Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-01-14
CITY STREETS
Report of Superintendent XII
 duff for the Year 1906.

year ending JduudIy !, ioVt, ohu"S that vast amount of work was done during the year just closed. The re- port is very lengthy document and gives the character of the work, where 1t was performed and what 1t cost. The most remarkable feature of the report Is that part of 1t which pertains to the repairing of sidewalks all over town and laying bitulithic pavement on Cole street. Last year was the first fair test the sidewalk repairing law ever had. Prior to that the city paid almost two prices for the work, but at the opening of the spring work last season it was decided to employ practical man to look after the sidewalks and have .hA repairing done by the day. Will liam Mccarthy, was placed in charge and immediately set to work fitting up a plant. When this was ready for operation few good men were taken on and the actual work was commenced and kept up until the bad weather set in. During that time 2o,336 square yards of sidewalk re- pairing was done at an average cost to tho city of twenty-five and a half cents per square yard. The material used is the best in the market and the workmanship is first class so that some of this work will last for years. This is equivalent to stretch of sidewalk six and one third miles long and six feet wide. In general way considering that the cost of the plant was taken out of the appropriation, the expense is less than half what 1t would cost if each one had been obliged to fix the walk abutting on his own property.
 This is something worth consider ing. If the city can do a job for considerably less than half what 1t has to pay somebody else why should the practice of paying out money for nothing be continued. The only argument put forward in support of clinging to the old law is that it has been in vogue from the be- ginning, but this is simply in line with the position taken by the men who cOntended that if a man happen ed to begin life with running sore on his back he should carry it to the grave even though relief could have been had at different points along the way. The contract labor system has Waterbury so overburden- ed in caring for its streets, laying sidewalks and extending water mains, that it can hardly afford to do anything else. and no doubt this explains why the town is not half policed.
 What is true of water mains and laying sidewalks Is also true of pay ing. he city pays anywhere from $2.25 to $2.50 square yard for a pavement that often has to be re- paired before it is down two months. The city tried It's hand at permanent paving on Cole street and did it for $1.50 a square yard. It Is admitted by everybody who has taken pains to examine 1t that 1t Is far superior to the more expensive work done here by contractors who. come in from other places, and yet once in while you will hear people say that it would be mistake to depart from the contract system. Why? This is something similar to the water ques- tion. The rates to small consumers are more than twice as much as they ought to be and yet when an effort is made to make the price much lower to the aggrieved parties they raise such howl about it that every body who looks to politics for living Is afraid to move hand and as a result the inequality in water rates remains. Some will say it means jobs for this one and that one and other things of that character. Sun. posing 1t does make work for dozen or more citizens of Waterbury. wouldn't 1t be much more pleasant to see local men get what honest money there Is in such work than continue to give 1t to utter strangers? It is too bad that a feeling of this kind exists in Waterbury. but 1t does exist and as result it is almost a crime to employ man to do work on the public streets whose face Is at all familiar to those about him. You ney- CT near word about the great army or laborers from out of town who are working here for the city and dis appear as soon as they get through, put just as soon as some one who be- longs in town. even though he might nave been born here and his father before him. is seen turning 8 hand Tor any of the city departments a great cry goes up that somebody is feather!ng his nest at the expense of the taxpayers.
 The work done on sidewalks and paving proves that the city Is paying two prices to strangers for doing what 1t can attend to itself and keen big payroll at home, where our own merchants and others will profit by It. At the present times measures are looking towards relief from the system that holds Waterbury to the contract system SD securely that even though 1t might save sI0O. ooo on job 1t cannot move one way or the other 10 make that saving. ana the city officials as we'll as our sem aior and representatives should zee that favorable action is taken upon them.