Perth Amboy evening news., 1903-07-24
DEFENDS
COUNTY OFFICIALS.
B. Willis Talks About the Pesentpent of the Grand ury m Which
the Freehoders Brought out in Bad LghSdys Public
Does not Understand

{ County Solicitor H. B. Willis, in
an interview with a representative of
the New Brunswick Home News, yes
terday discussed the presentment pre-
sented by the grand jury. He defend
ed the action of the Board of Free
holders.
In speaking of the Landing bridge
hill for which the treeholders are
accused of paying $4,000 when, it is
claimed, the work could have been
done for 5000, Mr.. Willis said:
That is not understood by the pub
lie. In the first place the freeholders
did not want to cut down that hill.
but State Road Commissioner Budd
said that the road could not go through
unless the hill was cut The grand
tive bidding for the cutting down of
the hill. The fact is that when bids
were originally called for for the
paving of the Landing road there was
figure included in it for the cutting
away of shale and rock, When it was
decided to cut the road down and the
committee had a consultation with
Mr.. Budd he said that it would not
do to give the contract to some other
contractor, as the two might conflict
in the work. He signed the agree
ment for the cutting down of the hill.
The nature of the rock or shale at
that time was an unknown quantity.
The truth is if it had not been for
Budd that hill would never have been
cut down.
In regard to the charge that the
board had placed $3.50, 900 of the county
funds in the South River National
Bank and had not received interest
for it and the statement that Director
Fountain and County Solicitor Serviss
are interested in the bank, Mr. Willis
said:
There is not bank hy-Sae city,
outside of the trust company. that
gives interest on deposits, unless you
ask them. They do not have to. The
trust company is the only one that
can. OF course, if you are about to
deposit large amount of money You
can go to them and make a private
agreement for the deposit of the
money and get interest that way.
The county clerk never gets cent
interest on the money that he deposits.
Neither does the clerk of the Court of
Chancery, who deposits thousands of
dollars The board has perfect right
to deposit its money where it pleases
and there is no law that directs
otherwise. !"
When asked about the charge that
the board had contracted to build a
road at county expense for a boat
company in which Mr.. Fountain is
financially interested. he said:
That is matter that is misunder
stood by the people, and | do not
think that the grand jury understood
it. Ephraim Rose owns a dock in
N1dulSOu bOMuoulp anu uhO NhA"AtoSA
Transportation Company uses it and
pays him for the use. Now the Madi-
son Transportation Company has de-
cided to build its own dock about 900
feet from Roses dock and has bought
the property there. This dock has
not been built as yet, but by the time
that the road is built the dock will be
ready. The new road to be built leads
to a point 200 feet away from Roses
own dock, vet he claims that it begins
nowhere and ends nowhere. As
matter of fact all but 1,1C0 feet OF
that road is a connecting link between
two important roads. 1t connects the
Cheeseuuakes Morristown road with
the Matawan road. The new part is
from the junction with the Matawan
road to the dock. All of the people
in that section of the county get their
living out of the truckage which they
raise for the New York markets, and
it is necessary that they have a road
to haul that produce to the dock to
ship. At present they have to go
about in roundabout way to get to
Roses dock, while the new road is a
straight continuation of the Cheese
quakes road y