e Omaha
PART TWO
EDITORIAL
"AGES ONE TO EIGHT
UNDAY
PART TWO
SOOIETI
OKF 10
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VOL. NLIVNO. 4. OMA1IA, SUNDAY MOKNING .HTlAr 12, 1914. SNOLK COPY KIVK CENTS.
WW I ereen. the farmer smiles and goes to ' .mr,--- ,19 I FJJ ?&3KfeifflMg 7Z.Z
1111111 " tJaJ.u"nf J't 0bUrnatacrount3 Entrance to 3a2icro I jjjyjjriP I Bedford cee
,E Commissioner John J. Ryder of the department of 1 I jHt , jMfflMjlfflMIIIIM Afgfr I I
- - clouds are cleared away the voice of traffic will be li. It which fine weather alopo will prevent becom- I p jnBSftglWlMliWWaWJMlWffi'ffi. ISaBJPfegtte 1 1 I
lnir n deficit. One storm in trio monm 01 June, i i -jmeKiKKBtiMmmt-twJi wstzmiSmlW)itESSSj 1 1 I
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UV A. M. KASTEHLING.
iHKN rainstorms wash tho cornfields
and freshen alfalfa Into a brighter
green, tho farmer smiles and goes to
sleep at night to dream pleasantly of
bins full to bursting, of rampart3 of
harvested hay, of fat bank accounts
and automobiles and things, but City
Commissioner John J. Ryder of the department of
street cleaning and maintenance talks Into a tele
rhono, and' his foremen pull on their slickers and
ko out to round up work-weary men with picks and
shovels and grading machines, for long beforo tho
clouds are cleared away the voice of traffic will be
calling for, help. Pavements will have been broken
up, dirt Btreets washed away, culverts obliterated.
An Impatient populace will turn up Us trousers and
cuss the powers that be, say 111 things about con
tractors and berate the neighbors who live on un
I aved thoroughfares from which tons of dirt will
have been washed down onto tho paved ways, or,
damming the streets, will have forced back water
into basements, thereby causing damage and stir
ring up litigation.
Rainstorms and blizzards are the bane of the
htreet cleaning department, for they mean that
every available man must be marshalled at tho
danger points. There are "weak sections" of the
city streets and intersections whore tho storms
dollght to play havoc and there is never a storm
o.' any note that does not attack these weak sec
tions, compelling the street commissioner to rein
force his gangs, and subsequently deplete the pre
cious street cleaning fund, over which all street
commissioners, for years on end, have wept with
cadness. For this fund runs around $5,000 a
month through the year and a healthy storm will
devour a month's apportionment. Hence it is that
a street commissioner's opportunity to go back to
his constituents with a fine financial record de
pends altogether upon the weather.
In this respect Commissioner Ryder has cause
to charge tho weather man with gross injustice,
for spring rainstorms have been so heavy and so
frequent, and tho consequent damage so groat, tha
the street cleaning and repair fund has a great hole
Ii. it which fine weather alopo will prevent becom
ing a doficit. One storm in tho month of June,
following several mluor storms, .damaged streetu
to tho oxtent of $3,600, and money Is still being
hpent on repairs. Often streets must be closed to
liibllc travel and weeks will elapso before the
norm damage la repaired.
Knowledge that certain streets will be damaged
by every rainstorm has prompted the street com
missioner and his general foreman, Dean Noyes, to
adopt unlquo preventive plans. In tho worst places
tin barrels in which asphalt Is packed aro being
sunk and filled with broken rock, brickbats and
ether heavy material to form bulkheads.
"Any numbor of dirt streets are washed out by
tho volume of water flowing over them during
heavy rains," said Commissioner Ryder. "This
yoar downpours In rapid succession practically
ruined several streets where side ditches existed.
As an experiment wo flattened a few streets from
curb line to curb line and we found that the plan
worked all right. Streets that used to wash out
more or less with oyery rain stood up in good shape,
but in tho worst placeB we had to uso the tin bar
rels to form bulkheads at certain distances.
"A Tainstorm will clean a paved Btreet to a fair
degree and will thoroughly clean every payed street
on a hillside. At the same tlmo it will wash down
onto the paved streets all tho loose earth, and
(.ebrls from the higher, unpaved levels. Hence,
ve have to send gangs of men to certain intersec
tions after evory storm, because it is a cinch that
large quantities of earth will have washed down.
"Our records of repairs to streets show that
about 90 per cent of our repair fund has been
going into tho upkeep of asphalt streets. Wo are
now repairing brick and stone pavements, as rapidly
au possible where bad conditions exist. On tho
older brick streets, whore small bricks were put
down, all we can do 1b to fill tho worst ruts with
un asphaltlc mixture, and try to keep them passable
tor traffic until now pavement is ordered and laid.
"Ordinarily we havo in this department from
twenty-four to thirty red light lanterns. On the
evening of Sunday, June 21, Mr. Noyes, after fin
ishing a busy day, had caused to bo placed 13G red
light lanterns. To do this we had to got from
hardware stores all the serviceable lanterns they
I'titil we could correct tho worst conditions existing
at other points. Each rain was worse than tho
ono preceding, covering a period of a weekor ton
nays, and as a result our dally expense mounted
very perceptibly.
"I go on tho theory that this department should
It conducted on the same lines aa any other busi
ness, viz., to do the necessary work In the shortest
possible time at tho smallest posslblo expense. At
t!mos, necessarily, the dally, weekly or monthly ex
pense rolls increase quite materially. At othor
times we aro able to lay off men and teams and
thus equalize exponse."
Not all tho oxpenso of a heavy rainstorm comos
out of the street commissioner's funds, for the
Planner In which streets havo been graded have been
tho direct cause of a groat deal of storm damage,
htwsults, judgmonta, compromises and settlements.
Uecause streots must conform to a certain grade,
had in stock, an.d we were compelled to hire extra " bometlnios high above, sometimes far below the
help to place the lights In position. houses on either side of the street, tho damage by
"In some cases wo were compelled to closo the btorms is considerably augmented,
streets to public travel, either In whole or in part, Scores of suits havo been handled by the city
legal department and hundreds of dollars have
been paid to property owners whoso houses hava
been flooded or the foundations of the "houses un
dermined by reason of the manner in which too
htreots are graded: While the city attorneys do
not recognize the general right of property owner
to damages because of the havoc the storm play
with tholr hpuses, the suits are generally settled
cn compromise payments. Thus the street grading
problem does not ond with the appraisers' award
of damages because of high or low grades, but pre
sents Itself anew atter every storm.
General Foreman Noyes, who, besides being
foreman, is somewhat of a photographerhas taken
hundreds of snapshots and time exposures of tho
damage to streots by rainstorms. This -collection,
ho keeps In tho street commissioner's office, where.
It is known as the rogues' gallery of the storm
gods. Strange pranks of the storms are shown In
these pictures, pavements crumbled and piled Into
high mounds, street car tracks spanning chasms
whore once was sound asphalt and curiously ser
iated dirt streots, over which no vehicle could pass.
Sometimes street car tracks for blocks aro
burled under two or three feet ofuud. Once in a
while a motorman looks at this mud and pulls the
throttle. Then Mr. Noyes adds another photo
giaph to his gallery, the picture of a street car with
Its front end covered in mud and patient street
cleaners shoveling a path for It. A street car can
plow through snowdrifts, If tho Bnow Is dry and
fluffy but mud Ib never fluffy nor dry, and a very
thin layer is sufficient to tie up traffic completely,
ft