The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-05-07
addressed the Board as follows:

evidenced by your vote in electing me for
the third successive term to preside over tho
deliberations of the Board. | thank you,
gentlemen, and assure you that / will in the
future, as in the past, strive to act with fair
ness to all, and to render the best service L
, am capable of.
We have had unusual experience during
the past year, and the results we have at
tanned speak for themselves. L for n am
| ready to stand by the record. When the
enormous extent of the business we have
transacted as q Board is considered, it would
be surprising il there were not found here
| and there minor details that would serve to
give excuse to chronic fault finders. We
only claim to be human, and our fellow men
will judge US by the structure we leave be-
hind us. Petty flaws have little or no
weight.
During the year we were called upon to
play our part in assuring 10 Jersey City the
long desired system of rapid transit that is
now giving it a n unheard-of boom. I b
large capital necessary to carry out any
such enterprise successfully has effected a
grand revolution in our city. Electricity
has brought the vast territory of the Heights
within easy reach OF the ferries, and acres of
heretofore idle lands are being populated.
We have room for all Corners and are glad to
see Jersey City climbing into the place to
which her geographical location clearly en-
titled her. Additional means of communica-
ton with our ~neighboring cities have also
been established, and the patronage accorded
to the line carrying passengers as far as
the Oranges has already far exceeded ex-
pectations. Other lines are being construct
ed, and a system of transfers that will per
NIT our people to ride from almost II por-
ton Of Hudson county to the business section
of our city will be arranged for.
1t is true that the overhead trolley wire
| system is open to criticism, but it has worked
excellently here. 1t viii be time enough to
discard it when something better IS devised.
| We are promised that this shall be done.
There is too much at stake to ignore any inn
provement that will render surface traction
less dangerous and less expensive.
Still another forward stride has been made
in the adoption of asphalt p~avements by the
city. Contracts have been awarded for the
asphalting of Barrow street from Grand
street to Newark avenue, Eighth street from
Grove to Coles street, East and West Hamll-
ton places n Pavonia avenue from Erie
street to Hamilton square. The work is to be
done under O guarantee that will keep the
new pavements in first class shape for a
period of ten years, and the price per square
yard is exceedingly low when compared
with the figures paid by other cities.
The Board has not gone about their as
phalt business blindly, but in accordance
with a well defined plan. Hudson county's
magnificent new Boulevard is approaching
completion, and its fourteen miles of drive
way canno fail to attract men of means.
The Board proposes to make the Boulevard
reasonably accessible from the New York
ferries for light carriages and road wagons.
1t is also proposed to take up all the anti
quated cobble stone pavements that disgrace
our city and to replace them with asphalt as
far as practicable. Of course, stone pave
ments Of an improved kind will be laid
wherever heavy traffic prevails. This work
will call for the removal of no less than
$4,000 square yards OF cobble stones.
All this work is to be paid for out of the
portion of the receipts from excise fees al
lotted by law for the repair of paved streets.
The property owners will not be directly as
sessed for any part of it.
Modern stone pavements have been laid in
a number of much used streets under the
same plan during the year. Among the
streets that nave been thus improved are
Jersey avenue from Montgomery to Grand
streets and Warren street from Grand to
Dudley street, Morgan street from Grove to
Henderson, York street from Grove to Bar
| row street, Sussex street from Greene to
Van Worst street, Fifth street from Jersey
avenue to Coles street, Seventh street from
Monmouth street to Provost street, all paved
with new Belgian blocks. Besides these, the
payements OF Henderson street from Payonia
avenue to the Eoboken line and portion of
York, Steuben, Monmouth and First streets
have been taken up entire and relald In the
best manner.
There is also pending the contract for re-
paving of Ocean avenue with 27,96O square
yards Of trap rock and $500 yards of bridge
stone.of crossings. No assessments will be
levied for this improvement either.
In the face of business depressions and con-
tinued hard times, property owners have
seen their way clear to assume tho expense
of a large number of improvements to be
paid for by ordinary assessments. Among
them are the improvement of Germania ave-
nue., Halliday street, Sherman and Hooker
avenues, Brunswick and Seventeenth streets
and the construction of sewers in Arlington,
Central, Ocean, Virginia, Magnolia and
Baldwin avenues, and in Charles Inc Hen
derson streets. The approaching completion
of the main sewer in the Woodlawn district
and the proposed main sewer on the West
Side along the Morris Canal, which must
come sooner or later, will be of vast benefit
to the area they will drain. The joint out
let sewer on the West Hoboken line is also
nearly completed and will open up a large
extent of comparatively unOccupied terri
tory within the city limits.
The Board has carefully considered tho
proposed opening of Thirteenth and Seven
teenth streets from the lower section of tho
city to the Heights. l for one am heartily
in favor of both projects and would secure
even more improvements of the same sort II
possible to do so.
The ciry's water plant has been well kept
up and the service is being improved by the
construction of an independent Pinch pipe
line to supply the Woodlawn section. The
| Board has been criticised for not tapping the
main running to Bayonne to relieve the
wants of Greenville, but it was found there
were insurmountable engineering difficulties
in connection with such a scheme. The in
dependent line had to be built.
Right here / would reiterate the pressing
need of an additional conduit of ample size
across the Hackensack Meadows. The present
mains are ovcrtaxed and any emergency is
liable to seriously cripple the water supply.
| This was shown by the break in the sub
merged line at the Hackensack River. An
| other conduit cannot be secured too quickly.
It is also evident that Jersey City needs adj
| ditional facilities for the storage of water.
Our city is growing, and modern methods
| are making themselves felt in the march of
progress. The new City Hall, not under the
supervision of our Board in any way, is an
assured fact. The Fifth precinct police have
| been furnished with handsome quarters at
the corner of Ocean and Gator avenues, and
| a first class public school building, No. Is,
is being erected in Dwight street. Steps nave
been taken at last to bring about the demo-
Iition of the York street public school house,
and to replace 1t with a large and improved
| structure. This should have been done long
| ago. as oldNo. / in its present shape has OUT
lasted the period usually expected from build
ings of its class. The city has been offered
| the additional property needed to enlarge
the school and the proposition has been re-
ferred to the law officers for consideration.
The Board has realized the necessity of
-.-.k.sl;1r v,,a,oa in r10cSihIa dfrar-