Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-07-11
PARKS I'M TOWNSHIP, CITY N COUNTY

Woodbridge is showing The proper spirit in following
DIP the agitation for a park to take the place of the swamp
that now occupies the center of the town, with suitable ac-
tlon. There is nothing that The present administration can
do that will reflect greater credit or mean more to the people
than to bring about the transformation of this tract from an
eye-sore to a thing of beauty.
There is nothing that would add more TO an already
pretty town, increase the value of property, draw more resi-
dents and make living in Woodbridge all the more attrac-
tive than a spacious park laid out in the very heart of the
place. Few towns have such an opportunity to create a park
at so little expense. The surprising thing is that, knowing
The class of people living in Woodbridge, such steps for a
park were moi taken long before this.
At the meeting of the township committee last night,
the township engineer was instructed to prepare specifca~
lions for a retaining wall for the brook which flows through
The swamp and also to get figures on grading and laying out
thetract from School street to Pearl street. To develop this
Cto a park would make an excellent beginning and with
such a start 1t would not be long before the people would
demand that The whole section bounded by Amboy avenue
and Railway avenue, Main Street and Green street be de-
veloped in a similar way.
Perth Amboy, being so closely associated with Wood
bridge in every form of development, rejoices in This sign
of progress in the township surrounding the city. The fur
Their move toward developing a township park system as
suggested by Committeeman Hoy is highly commendable.
Perth Amboy might well be invited to join with the town
ship in this larger idea because if Perth Amboy is ever to
have a real park it has got to be beyond the city limits and
that means Woodbridge township. In fact, any park system
that Woodbridge might develop would be of as much advan-
tage to Perth Amboy as it would be to Woodbridge and Perth
Amboy might %rightfuly be expected to share in the expense
Of establishing such a system.
Incidentally, the suggestion made by the Evening News
a few days ago that the Board of Freeholders hold on 10 the
tract Of land already owned by the county at Mef@9 Park
with the idea Of making that the beginning of a csaEty park
system has a direct bearing on this agitation in Woodbridge
for a township park system. While the Menlo Park tract is
in Raritan township, it practically joins Woodbridge and
with the township setting aside land in the immediate
vicinity for a park, the whole could be linked up into one big
pleasure ground which, being along the fast line trolley and
within easy distance of all The MiddleseX towns north OF the
Raritan, would be of untold delight to all the people in this
section.
The possibilities are wonderful if the right men with
the right vision would only take hold of the matter and
secure a municipal planning engineer to carry out the
scheme. In the meantime, Woodbridge and Perth Amboy
can 60 ahead with their local park developments as already
mapped out. To transform a swamp that mars the center
of a town into a park is such a ommon sense thing to do
that there ought TO be no hesitation in pushing the work to
completion,