The northwestern bulletin-appeal., 1924-04-26
COM. v. !. PETER
IS An EFFICIENT
MAN FOR PLACE
Facts Are Shown Whereby City
Has Been Greatly Benefited
by This Commissioner.


some interesting facts in connection
with the problems of his department
when speaking to group Of his
workers last Wednesday. He said in
part: The average citizen of st. Paul
has no conception of the problems i'm
posed upon the Department of Pub
lie Works at this time. There are
certain self-evident facts that should
be taken into consideration in con-
nection with the dirt streets Of the
city at this time. AS the streets have
been covered with snow for several
months and in frozen condition,
consequently very little work could
be done upon them. In spite Of that
fact, however, many hundreds OF
yards of cinders have been laid dur
ing the winter. In addition to that
condition we all know that it rains
during the month of April and that
when rain hits the dirt street it
causes a muddy condition. This is
true every year during the month Of
April. Again, the frost has been in
the ground which prevented the city
forces from doing effective work un-
til just now. Work on hard-surfaced
streets is commencing this week. 1t
would be folly to put scarifiers and
graders on streets before the frost is
out of the ground. Before the first
of May many miles of city streets
which are not now in good condition
will be put in first-class shape.
Citizens Benefited.
It is fact that we cannot overlook
that there are hundreds of people in
st. Paul who have hit upon the bright
idea that now is the time to secure
cinders for their street or alley. The
idea itself is perfectly good one and
would prove of benefit to them imme-
diately il 1t were not for the fact that
too many people get the same idea at
the same time. The Department of
Public Works is naturally anxious to
please every one that it can and gives
as prompt attention to the requests as
possible. We are today receiving re-
quests for cinders which entail the
work of two or three weeks. II all
the cinder requests were complied
with that are now on hand the work
would not be completed inside of
three months. 1t must be borne in
mind that the city does not pay for
the cinders and that the supply of
them is very limited. 1t must also
be borne in mind that the city could
not comply with all the requests for
cinders even If the cinders were avail
able. We have six trucks working
eight hours per day laying cinders at
this time. In addition to that, when
more cinders are available, we hire
one or two trucks, but we could not
hire more than that owing to the lack
of sufficient funds. Every year dur
ing April the Office is besieged with
requests for the repair of streets and
alleys. Naturally the requests are
doubled and more during an election
year.
Hard Job Handled.
Every request now in the Office of
the department will be taken care of
and as soon as possible. If the aver
age citizen of st. Paul could spend
one day receiving requests for the
repair of streets he would be con-
vinced and very readily of the impos-
sibility of complying with all of them
at once. The Superintendent Of
Streets, who is properly called the Su-
perintendent of Sanitation, is a very
efficient man, who was appointed by
Commissioner H. C. Wenzel. He was
re-appointed by me when / took Office,
and believe him to be the best man
in st. Paul for the job. He has with
out question one of the hardest jobs
in the City of st. Paul, and believe
he is handling 1t very well. He was
here prior to my administration and
informs me that the streets of st.
Paul today are in better condition
than they have been for several years,
or since he has been here, at this time
of the year.