The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1922-11-04
Change From Gov. Edges Board
to the Edwards Body Imposes
Extra Tax Burden of
100000.
REPEAL REIMBURSEMENT ACT
Republican Candidate Promises That,
II Elected, He VIII Use All the Many
Resources of the Governors Office
to Discard Present Practices.

Liz NOItioNtlS ~ III NtN JtIstN ne
tween defenders of closed paving
specifications and advocates of open
bidding continues to rage, with the
latter charging that the present sys-
TEN costs an exces of $4,000 a mile.
New Jersey has paid as high as
$2.46 a square yard for &c same
material as was furnished in Penn
sylvania for $1.05 a square yard.
Names have been mentioned, and
denials have followed, to prove that
Job II. Lippincott has been n patron
age broker for Governor Edwards.
In selecting members of the State High
way Commission.
The change from Governor Edges
highway board to the Edwards body
has meant an extra burden upon the
taxpayers of more than s%1,500,000, ac-
cording to an exhibit offered by crit
les of the present administration.
A ramification of the discussion Is
the assertion that approaches to the
proposed new Perth Amboy Bridge
were assessed at 100000 by state ap.
praisers, and were subsequently
| Ought LOT NLOO,boo WllHuul con
demnation proceedings.
Still another charge is that the con-
tract for a temporary bridge on the
Lincoln Highway over the Hacken-
sack River was awarded to Highway
Commissioner John Ferris, of Jersey
City, the same day the latter resigned.
This contract already has cost the
state 100000 and was given without
bidding on n 10 per. cent cost plus
basis.
A 5000. 900 Architect
Charles L. Hudson WAS about to be
engaged as the architect OF the Perth
Amboy Bridge job at a @ per cent
rate, or an estimated reimbursement
of we $4,000 when Highway Com
missioner George l.. Paddock, of New
ark, successfully demonstrated. Hud-
son finally took the place at $4,000
for two years. Commissioner Pad
dock for some time has been the lone.
militant minority in the board.
Another charge is that the Sea
brook Farms In Deerfield Township,
Cumberland County, which are owned
by Highway Commissioner Charles r.
Seabrook, have been criss-crossed by
roads constructed at state expense.
In Deerfield Township, where Sea-
brook has a 3,200-acre place, 1897, 900
has been expended, while the adjacent
township of Greenwich has had but
$4,069.65 of state work.
Five gravel roads built across the
Seabrook farm cost $4,000, of which
the state paid rs per cent. A con
crete road there represented $43,-
S63.27, of which the state paid 40 per
cent and Cumberland County and
Deerfield Township the balance.
Sklrting the Seabrook farm for about
eight miles, 1894, 1909 worth of new
road was laid by Cumberland County,
with the state agreeing to reimburse
It. Another pike, which ran along the
western line Of the Seabrook farm,
meant an outlay of S21 ,246.29.
Most of the contracts In Deerfield
Township and theTeabouts have been
handled by the Tri-State Construction
Company. The officers of the Trl-
/ State company at the time the bulk
of the paving was done, were also
associate stockholders with Seabrook
in the SeabroOk Farms Company.
Albert r. McAlliyter, a former Assem-
blyman and one Of this group, has
been pointed out as the drafter of the
clause In the so-called home rule act
of 1918 for counties, whereby closed
specifications were authorized.
extras" Add to Cost
In 1921, patented paving companies
secured contracts from the state
amounting to $1,923,323 for nearly
twenty-three miles at an average cost
of $83,S30 a mile. They did not fin
ish at that figure, extras" bringing
1t up to S86,O54. Forty-three and
three-fourths miles of concrete roads
were authorized at $2,571 ,976, or an
average of $5S, 734 a mile, and there
were no extras"
Contract records for 1929 showed
an average per mile for twenty-five
and a half miles of patented pave
ment Of SS6,571, against an average
of ST. 19 a mile for eighty miles OF
concrete. New Jersey has paid up
to S152.000 n mile for an important
stretch of patented highway IN Mid
dlesex County,
In Pennsylvania, whore a 'clean.
OUT of the road department was
forced by a Philadelphia newspapers
expose ten years ago. the average
cost is from $37, 900 to $4,000 a mile
for the same material as runs to
S152,O0 0 In New Jersey.
Besides the $~1,274.000 excess charg.
ed against the forty-flve and a hall
miles of patented roads under Gov.
ernor Edwards highway board, the
county reimbursement act has made
1t possible to swell this figure to ovei
81. 100000. 1t is claimed that the
State Highway Commission coult
have refused to approve Of patented
pavements for roads constructed by
counties, for which the latter viii be
later reimbursed by the state.
william N. Runyon, the Republican
nominee for Governor, n . detailef
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