The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1900-03-26
Good ROADS.
Hudson County Is Entitled
to 100000 Of State
Money for Improve
mentS.
FREEHOLDERS SHOULD WAKE UP
They Are the Only Ones Who
Can Take Advantage of
the Law What Other
Counties Have
Done.
FREEHOLDERS SHOULD WAKE UP

To the Editor of "The Jersey City News":-
In 1895 the State Legislature enacted a
law known as the State Aid Road Law"
appropriating 100000 per annum, AFTER
ward increased to s15o0G0 and now to $2Oo,-
900, making an aggregate OF s1oo,ooo' al
ready appropriated, with probably milllohs
more to be donated in future to all the
counties excepting Hudson.
Essex county has already constructed
thirty-seven miles of graded, macadam-
lied county roads under this law, altnoush
there were existing in that county at
least 200 miles of similar roads previously
built.
Why this unrighteous discrimination
against our county? Simply because the
law requires that application shall pe
made for the money by the County Board
of Freeholders and that the county shall
join in the expense of construction to the
extent of two-thirds of the entire cost and
because our County Freeholders have
never applied for our proportion OF the
State money during the five years that
the law has been in force.
One of our representatives in the Legis-
lature recently protested against the State
appropriation of 100000 for the present
wear. alleging that Hudson county would
not receive any benefit from it, but he
wisely refrained from saying that we
could not, if we so desired. He would
demand that all the other counties of the
State should stop the wheels of progress
because the one county of Hudson is too
lethargic to join in the general road inn
provement that is going on all over our
Tinted
States. for the plan of grand boulevard
across the continent. from the Atlantic
shore to the Pacific, is now agitating our
Federal Congress.
The advent of the bicycle and automo-
bile has inaugurated a new era in road
construction which imperatively demands
our recognition.
Jersey City is now as much isolated
from the good road system of our State
as if it were an island. Our wheelmen
who wish to take spin through the rural
districts generally prefer to transport
their wheels by railroad across Hudson
County until they reach the district of
improved roads.
Our city is the. only one of the half
dozen large seaboard cities of the United
States that Is disconnected from the in
terror population nearest to them, by it's
abominable roads which everybody
avoids if possible.
Our county officials seem to have adopt
ed the narrow theory that good roads
across the meadows would only benefit
the inhabitants on the western border of
our county, whereas the fact is that Jer-
sey City itself would be the greatest bene-
ficiary 'Iet us suppose as suggested in
a former issue of the Evening News
that the so called Newark Turnpike should
be widened to double its present width,
with the trolley tracks in the centre,
making a broad thoroughfare on each
side, one for easterly, the other for west
erly travel, with four rows of shade trees,
one row on either side of the two road
ways, and we would have an inviting ave-
nue. of travel for our wheelmen and for
pleasure driving in place of the repulsive
roadway now existing.
For those who wish to reach the rural
region toward the northwest without
traversng the rough and stone-paved
streets in the city of Newark, the old
Belleville turnpike (Which became the
property of the county under proceedings
ordered by Judge Knapp of the Supreme
Court duly filed in the office of the Coun-
ty Clerk, January 80, 1889 can be recon
structed at small expense.
This can also be made a pleasant drive
way and bicycle path, affording easy ac-
cess to the new parks and fine roads of
Essex county and the picturesque region
beyond. 1t will give us better command
of the Jersey City water pipes and aid
in developing the meadow land, which is
destined to be improved and to become
the only future for the expansion of Jer-
sey City,
Hudson county is fairly entitled to
100000 of State money for the construc-
tion and improvement of county roads,
and the only possible way of getting it is
for the county to expend its due proper
tion for that purpose Let our Board of
Freeholders join the grand procession in
the army of progress and redeem our
county from the merited ridicule of the
more enterprising counties in our State.
GOOD ROADS.