The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1900-01-20

JU.
county roads. is now hustling in the con-
struction of beautiful parks in every sec
tion of the county, having already ex-
pended $4,000 900, for that purpose and pro-
immediate future. We are now debarred
from an easy access to those pleasure
grounds which are free for us to enjoy,
because we have no decent connection
with them through our own county. The
first county road should be in the direc-
tion of Belleville and, probably. an ex-
penditure of 100000, of which the State
would pay $4,000, would be ample for the
purpose. The old Belleville turnpike,
which has been SO neglected that all
travellers avoid it If possible, became the
property of the county several years ago
by virtue of tn esame law under which
the Paterson plank road was acquired, but
without dollar of cost, although it was
| valued by expert engineers at more than
10000. This road has already COM
pact and hard foundation and thin
dressing of crushed rock is all that will
be needed for good roadway.
| 1t should be widened somewhat but as
| it is only four miles long, the entire cost
of the work will be small compared with
| the benefit secured by ITS Improvement.
The Incidental advantages of this road are
apparent when we consider that it will
give immediate access to every part of our
water pipes alongside and beneath the
road and to our supply reservoir.
! 1t will also afford easy communication
with the enterprising community in Ar
nngton, now numbering five thousand in
habitants, and will help to allay their
restless desire for annexation to Newark
1t will make possible traffic with the
agricultural section toward the northwest,
which would have come to us long ago
If we had given them encouragement.
1t will help to Spulate the waste
meadow land of our county, which is the
only unoccupied area toward which Jersey
City can expand; an event sure to be ac-
complfshed in the near future by the same
methods which have reclaimed thousands
of square miles of similar land in Eng
4 land and Holland and covered them with
prosperous cities.
! This work of redemption has been al
ready commenced by Engineer Vermeule
and his associates for the benefit of
| Newark, on the waste land between the
4 city and the bay, and it can be more
easily effected on the tract within the
limits of Hudson county A good county
road on the line of the abandoned Belle
vile turnpike will hasten the consumma-
improvements.
i Natural conditions handicap Hudson
county in the competition for State money
and the other counties will necessarily re
ceive the greater bounty at our expense,
but there remains one more suitable route
|
for another county road in the future.s
At the proper time there should be con-
structed new thoroughfare by way OF
Snake Hill to afford better communica tion
with our western border and to connect
i with the Boulevard at more northerly
point than Newark avenue.
Tbis bouever can wait 11ntil the Other
two roads are completed Our county Off
GERS should not delay a moment in secur-
ing our proportion of the State money for
the Improvement of the road to Belleville
| and then to East Newark In the mean
time our county tloroughfare on the line
Lof the Paterson plank road can be further
improved and one-third of the cost can be
obtained from the State. Our Board OF
Freeholders have at their command al
the resources for an economical lminis-
4 tration of the work here completed.
The material can be supplied from our
| stone crushing plant at Snake Hill and
the labor can be had by the employment
Of our idle benefciaries there, who will
thus be transformed from the condition OF
expensive paupers to that of self-sup-
porting population. In that respect nc
county in the State is SO well equipped for
taking advantage of the State Aid Law,
and no one needs its benefits so much as
the county of Hudson.
CAPT. STRANGE GOES Tc GERMANY