The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-01-17
WHO MUST PAY !?
Sidewalks for the Boule-
ward Will Cost at Least
$3.50, 900.
PROBLEM FOR TAXPAYERS
Engineer Harrison Talks About the
Improvement for Which Every
body is Clamoring.

eouieFdr0! Are we ever going to have
tnemg are the questions flung at Mr..
/ Ediow W. Harrison, Chief Engineer of
me County Road, almost daily, by first
one anxious citizen 'syne anither.',
The public generally think sidewalks
| necessity on the Boulevard, and there
iskeveryWhere throughout the county a
demand for them. Before, however. they
l can be laid the Legislature must be in
yoked, and then comes the question.
WHO is to foot the bill?''
The acts under which the Boulevard is
constructed do not contemplate the lay
! ips OF sidewalks, and they are not pro-
VVaed Tor in these measures. This will
appear strange to many who have all
along believed that sidewalks were a
part OF the construction of the road, and
lne boulevard would not be completed
untl the tagging was laid. But there
- good reason for it, and Mr.. Harri-
son was good enough to devote some of
Ais pusily occupied time today in ex-
Plainlng the sidewalk question to a
4 News reporter
| GU see,' he said, 'the acts relating
! 60 une construction of the road are gen.
eral In their character and apply to
every county in the State They can
oI course. be excepted to by the people
q tney vote on the subject of having a
road That road, under the acts m,,sr
/ run through the county from boundary
g boundary. There is only one county
an New Jersey where a road of that char
aeter needs sidewalks, and that is Hud-
son, because the road passes continuous
through settled places all the wav
Put IN other counties the road could run
lor miles through the country, and side
Walks would be entirely out of Mace
| Hence the acts did not contemplate
/ them.'' :
"tdow can it be secured?', Mr. Harrison
| was asked - '1o'-
/ further legislation is needed, and il
ean pc secured. I think, without much
! trouble. The measure could be dra fled
g apply to these counties wheis the road
mas oeen built and especially where it
/ passes through settlements whose streets
nave been opened and approved and side
walks can be laid.n
i Mr.. Harrison. when asked What q
| would cost the county to lay tagged side
| Walks from the Kills on the south to the
county line in the north. pulled out his
pencil and proceeded to cover a pad with
sasqres. Then after few minutes he
i ISpiteQ -
An eight feet tagging where the side
| Walk IS twenty feet wide and a few feet
| sr'agging where the sidewalk is ten feet
VIDE would cost about s15O.OoO. That
"outd pc the cost of bluestone tagging
| II could be laid with asphalt as in Van
worst Park, for the same price. If IT
was laid in concrete like that in front of
=. - g. Young's house, it would cost in
L I,r x~otl.1 IL
the nelghborhood of twenty per cent
more.'
| The necessary legislation could easily
pc procured and the road laid with the
| tagging, out the problem. tsWho is to paw
Tor lt?' remains problem not to be
soiVeu Wlthout many a kick from property
owners and taxpayers. The question re-
solves itself into either into the county or
| the property owners on the line of the
road shall bear the expense
The objection of the rropertv ouners
| to pay for the sidewalks is that - a
| county should certainly finish a road
which it had elected to construct and 90
the whole public uses the road for a
| promenade it should bear the exnensa Of
fasging. Then again, if the s15o.o0o were
spread over the entire county it world
be an infnitesimally small fraction of a
III,
property owners along the line of the road
were to pay for it it would fan heavily
on them.
The general taxpayer. the man who
lives in Hoboken, the man who lives
| away from the road pooh-poohs the
proposition that the county should bear
the cost of sidewalks, because the
property owner ON the line of the Boule
ward IS directly benefited by the road
and he alone should foot the bill. Be
sides the crowds which pass ON the road
add value to the frontage and that is
an undiss,uted fact. Hence the general
taxpayer says the Boulevard property
owners should pay for the sidewalks.
which enhance the value of his house
and is no benefit whatever to ANYBODY
else off the road.
Then third solution is offered. and
that is to divide the cost between the
county and the property owners; but the
wiseacres in Trenton will, in framing the
act authorizing the sidewalks, determine
who will pay the piper But whatever
way is adopted 1t is obvious, Mr.. Harri-
son thinks, that the work should be done
at once and at nearly one time and not
by peacemeal. By doing so the full bene-
fit of the Improvement would be felt and
it should be done under system and the
public should not depend on the voluntary
efforts of property owners in different
municipalities
Should the work be left to different
townships to be done nice condition
would arise. Part of the road lies in
Jersey City, another part in West Hobo
ken, and In one place one side, of the
road in the Township of North Bergen
and the other in West Hoboken. IF these
townships were left to themselves the
road might never be completed 1t Should
be, in my opinion, done by one contractor
who could buy his material in large guam
titles and of course at more reasonable
prices than if the material had to be
bought piecemeal by different people,
The Freeholders should have supervision
of the work and see that 1t was done as
nearly as at the same time''
Mr.. Harrison added that his figures
relative to the cost of the sidewalk were
based on the work being done in this
wholesale manner.
Leaving the subject of sidewalks the
Chief Engineer broached the question Of
sewers for the County Road. Sewers and
sidewalks. he said. are questions which
hang together and under the acts govern
Ing the construction Of the road the sew
ers are to be built under the same rules
and regulations applied to them in the