The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-06-12
OvERRULE
Street and Water Boa
Will Disregard Mayor I
Hoos' Objections to
Engineers.
HITCH OVER THE RESERVOIR
Contractor Says Work Is
Being Delayed By the
City's Non,action.
HITCH OVER THE RESERVOIR

The Street and Water Board will meet
tomorrow afternoon and pass the ordi-
nance appointing Mr.. Garwood Ferris en&
gineer and James P. Hall and H. II.
Bowly assistant supervising engineers Of
the new water works now in course OF
construction by Mr.. P. H. Flynn, over
the veto of Mayor Hoos. This was de-
cided upon by the Commissioners after
the conference with the Finance Board
on Saturday morning last.
| The objection of His Honor the Mayor
| to the appointments was principally based
| on the fact that in his opinion only one
| appointment was really necessary, and
| the salary, instead of being $4,000 should
] have been $500. The Mayor also criti-
| cized the appointment of Messrs. Hail ana
| Bowly as being at this time superhuous-
The Mayors idea was a commendable one
| in this that he did not want to have the
city's payrolls burdened when, in his opln-
ion, there was no need for 1t.
The Street and Water Board Commis-
! sioners on the other hand took the ground
| that the work of constructing theJ dam
at Boonton is being delayed because there
! is no supervising engineer representing
! Jersey City, as the contract expressly
stipulates there shall be. Since the ques-
/
to point higher up the Rockaway River,
because of the shifting bed of the stream.
/ has arisen the Commissioners are anxious
to have some one on the ground looking
| after Jersey City's interests and they
| think the best course to pursue is to ap-
point the engineer and hasten the pro-
| gress of the work. This question Of lo-
eating the reservoir has given rise to
| great amount of misunderstanding among
certain officials The original plan was
to secure the additional storage facilities
by raising the height of the dam, said
one individual who considers himself an
authority on dams. the masonry ones, OF
course, intended. He, like others, think
that Mr. Flynn wishes to build another
and force the extra expense on the city.
Such however, is not the case.
1--WE" said representative of Contrac-
tor Flynn at a recent conference between
the Street and Water Board and Board
of Finance, "are simply anxious to full
fill our contract as rapidly as possible
We think the location of the dam should
be higher up stream, because we are not
anxious for any second edition of the
Johnstown disaster. We will build well
and to that end we want Jersey City to
appoint it's engineers to confer with US
. | and SUPERVISE our work. Those who bray
about Mr. Flynn trying to avoid his con-
tract and trying to pass over number
of bridges before he gets to them,' are
simply lunatics. We couldn't II we woulo
and wouldn't if we could. Their crltl-
cisms remind me of Disraeh's famous
pharse, The harebrained chatter OF ir-
responsible frivolity.'
What the Finance Board will do with
the resolution fixing the salaries OF the
, three appointees is another interesting
: phase of the triangular duel Some think
they will non-concur, while others
watching the outlook say they will. Ths
Finance Board are interested really in
only one question. and that is, What
is their status with regard to the cons
tract after they have concurred IN the
salaries? Does that act cut away their
authority in the future?" On Thursday
afternoon they will meet and take up
the resolution, when, it is generally oe-
! lieved, they will uphold the Mayor