The Portland daily press., 1880-03-02
ANNUAL REP ORTS.
The Promenades and Public Grounds.

The following annual reports have been
made:
CIVIL ENGINEER.
MIR. w. w. Goodwin announces that the
only change of street lines has been the crea-
tioh OF the Marginal Way between Green and
Grove streets, the record of which has been
duly filed. He gives q list of the corners and
monuments determined and set, and the street
grades established, which have been published
from time to time The new streets laid out
nave been A, b, G and streets, and Freder-
lex. street. G street will eventually be ex-
tended across the railway, striking the city
held In its center On the plan of this area of
$4,000 square feet, nearly mile of 60 feet
streets has been projected, and building lots to
the amount of 100000 square feet. RETAIN
ing wall of stone laid in cement has been built
on the easterly side of Pearl street at cost of
$50. Another most valuable work has been
done in the Almshouse valley in reclamation
OF the creek and its swampy expansions be-
tween Grove and Portland streets. A large
number of surveys and plans have been made,
and this Office is furnished with plans in detail
OF all lands proposed for sale, showing numbers
and area of lots and all data for deeds of con-
veyance. A large number of levels and pro-
flles have been prepared, inspections of
bridges made, and surveys and plans obtained
OF Evergreen Cemetery
The work OF Improvement of the Eastern
Aohlouduo Ids peeu Deguu III all inexpensive
way by the erection of a circular mound, 80
feet in diameter, feet high, with turfed sides,
adjoining the driveway at the foot of Congress
street. Around this has been carried narrow
branch of the drive, which it is designed to ex
tend to the width of 80 feet A length of 16O
linear feet of driveway has also been graded.
The mound is composed of the heaps of ashes
and other rubbish heretofore illegally de-
posted in the public way, and of the material
taken from widening Congress street, and top
col nf .kro L.
suggests statue or monument, as worthy
feature of the foreground of the superb view
which the site affords. AT present only the
driveway will be located on this plat between
the rows of trees, and making an esplanade on
the roadway along the sidewalk No grading
will be required, and the work can be gradu-
ally done as deemed advisable. On this prin-
clple the widening of Congress street has adj
vanced only $50 feet, and gives sidewalks 10
feet wide, esplanades 10 feet, and roadway 40
feet. Fourteen elm trees have been planted
on the esplnades, seven on side. Temporary
drains have been put in for surface water in
the side cutters.
On the Western Promenade no further grad
ing had been done. The trees planted last
year survived the winter, and the evergreens,
shrubs and lawns set out last year have been
watered weeded and mown. Great care must
be exercised to make things flourish in this
bleak location
A great deal has been done for West street.
LILO uOItuCdStOIly COIucT VI tuo W0SttTu CcIllc-
terry, from which gravel was taken several
years ago, has been graded with loan,
trimmed and planted with shrubbery. The
Deering Oaks, so acres, and the greater part of
the meadow ON the northerly side of the woods
have now become the property of the city.
For the present year the carrying out the sug-
gestions to be found in the report on sewers,
and the protection of property against lawless
trespassing, with careful inspection of the trees
Will do. The preliminary sketch of a possible
vnrrsH ANEA noIr1 %AAI
shows the boundaries of the possession and
will confirm the opinion that the city should
own or control the area between its SOutherly
boundary and the rear Of the range of lots on
Green street, comprising the tannery and the
pork factory, with the often abated but ever
reviving slaughter-house If these are good
and wholesome neighbors, so be it. If not, no
injustice can be done by the consideration of
measures of acquisition of their holdings; not
for the parks sake alone, but for the benefit
of an area extending nearly if not quite, to the
southerly slope of our peninsula. The abova
named laying out proposes driveways and foot
paths enough for convenience of egreSS and in
gress in four directions the Marginal Way as
laid out by the city is held by metes and
bounds in its records, preserving the integrity
of the unfenced boundary, with trees and
shrubs massed in groups in which no one of
our native trees or shrubs should be deemed
unworthy of place and culture. The crown
ing glory of the Oaks will always be the
UTcSZy uOiQGS OI Guo Ola WOOuS, 10 WHICH Tile
elms, and beecheS, and bircheS, the naples
and evergreens and shrubbery, can never be
much more than the ornamental fringing.
The embankment of State street extension
will form dam on the easterly side of the GEN.
trail meadow and a pond of 175, 600 feet are a
may be had by bringing the Sebago overflow
/ through clear pipe from the reservoir waste
way. This overflow to the amount of 80 900
gallons every night, now passes through Grove
street sewer to the meadow creek. There is
IL L. II. L.
The plan shows also many other desirable de-
tails of construction. The engineer pays
high compliment to his assistants the past
year.
SUPERINTENDENT OF SEWERS.
The report of the Superintendent of Sewers
is taken up to great extent by the amount ex-
pended ON the various sewers The recapitu-
lation of the expenses is as follows:
Old sewer extension and repairs. 341.1O
Culyerts ;......,. .............,, 2.374lS2
DOCK dredging. ..................... 131.O2
Conveyance, &c. Observation-Disclosures. 22.S5
Total ................ So, 425. 90
Amount of assessments to be collected on
above new sewers Observation-Disclosures. 81, 1868. S5
Appropriations. ...................... 100000
Expended under health appropriation. .. S298 rs
Under the head of "Millpond and Outfall
Sewers" the report says:
The acquisition of behring's Oaks by the city
goes far towards the solution of the most i'm
portant problem in the improvement of our
sewerage The sewage of Grove, Mellen and
State streets respectively, crosses Portland
street and discharges in the Oaks, while that
of High street enters the mill-pond at the
mouth of the creek, which reaches the pond
from the Southerly slope of the Oaks. What
ever may be eventually done in the laying out
of the Oaks, an extension of State Street, in the
form of a main driveway, would seem to be in
dispensable. Let now the Grove Street sewer be
diverted through Portland Street, intercepting
Mellen and State Street sewers and receiving
that of High Street on the easterly end, and
the small sewer on Portland Street, west of
Grove, on the westerly, and the concentrated
sewage be conducted by an outfall sewer
of the requisite capacity through State
Street extension and the pond to and
through the mill sluice and behring's
Bridge to the channel of Back Cove Then
from the mill to the old railroad embankment,
| be filled with gravel to the depth of four feet
| for the first year. and eventually, without un
necessary delay, to the grade of behring's
Bridge. Training walls of sheet piling in the
| pond will protect the filling and control the
| flow and ebb of the tide through the northerly
| creek, which should not, for the present, be
| closed. 1t is understood that the Portland &
Rochester Railroad will, at any time, deposit in
| the pond the requisite amount of gravel at a
lower cost than can otherwise be obtained. OBJ
| lection has been made that the filth of the
pond should not be covered in, but inasmuch
as the territory is to be fitted for the reception
| of trees and shubbery alone, the many objec-
| tions which exist to the removal of the pond
mud will not now be cited. Whatever the con-
| ditions and requirements Of Back Cove, the
mill pond is infinitely worse and it seems prop
| er that any system of cleansing areas of filth
| should commence at the headquarters of pollu-
| ton, especially where the tide once freely ad-
| mitted is retarded in its outflow by serpentine
| creeks and the artificial Instructions of mill
| privilege. The mill has been virtually stopped,
! but the sill of the sluiceway which dams in the
| sewage has not been taken out, because such
| action would not have ceansed the pond and
everything done is preliminary to filling which
has not yet been ordered. A graded way in
| which to place sewer of the requisite inclina-
| tion is necessary unless pumping station
should be established, which cannot now be
| thought of. The marginal way, when COM
p1eted, will afford this graded way for the dis
| posal of the Back Cove sewage.
Boston, with her immense population, has
only lust begun her great outfal! sewer A mu-