Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-21
LACK Of TEAMS
HANDICAP THE
SCAVENGER MAN
Storm Also Hampers Collectors
of Garbage, Which Piles
Up Daily.

Strenuous efforts are being made
by the city scavenger contractors TO
rid the city of its accumulated gar
bage ana refuse. Despite this fact,
normal conditions will not be re-
sumed for at least a week This
statement was made today by ]. Mil
ton Kennedy, general manager here
for Joseph Marrone. the city garbage
contractor.
Mr.. Kennedy admitted that the con-
tractor was way behind in the col
ection of garbage. He said there we're
numerous obstacles hampering the
garbage collection besides those
caused by the recent snow storm.
Big Bill" Edwards, former street
cleaning commissioner of New York
city, is directing the collecting forces
Or the city seavenger. He is said to
be gradually bringing order out of the
chaos that existed in the Marrone or
ganization as result OF the recent
strike and the recent storms
ME- dwards is said TO have been
greatly handicapped In his work by
inability to secure extra teams for the
garbage collection. All the avaiIab e
extra teams in the city were secured
by the city or the Public Service Cor
poration. Mr.. Kennedy declared he
had been attempting to get teams
from every part of the city and
county, but found very few available.
During the past few days Mr. Ken
nedy said he had secured fifty teams
Some of these, he declared, he had to
take from the city work of cleaning
streets. Today he took twelve teams
that had been enganged in carting
snow and put them to work collect
ing garbage. He declared he would
put $50 teams to work as soon as he
could procure them. Both the teams
and men are WORKING Sundays andn
holidays in an attempt to collect the
accumulated refuse
The condition of the streets has
hampered the garbage collectors to
very great extent also. Because of
the Insecure footing for the horses
the collectors have been able TO load
their wagons only to about half the
usual capacity. This has required
more trips for the same amount of
garbage and has made the progress
naturally slower even with reduced
loads. Where wagons formerly made
six trips a day they are now making
only four.
Piled heaps of snow are causing the
men the greatest trouble, Mr. Ed
wards said. In the residential parts
of the city the snow is piled in high
ridges in the cutters and along the
eurbs. The collectors have to wade
thigh deep sometimes through the
snow to get the. garbage cans. sDrue-
times they have to be carried haif
block In order TO nd anropening in
the snow heaps to get TO the wagons
Under ordinary conditions the
wagons are driven to the curbs and
loaded there. The snow piles now
prevent This method and necessitates
long hauls by the men. To make
matters worse, the garbage is placed
in boxes and baskets and often in
paper bags. This hinders the men
considerably These are unwieldly
and the baskets and bags often break
The people are obliged to place the
garbage in these receptaeles because
the regulation garbage cans in many
of the sections have not been emp
tied for several days.
The accumulated garbage is a fac
tor that delays the progress of the
collection also. The cf'lo< - are
getting about three tiyes as much
garbage from each residence now as
under ordinary conditions.
Mr.. Edwards has mapped the city
into two districts. Under ordinary
conditions these districts are worked
separately. The garbage in district
is collected on Mondays Wednes-
days and Fridays, and in district .
on Tuesdays, Thursdays and aStur-
days.
Since the storm, however. gangs of
men have been working daily, includ-
-, A
the work is done under the direct su-
pervision of Mr.. Edwards. He jumps
from one district to another con-
tinually throughout the day
The commissioner declared that the
snow of last week made conditions
worse than they have been since the
of 1888. He declared also that
the men suffered intensely from the
sfesss. ef the Ia borers have had
their hands and feet frozen. and often
ii - ~.o.,iss nave been frozen stiff.
Mr. Kennedy declared that the resi-
dents are mixing about sixty per cent.
of their garbage with ashes. The
daily collection of garbage averages
about thirty tons. Mr.. Kennedy
pointed out that no serious damage
could be done by the garbage. He
said there was no danger of contagion
Commissioner Gillen, chairman of
the Board of Works committee on
streets is inclined to sympathize with
the garbage contractors. Mr.. Gillen
said today that he knew the city
was Handicapped by lack of
teams. He declared that the city had
Marone to take about a score
Of its snow carrying teams.
He declared, however. that if con-
ditions did not improve very material
ly before next Thursday. when the
board meets, he would take decisive
action He stated that he would rec
ommend that the city do the garbage
collecting itself for a while and
charge the cost up to Marrone. In
this way with bzoth organizations
collecting the refuse, normal condi-
tions might be again restored
Flag Presentation TO