Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1916-04-22
rnrsRrpuBIlcAs, IOWA; April y 1916

ithink in figures large enough for the
business Of 10000 people. Figures
which are really small in public work
| look extravagant and reckless to the
man of an average private business.
The taxpayer Is to blame very often
for he howls at 500, 200 or 100000 be-
cause 1t Is SO far beyond his own pile
but he never stops to divide it by 3d.
600 people in order to reduce it to it's
real relationship to private business.
The asphalt paving is going to
pieces rapidly this spring and will
call for maintenance now in all parts
Of town. 1t Is in it's thirteenth year
but the concrete base underneath the
wearing surface is there unimpaired
and we can renew the asphalt carpet
but lake asphalt calls for a special
mixing and heating plant which city
of this size can not afford to maintain.
This should teach us lesson as to the
ultimate economy of our concrete. Its
first cost is only about 60 per cent
of the first cost of asphalt or brick
When it begins to wear upon the SUR
face we can cover it with a skim coat
of bituminous asphalt for less than
ten cents per yard which will last
three or four years and then we can
cover it again. We can maintain an
asphalt carpet over it for thirty years
before we have invested as much
money in 1t as the first cost of asphalt
or brick. When the California state
commission searched the world for a
paving which would last as long as a
fifty year state bond issue they chose
the concrete pavement with half an
inch of bituminous asphalt and pro-
vided for renewal of the asphalt every
five years.
People who are worrying about the
cost Of the paving proposed by the city
council on outlying streets should re-
member that most of it is to be only
sixteen feet wide which will cost only
half as much as full width paving
with curbs. A portion of that will be
paid by the city from a special levy
and then the remainder will be spread
over more than the half block adult
ing. All assessments then can be sub
divided again into seven annual pay
mentS and most of the acreage prop
erty can be plated and sold in lots
long before the seven annual payments
come due. Even when an inside street
is paved twenty four feet wide with
curbs the assessment on the seven
year plan seldom exceeds $50 a year
for a sixty feet front. 1t is nearly
always worth more than it costs.
The idea of providing-an approach
for the sidewalks at each end of the
viaduct is a good one altho it ought
not to cost as much as $4,000. People
are not going to climb up one flight of
stairs and down another to use that
vlpduct and women with children
can't do il. The pedestrian is entitled
to as easy an incline on the approach
to the sidewalks as the cart horse gets.
In de. clipping the city PARK nd cx-
tending 1t well into the city by means
of the wide parking between TWO
avenue and Riverside street and cx-
tend AL of the way to the present
park will be possible this year. The
city had $3.50 on hand April ! in the
park fund and will receive $1,000 this
year from the park tax. The bayou
should be eXcarated for a lagoon and
the borrow" hauled up to make the
new park between the two streets now
plated along North Third avenue. We
need a wading pool for the kids and IA
swimming pool for everybody which
will be free from the undertow of. the
river. which claims u life or two every
year.