It His Whole Atssntiou.

The care of the sidewalks is a very
 important feature of municipal work,
 although 1t Is difficult to get the city
 officials to look at 1t in that light. It
 should be done on the same plan as the
 repairing of streets, hy the day, not by
 contract, and under the direction of a
 man who could give it his whole atten-
 tion. Anybody at all familiar with the
 duties of the superintendent of streets
 knows that he cannot give it the timie
 1t requires and as a consequence Mir
 Hotchkiss is receiving good deal of
 knocks for things which he is not. to
 blame for. A man who understands
 the mixing and laying of concrete
 walks with force of half a dozen men
 would put every walk in the city in
 good shape with the appropriation
 made for that purpose. but so long as
 It is conducted in a slip shod manner
 with no regular inspection the work is
 bound to be unsatisfactory and the pub
 lie will be apt to find fault with ;ne
 sFme while as a matter of fact the real
 tIpuble is due to the management. If
 nfOperly handled the present sidewalk
 INV can be made great saving to the
 Taxpayers, because as business prop
 (eftiOn It must be plain that by all pay
 ing into one fund and getting the work attended to by one person it cai
 he done much cheaper than by having
 everybody who owns building lot em.
 ploying contractor to repair as much of the walks as front on his property.
 It looks like a small job, and in one
 sense 1t is, because it does not cost
 much to do it under the present sys- tenn. but just the same it is something that concerns everybody and instead of trying to bring the law into ridicule it is the plain duty of the officials to see that the money is expended judiciously and the law made to meet the end in view, something that can be done if the officials give it q little more con- sideration. To he sure, 1t would re- lieye the officials of q great deal of trouble If private citizens were obliged to go to all this expense. but inasmuch as the walks are the property of the municipality and the people want the work attended to in this way there should be no fooling about it. It is not necessary to employ very high sala. ried man to look after this job. What 1 is needed is a practical man to make q business of constantly watching the sidewalks. see where repairs are need ed and put his men to work right away | before the walks get so that they are | not fit for public travel. In this way 1 money would be saved and the walks | would always be ill good trim. If the board of public works thinks the SUI of streets can do this and keep an eye to the streets besides they are deceiving themselves and the re- suit will be an all around kick, not only with reference to the walks but the streets too. It has been said that the city cannot do this work to advantage. Why? If the city cannot spend $5,OO0 or. $6,0O0 to advantage on the walks what can be expected of them with lar ger sums on more difficult projects? If the city cannot handle the approprla- ton how is the great army of rate pa, ers going to make out at it? Would they do the work better and would 1t cost less? Everybody knows the an. swer to this query, but the trouble is many of the officials wouldn't care how much private individuals might be hardship so long us the responslbil ty was shifted from ther,, Fh9pldGrs, Il 1 rhG people want the sidewalks etixedre | They have cheerfulIy put up the money O do 1t with. including the salary of he officials. All they look for now is the 'eryice and If they don't get this they iave right 10 ask the reason why. has seen all 1t wants to of citizens into the courts fl , ,eglecting to repair walks which they , lo not own and nobody cares for a re- , urn to such tactics. The persecution vas miserable failure and the new aw was enacted with view to getting 'etter results and making everybody , vho uses the sidewalks contribute toward keeping them in re- h.