Mayor of the City of Boston:

SIR: In compliance with the Revised Ordinances, the first annual report of the operations and expenses of the Street Department for the year 1891 is herewith respectfully submitted.

In accordance with a recommendation made by you in your inaugural address, Jan. 5, 1891, in regard to the consolidation of certain of the departments having to do with work directly connected with the streets of the city, an ordinance to amend Chapter 18 of the Revised Ordinances of 1890 was passed by the Board of Aldermen on March 2, 1891. The ordinance provided that "the Street Department shall be under the charge of the Superintendent of Streets, who shall construct all highways and sewers; shall have charge of and keep the highways, the pumping-station, and reservoirs of the improved sewerage system, all sewers under

the control of the city, and the catch-basins in the streets connected with the sewers, clean and in good condition and repair; shall remove ali ashes accumulated from the burning of materials for heating buildings and for domestic purposes, all house dirt, house offal, and all noxious and refuse substances from the yards and areas, where so placed as to be easily removed; shall have the care of the city teams and city stables, and of all property acquired for carrying out said purposes, and shall keep the same in good condition and repair; shall purchase all fuel and other supplies required for said purposes, and shall within the appropriation for officers and subordinates appoint all necessary deputy superintendents, chiefs of divisions, and other subordinates, said deputies and chiefs to be approved by the Mayor; shall have the care and management of all bridges which are used as highways and are in whole or in part under the charge of the city, and of so much of Harvard bridge and of Prison-point bridge as are under the charge of the Board of Aldermen; shall be the commissioner to act with another commissioner for the city of Cambridge, and shall have and exercise all the powers in relation to West Boston and Craigie's bridges conferred by Chapter 302 of the Acts of the year 1870; shall make all repairs affecting the strength of bridges, and keep the rails and planks in good order, and all dirt, snow, and ice removed from the sidewalk, and keep all bridges, draws, and wharves thereof clean and in good condition and repair, and shall appoint all draw-tenders; shall place and maintain all street signs and number all buildings; shall issue all permits to open, occupy, or obstruct streets for various purposes; permits to licensed drain-layers to enter particular drains into the public sewers; permits to open, occupy, and use portions of the street for coal-holes and vaults; permits to raise and lower goods and safes; permits to buildingmovers; permits to open and occupy portions of the street for the purpose of laying wires, railway tracks, pipes or conduits; and permits to place and maintain poles for the support of wires."

In general, the Superintendent of Streets is charged with seeing that all statutes, ordinances, and regulations relating to the care and use of streets, bridges, and sewers are fully observed, and with carrying out all lawful orders of the Board of Aldermen relating to streets, bridges, and sewers. The ordinance relating to the duties of the Superintendent of Streets was still further amended on Dec. 15, 1891, by a clause obliging him to keep the streets properly watered.

The before-mentioned duties were, previous to the passage of this ordinance, performed by the Superintendent of

Streets, the Superintendent of Sewers, the Superintendent of Sanitary Police, the Superintendent of Bridges, and the Commissioner of Cambridge Bridges, all of which offices were abolished in the ordinance, and the departments under their control consolidated into the Street Department.

In order to systematize the work of the Street Department, the following divisions have been made :

Central Office.
Paving Division.

Sewer Division.
Sanitary Division.
Street-cleaning Division.
Bridge Division.

Cambridge Bridges Division.

Each of these divisions, with the exception of the Central Office and the Cambridge Bridges Divisions, is in charge of a deputy superintendent.

CENTRAL OFFICE DIVISION.

The Central Office Division takes charge of all work of a general nature, such as correspondence, purchasing of supplies, attending to complaints, execution of contracts, keeping the records returned from the various divisions, and all financial accounts, monthly returns of force accounts, monthly statements of accumulated expenses for reports to the Mayor, and all legal transactions affecting the department, giving due notice of the same to parties affected thereby; and, in general, acts as headquarters from which the operations of the various divisions can be directed.

To this office the various deputies in charge of the divisions report daily, so that the work in all divisions shall move along harmoniously, and without duplication of labor and expense.

The supplies of the department are all obtained through a purchasing agent, instead of through the head clerks of the different divisions, as was formerly the case before the departments were consolidated.

Uniformity in quality of materials and the lowest market rates are thus obtained.

Blank forms are furnished to the foremen in the different yards, on which are entered by them memoranda of materials needed and the object thereof, and this form is returned to the chief clerk of the division, who enters the same in a warrant book, the stubs of which are numbered consecutively.

This warrant, approved by the deputy superintendent of the division, is then sent direct to the purchasing agent, who issues in return the requisition on the parties with whom he holds contracts for furnishing materials.

The numbers of warrants and requisitions are made to correspond, so that upon the return of the bills, certified as to quantity and quality (delivered by the foreman receiving the same), they are easily identified and vouched for by the purchasing agent before being entered upon the schedule for payment.

This complete system of warrants and requisitions for supplies allows the purchasing agent to have a check on their price and delivery, and also on the purchase of an excessive amount of stock at a given time.

Specifications have been prepared for the purchasing of all large supplies which are bought by contract after public advertisement.

During the year the Corporation Counsel has rendered 77 legal opinions, of which number 37 relate to matters pertaining to the Paving Division, 32 to the Sewer Division, 3 to the Bridge Division, and 5 to miscellaneous matters.

FINANCE..

Books are kept at the Central Office which show the objects and amounts of the various appropriations and balances from month to month. The following detailed statement shows the various appropriations and amount expended for maintenance for four months ending May 1, 1891, and for the nine months ending Jan. 31, 1892.

This division of the financial accounts is made necessary by the change in the financial year.