626 PARKS 



With respect to field notes, some park engineers use a loose leaf system 

 of keeping such records. While this has some advantages over the ordinary 

 bound surveying books, there is always danger of the leaves being misplaced 

 or lost entirely. 



METHODS OF PROCEDURE IN HANDLING CONSTRUCTION WORK 



The various steps in handling construction work in parks may include: 



1. Decision by the park governing authority that it is desirable to 

 undertake a given construction project or a series of projects. 



2. The governing authority must know something of the probable 

 cost or costs and calls on the engineer to make the necessary surveys, plans 

 and estimates and a detailed report. 



3. If the money is not available the governing authority must go before 

 the proper municipal or county fiscal authorities, present the plans and the 

 estimates and ask for the necessary appropriations or for the issuance of 

 bonds. This may involve a public campaign of education and a popular 

 election to vote on the issuance of bonds, or an appeal to the legislature 

 for authority to conduct an election. If the project can be financed from 

 current revenues the governing authority can, of course, proceed at once 

 to the execution of the project. 



4. When the money is available the governing authority must decide 

 whether the park department will carry out the project by day labor through 

 its own engineering division or by contract. Sometimes this decision is left 

 to the engineer. 



A great deal has been said and written as to the respective merits of 

 performing park construction work by day labor or contracts. Certainly 

 a small park system will find it more economical to use the contract method 

 for the reason that it could not afford to assemble, organize and direct the 

 necessary labor force and purchase the tools and equipment to carry out 

 a project of any considerable size. Even a large system that is so far devel- 

 oped as to have only occasionally a large construction project will find it 

 cheaper to resort to the contract method. It is only in the beginning of 

 large systems, where there is a great deal of heavy construction work to 

 be done which may extend over a period of several years, or in the extension 

 of a system involving similar conditions, or in an exceedingly large system 

 where construction problems of considerable importance are continually 

 arising, that a department is warranted, economically, in building up a labor 

 and supervisory force and investing in the necessary tools, equipment mate- 

 rials, supplies. On the other hand, in either small or large systems, construc- 

 tion work such as garden operations smoothing topsoil, preparation for 

 planting and planting can usually be done more satisfactorily by day labor. 



