Evening star., 1934-02-28

Note-This Is the first of series
OF articles relating causes OF failure
BY the city authorities to cope sue.
cesstully iDith heavy snowstorms.
TINE thousands of men on WASH
ington's streets still struggling
today to get nd of snow
i which fell Sunday and Mon
day the snow encruSted
streets, the snowbound automobiles,
choked cutters and halting transpor-
tation system-are all forcible re-
minders that the snow removal prob
lem, oficially solved" in 1926. still
Is far from solution In plain fact.
As far as the District government
Is concerned. part Of the answer
works down to a rather simple mat
ter of dollars and cents, plus the un-
certainty always present as to the
fate Of District money bills in Con-
gress
Contrary to general belief. there
Is no special fund for removing snow
from the streets. Each year there is
an appropriation labelled "for street
cleaning, snow removal and the re-
moval of snow from sidewalks" Since
1926 this fund his been appropriated
on the theory that while it will not
be sufficient to do street cleaning the
year round and also serve for the
removal of any large snowfall, the
District should go ahead and spend
whatever is necessary to get rid Of
the snow and then come to Congress
for q deficiency appropriation in the
Spring to make up for any large in
roads into the fund This is the
substance of the "gentlemen's agree
ment" between the District and Con-
gress in 1926, something not ofhcially
of record anywhere. but generally
understood as a result of conversa-
tions between the then District Com
missioners, particularly Engineer
Commissioner J. Franklin Bell. and
the then members of the District sub
committees of the House and Senate
Appropriations Committees.
Proves Impractical
Although this sounds fair enough,
the way it has worked out in practice
is that, after q large expense for
snow removal, the District has to
wait SO long for any reimbursement
that it becomes a hardship for the
city. The Refuse Department, in
common with all governmental agen-
cies, is forbidden to incur deficiencies.
Every time there is q large snowfall.
therefore, and the department asks
for q supplemental appropriation. If
the money Is not forthcoming by the
lst Of May. employees are laid of for
fear Of incurring q deficiency II the
estimate should not 90 through.
Last year. for instance. the depart
June Is. when the fiscal year had
only two weeks left to 90. Meanwhile,
fearing the funds would not be avail
able. it had laid of large numbers OF
employees as early as May /.
The result is that whenever large
snow falls now the department keeps
an eagle eye on the money going out
and must skimp the job as much as
possible for fear of being caught
without funds before the fiscal year
runs out.
Last year the appropriation for
street cleaning was $550,000. This
year the fund has been cut to $375,-
600, and it is roughly estimated that
Sundays snow cost about $4,000 to
remove. or nearly one-seventh Of the
entire fund. Had 1t not been for
the decision of the Federal c. w. A.
authorities late Monday to allow G.
w. A. workers to be employed In re-
moving snow the condition of the
streets would be much worse today
than It Is.
New York's Solution.
incidentally, the handling Of the
snow problem In New York furnishes
q few interesting comparisons The
New York Times said yesterday that
. fund Of 100000 had been ear
marked for the removal of Sundays
snow. In contrast with the Districts
$4,000 estimate it seems that New
York, some IA times larger than
Washington, IS ready to spend about