Perth Amboy evening news., 1911-07-29
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
IN WOODBRIDGE
Citizen Writes Letter Com
menting on Situation.

The matter of salary of the Wood
bridge township committee is being
widely discussed by the taxpayers,
and there is much speculation as to
how much each committeeman may
draw for salary. Under the law Of
1909 the aggregate amount received
by each committeeman at SO per
meeting shall not exceed $3.50 in one
year. The reason for the present
discussion is that the committee held
forty-two meetings in the first half
of the present year. Why talk about
such a small thing as salaries? Our
own Mr., Dooley, our brainy commit
teeman, settled this question at the
meeting on the eighth day of June
last when he presented the following
resolution: Resolved that if the
township attorney submits a written
opinion in regard to the salary Of
the members of the township COM
mittee, the same be thrown into the
scrap basket" This resolution was
adopted by the votes of Dooley,
Kuhlman and Lee.
At the meeting of the committee
held on the 18th. ult. two new men
were added to the police force and
a recorder appointed at $500 a year.
We now have seven police and a re-
corder. On the sixth inst. the pay
of the police was raised by the town
ship committee from $50 a month to
$66.66. This raise was given the
police under an ordinance passed by
the committee last October which
Mr.. March, who was then the town
ships attorney, declared to be il
legally passed. And Mr.. Martin,
who is now township attorney, when
asked for an opinion on the proposed
raise, said: q am of the opinion
that the court will decide against
your action if the case is tested"
Dooley answered: Let who likes
test it. I move the police be given
the increased pay, and the increased
pay held back since last December"
This motion was seconded by Kuhl-
man and adopted by the committee.
In 1901, or just ten years ago,
Carteret was part of Woodbridge
and the population was 1900, and
according to the township report for
that year we paid $~1,640.50 for
police. At present we have less ter
ritory and 8.949 inhabitants and we
are obliged to pay $4,000 a year for
police and supply seven of them with
uniforms and equipment.
At the meeting held on the 18th.
inst. the inspector on the new ma
cadam job on Ridgedale avenue re-
ported that. the contractor had done
no work on that avenue for several
| days. Mr.. Brown said the commit
tee had nothing to do with that, as
the contractor could work on any OF
the Unree roads he pleased; that ne
had ffty-ffYe days to complies All
three jobs. Dooley said this was I'M
fair to the three inspectors, and
moved that the three inspectors be
paid whether the contractor worked
or not,
On June the 9Th uIt. an attempt
was made by this same committee
to give the macadam contracts to
the highest bidder and give him
$4,000 more than the lowest bidder,
who is a man of statewide reputa-
ton as a contractor and road build
er. The taxpayers called a public
meeting and unanimously, without a
dissenting vote, condemned the &C
ton of the committee. Certiorari
proceedings were begun and the
committee hired an outside lawyer
to defend their action. New specif-
cations were ordered made and new
bids were advertised for, which re-
suited in the committee having to
pay $246 more than the first lowest
bid. Between the $246 paid extra,
the advertising for new bids, the
surveyors and lawer's fees and the
cost Of extra committee meetings
$500 of the township money was
wasted, and the first lowest bidders
teams and men are doing the work
Besides the specifications are defec-
tive in that they call for no particu.
lar depth of macadam when the road
is finished. They call for five inches
of loose stone with a gravel binder
to be well rolled with a ten-ton roll
er, and three inches of loose stone
on top of this to be rolled as before,
and finished with screenings. This
may give anywhere from Ga inches
to N inches of macadam.
l would also call the taxpayers
attention to that $186 of taxes abat-
ed on the Marsh property and to Oul
present Indebtedness for the first
half of the present year. On June
Sth. ult. the committee drew a three
MONTHS note on the First Nationa'
Bank of Woodbridge for sixteen
thousand dollars, and on July the
18th. inst. another three months
note for nine thousand, five hundred
dollars, making a total Indebtedness
of twenty-five thousand, five hundred
dollars for the first half of 1911.
Knowing that all the macadam jobs
have to be paid for within a couple
of months and that current expenses
must be paid and no income in sight
before the latter part of October
next, yet these brainy f~nanciers
have added an additional, unauthor-
ICED. uncalled for expense, of $133.-
80 a month to pay increased pay and
to pay the recorder and the two men
added to the police force last month.
Now, Mr.. Taxpayer. what are you
going to do about it? Your tax rate
for the year 1909 was s2.14 on
every one hundred dollars of valua-
ton. Besides this, you had to pay
for fire protection and light. Since
then we have expended over one
hundred thousand dollars for new
school buildings and school building
Improvements and this expenditure
was made with the consent and ap-
prevail of all the taxpayers. The
township committee know this and