188 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
raing and maintaining trees, cutting 
grass and general upkeep of the lawn 
space between the curb line and the 
property line; this is all done by the 
Board of Park Commissioners out of 
the aforesaid funds provided for this 
purpose. The first seeding, sodding 
and tree planting is done by the 
Board out of construction funds. 
The standard width of roadways on 
boulevards and parkways is 40 feet, 
but on account of the immense 
amount of automobile and pleasure 
traffic on the boulevards, we are plan- 
ning new roadways 50 feet wide. The 
standard boulevard is 100 feet wide, 
which is subdivided into a 40 foot 
roadway and a 30 foot lawn space on 
each side with an 8 foot artificial 
stone sidewalk in each lawn space 5 
feet from the property line. In this 
30 foot lawn space are three rows of 
trees, planted and maintained by the 
Board, one row 4 feet from the curb 
and a row 2 ^ feet each side of the 
sidewalk, set about 45 feet apart with 
the center row staggered. A few of 
the boulevards are only 80 feet wide. 
These are on short connecting links 
in the boulevard system where an old 
street through a built-up section of 
the city could not be widened to the 
standard width of 100 feet without 
considerable expense and damage to 
the abutting property. The lawn 
spaces on these 80 foot boulevard 
links are 20 feet wide in which are 6 
foot artificial stone sidewalks four 
feet from the property lines, and two 
rows of trees 4 feet from curb line and 
2 feet from property line, spaced about 
45 feet apart. The new boulevards on 
account of the increased width of 
roadway are 110 feet wide. In the 
residential sections of the city, the 
buildings are usually set back from 
30 to 50 feet from the boulevard 
lines, which, with the well kept and 
maintained boulevards and private 
lawns, gives a broad avenue between 
the building lines that is very pleasing 
and effective and in which the people 
of this city take a great deal of pride. 
The streets under the control of 
the Board of Public Works are 50 
and 60 feet wide with possibly the 60- 
foot width the predominant width; a 
few of the main thoroughfares are 
70, 80 and 100 feet wide. On near- 
ly all the residential streets, except 
the main business thoroughfares, the 
roadways are 26 feet wide with a 12- 
foot lawn space in which is a 5-foot 
artificial stone sidewalk 5 feet from 
curb lines on the 50-foot streets, and 
a 17-foot lawn space in which is a 
5-foot artificial stone sidewalk 7 feet 
from curb lines on the 60-foot streets 
on each side of the roadway. In the 
old section (the section prior to its 
extension April 6, 1909) of the city 
there is a Charter provision fixing the 
width of roadways at 3-5 of the width 
of the street, but almost all of the 
residential streets have been improved 
with roadways 26 feet wide which was 
fixed by special ordinance for each 
street or part of street before it was 
improved. In 1909 the city was ex- 
tended from an area of 27.7 square 
miles to an area of 596 square miles. 
The roadways in this new territory 
are all 26 feet wide, unless a different 
width is established by Ordinance. 
The new Charter adopted August 4, 
1908, provided that in new territory 
added to the city, the width of the 
roadway in every street shall be 26 
feet, but a roadway of different width 
may be established at any time by 
ordinance. The width of roadways 
(fixed by special ordinances) on 
streets in which there are street car 
lines are from 36 feet to 40 feet on 
the 50 and 60-foot streets. 
The citizens of this city are very 
much pleased with the reduced width 
of roadway. It not only lessens the 
expense of improving the street, but 
the added width of green lawn space 
is very much more effective than an 
unnecessary width of roadway. We 
find 26 feet is wide enough on all or- 
dinary residential streets, outside of 
streets in which there are car lines. 
There is no ordinance or provision 
giving the city authority to sod and 
maintain the lawn spaces, nor requir- 
ing the property owners to sod and 
maintain them, but the property own- 
ers almost invariably sod and main- 
tain these lawn spaces the same as 
they would care for the lawn on their 
own property. They do this cheer- 
fully, and take great pride in it. 
The street cleaning department 
keeps the roadway portion of the 
street clean, and cuts the weeds in 
front of unimproved property as often 
as they need cutting. This is done 
out of the general funds appropriated 
by the Council for this purpose. 
One row of trees, set about 33 feet 
apart, is planted in the center of the 
lawn space between the curb and side- 
walk on each side ot the roadway. 
By Charter provision, the city has 
authority to pass ordinances and let 
contracts to plant trees on the streets 
and tax the abutting property the 
same as for other street improve- 
ments. The contracts for tree plant- 
ing provide for three years mainte- 
nance. After that they are trimmed 
and taken care of, but not replaced or 
reset, by the Forestry Department 
out of funds under disposal of Board 
of Public Works appropriated by the 
Common Council. Trees have been 
planted on practically all of the built 
up residential streets, and are being 
planted on the newer residential 
streets as fast as the other street im- 
provements are made. 
