The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1900-11-30
ESSEX PARKS.
The Commissioners Find
They Need Financial
Relief.
LESS THAN s5,0oo,ooO LEFT
System Will Soon be Com.
pleted and Then Funds
Will be Needed.

| ~ AAA No 4NOONO0s
| Especial to "The Jersey City News."l
| NEWARK, Nov. 80, 19O0-Within few
months the Essex County Park Commits
| sioners will be at the end of their finan-
| cial string. All the four million dollars
| voted to them by generous residents of
Essex county will then have been spent.
There is less than half million dollars
| left and when the plans now under con-
tract have been carried out all the money
will. be gone.
| The last big contract was signed Tues
day. 1t was for work necessary on the
East Orange parkway, which will be
competed by July l next year. From
ed by additions
The Park Commissioners, having prac-
tically spent all the four millions allotted
to them by popular vote-two and half
millions at one time and one and half
millions at another, are already looking
about for increased revenues Bearing in
mind the fact that when a man buys a
| horse he must also buy feed to keep the
animal in good health, they now realize
that having purchased the park and
parkways, they need maintenance
fund, which, by the way, will be no small
| matter.
So the Commissioners will go to the
Legislature and ask for the passage of
a bill to be drafted by County Counsel
Mum, compelling the Essex County
Freeholders to collect in taxes a certain
fixed sum annually to be set aside for the
care, control and custody of the Essex
Park chain. This mandatory appropria-
ton, which will be the first in the coun-
| ty, will be similar to the mandatory ap-
preparations made in Newark for Fire
Department Police Department and Edu-
cational Department expenditures, and
inasmuch as Newark must pay large
share of this same maintenance fund, an
mother mandatory appropriation will be
added to the citys schedule. Whatever
is left of the taxes will be divided among
the few public needs not specified particu-
larly in the State laws.
The recent discharge of ten or twelve
men by the Commissioners, while due to
a desire to cut down expenses, was not
unusual, it is said, inasmuch as the same
action is taken every year. The parks
are not visited by so many persons in
winter as in summer. and there is less
likelihood of any damage being done. So
all the policemen are not necessary, says
Mr.. Church, the secretary
AS a matter of fact, expenses have been
reduced in other departments as well,
but the same rule holds good. The little
money which is saved by stopping the pay
of minor employees is not considered, es-
pecially in view of the fact that millions
are spent in other directions
When the time actually arrives and the
parks and parkways ale all completed,
the heavy expenses of the Commission
will be abruptly terminated AS matter
of fact, not as much money is being spent
this year as was paid in the first and sec
ond years of the Park Commissions ex-
istence.
Within year the parks will be all
ready. The commissioners are now put
ting the finishing touches on Branch
Brook Park and the WeeQuahic ReServa-
ton. Westside Park will soon be ready
and Eastside Park is all done. SO is the
Orange Park and the South Mountain
Park.
And now the chain of parkways is about
to be completed. The contract which was
signed today was for $24,01S, for which
sum James Seanme, a contractor, promises
to regulate grade and improve a parkway
between Main and William streets, East
Orange.
This is the portion of the parkway on
which the property rights have been Sc
cured AS the property rights on other
stretches of land are acquired the con-
tract will be amended and work contin-
ued, until the parkway extends from Cen
trail avenue to Park avenue, forming a
connecting link between the two avenues
about which there has been so much dis
pute
The parkway mentioned will be 19c0
feet long, and at its narrowest section
will be $50 feet wide and 800 feet at its
widest point. Beginning at Main street,
at a point midway between Grove street
and Mum avenue, the parkway will en-
brace the present Thompson street and
run north. There will be two roadways
at this point, one on either side of the
parkway, each thirty feet wide. Be
tween these two roads will be space
fifty feet wide, which is known as a
planting area and which will be used for
trees, shrubs and lawns.
Between tee roadway and house line
space will be reserved for planting trees.
There will be broad sidewalks and lawn
at least eleven feet wide.
Under the Delaware, Lackawanna and
Western briage, which was built two
years ago, the two roadways will unite
with a forty-foot span arching above
them. At the side will be footpaths un-
der the two smaller arches.
North of ne bridge the roadways will
again diverge to New street, where the
distance between them will become more
than 200 feet wide, forming large CEN
trail oval, in which will be embraced the
present grove of trees. These trees will
be preserved.
Later the parkway will be extended to
Park avenue. the design beng similar to
ed every fifty feet, in what are known as
tree pits, which are excavations two and
half feet deep and ten feet square,
filled with especially selected earth and
fed with water by artificial means.
The -roadways will be of telford Bicy-
Gle maths were contemplated but a pc
titi{ numerously signed, was submitted
to the Commissioners asking that the
contemplated bicycle paths be abandoned
inasmuch that cyclists had learned by
experience that paths used only by rid
ers were apt to gather small pebbly
substances, much to the detriment of
pneumatic tires.