The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-04-29

did in justice to ourselves and to the
formal bidders to show that we meant
what we stated in our specifications. that
our terms were made adviseeiy and were
intended to be complied with.
All such formal propositions have, how
ever, received public attention in another
way His Honor the Mayor placed his
office at the disposal of both the formal
bidders and those offering propositions
for the purpose of giving hearings there-
on, and the individual members of this
board, the Board OF Finance, the law
officers, and the representatives of the
local newspapers were invited to. be pres
ent at each hearing. The hearings were
conducted on the plan of allowing each
proposition to be stated by its promoters
in their own way, and thsn, questions
were put covering the whole ground with
a view of bringing to the front the merits
and denierits of the plans under dis
cussion; and as the Mayor had provided
q large blackboard, the presentation or
focas and figures were made with maps
and plans and in part on the blackboard,
while the discussion proceeded, and full
reports were published in the daily papers
of what occurred at these hearings, so
that the public and the officials were in
possession of the same information and
facts.
OPPOSED TO PUMPING.
This board has held several confer
ences at which the results of the hear
ings and the points of the Mayors inter-
view with our president that we We're
local newspapers We're canvassed; the
outcome of which was that it decided as
a Committee of the Whole on Tuesday,
April 49, 1895, to announce by an inter-
view with our president tha we were
opposed to a pumping supply If a grav-
ity supply could be obtained and that we
were of the opinion that the watershed
of the Jersey City Water Company as
proposed by them, would not produce
the required water in a very dry year.
The board also prepared a letter which
was published in full in the Evening
Journal and News in which it em-
bodied some new features not in the.
present specifications. The present spec
ifcations provided for the payment of
water by the million gallons; as the bids
received were tine first ever received dur
ing all the years in which the water
question has been discussed which show
ed definite price at which the work
and supply could be bought, the city, by
its officials. were enabled for the first
time to calculate at different rates of
interest on the price of the work. ETC..
and compare the same with the price
charged per million gallons.
CHEAPER WAY TO BUY.
1t was found by this comparison that
at the commencement Of the using of the
water it was cheaper to. buy by the mil
lion gallons up to a certain quantity and
from that point in the scale it was cheap
er TO pay the interest on the specified
price of the works. etc, in lieu of prices
by the million gallons, and consequently
it was thought well to consider this fact
before taking any definite action. Both
the bidders plans and all the PROPOSE
tions were carefully examined as to the
sewerage of small places, and while we
protected the city in these specifications
by standard of purity we thought that
all villages, towns ETC., which naturally
drained into any supply, should be sewer
ed as first essential. We thought well
f3,sss' q y prof positlon TO divide the
6srss len the construction price and
the condemnation of the land and water
rights to accrue to the city at net cost,
the contractor to name a figure beyond
which that cost should not GO; but we
doubted it's practicability. All these
matters were stated in our proposed let
ter of April 23, 1885,
Inasmuch as we were in doubt as to
whether we could request the Jersey
City Water Company to. appear before our
board to see whether they would offer
any enlarged water shed and if so. if the
same could be legally accepted because
of it being an enlargement of a proposal
properly received in response to adver-
tisement and also being in doubt as to
whether we could send the letter re-
ferred to to water contractors and pros
pective bidders without advertising for
bids we did at our meeting of April 25,
1895. on motion table the report of the
Committee of the Whole and passed
resolution requesting the opinion of the
Corporation Counsel on the questions of
which we were in doubt.
His opinion was received at the meet
ing of April 27 1895, and from it it ap-
pears that we must accept the BIDS as
proposed according to specifications and
without change, and that we cannot
issue the letter inviting propositions ac-
cordfng to the terms of that letter with
out advertisement.
THE JERSEY CITY AHEAD.
We have carefully considered the mat
ter and reached the following conclu-
sions =
l. That the Jersey City Water Com
made the deposit of 100000. as required
by the specifications as a guarantee OF
3. That by It's plan it has offered a
single pipe system of twenty-nine miles
IN length, capable of delivering $4,000, 600
gallons of water daily and storage reser-
voir of a capacity of over IL ,O90. 600, COO
gallons, which equals a daily supply at
the rate of 5o,0O0,090 million gallons per
day for over 234 days, which is an ex-
cess of 1874 days over the requirements
of 100 days supply, as called tor in our
specifications. The price is specified as
$7,O0O,O00, and for a double pipe system,
with the supply of the same number of
gallons daily for the City of Newark,
t. e.. s6O00,000, the pipe Tine of which sup
ply is "a single pipe of but "a miles in
length, and the storage PROVIDED IS but
slightly in excess of 6,00O000, 900 gallons,
the rate of 50,000,000 gallons per day,
and we have concluded that, considering
the character Of the gathering grounds
of the watershed, the price IS low Ii the
price of Newark's supply was reasonable,
and that is the best known measure of
comparison WITHIN the reach or knowledge
of this board.
8. That the water is to be gathered
in the best watershed available for sup
ply for Jersey City, as all the waters
falling in the shed are within our state
limits and the head for a gravity sup
ply IS ample as compared with the Fam,
apo. and the water is of fine quality and
xnJ.iny1 Tho fllf1l1a h