The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1915-09-03
How the Insurance Rates Here
Can Be lowered
From fridays OaiiS.

r. w. Townsend, the hydraulinc en-
gineer from Chicago, who accompanied
State Insurance Commissioner s. ID,
Works, and w. |. Fisher. representa-
tive of the General Inspection company
of Minneapolis, on a visit to Mankato
yesterday. for the purpose of ascer-
tanning whether Mankato's fire pro-
lection should entitle this city to a
promotion in the insurance rate
classes. will render a written report
of that>matter to the Mankato city
council
Mankato's residence sections are
already in the same insurance class
as residence section OF first class
cities. but the Mankato business sec
ton is in the fourth class. Mr.. Town
sends report will state what. in his
opinion. should be- done to entitle
Mankato to a place in the three and
"A half class and what more should
be done to give this city place In
the third class. Insurance in the three
and a half class is three and a-half
rer cent cheaper than insurance In
the fourth class. Insurance I'm the
third class is six per cent cheaper
than insurance in the fourth class. II
the business section of Mankato should
be promoted from the fourth to the
three and -a-half class. insurance that
now costs 500 would cost $3.50. and
II there should be a promotion to the
third class, insurance that now costs
$10C would cost s94
From the conversation of Mr.. Town
send and the two visiting gentlemen.
IL was surmised by local officials that
in order to raise the business dis
tricts OF Mankato from the fourth to
the three and "a half class. the fol-
lowing Improvements must be made.
What Will Have TO Be Done.
There must be another city well;
some fire hose must be placed i'm the
pumping station, the small hose there
now not filing the bill; the practice
OF renting rooms on the upper floor
of the central fire station for the use
of locomotive firemen and engineers
must be discontinued. as they might
smoke and endanger the building: and
there must be four additional hydrants
on Front street, between Mulberry and
Main, between Walnut and Main be-
tween Walnut and Hickory and be-
tween Hickory and Jackson.
Additional improvements required
for the third class seem to be the
following:
sixteen inch fire mains must be put
into the alleys between Front and
Second streets from Washington 60
Cherry with hydrants: the size of
mains i'm various city streets. notably
Broad street. must be increased: the
number CT paid firemcn must be in
creased from seven TO ten. and an ad-
ditional reservoir for the storage OF
about a million gallons of water must
be installed.
The visiting experts suggested that
as the Consumers Power company
and the Hubbard Milling company had
good wells. some arrangements might
be made to connect with them. and
thus save the city expense OF estab-
fishing additional wells of its own.
the understanding being that the
wells of these companies would not be
drawn upon except In case of an emer-
gency. With this idea I'm view. these ex-
perts, the members OF the city coun-
ell and City Engineer Bloomquist Wis
tied the offices of the two companies
and received assurances that these
companies were perfectly willing tc
allow connections to be made with
their wells on this understanding.