10^ FIEST COUATTY PAEK SYSTEM 



through the press in urging that "something be done/' It 

 was now April, 1896. The commission had been in office a 

 year; a million of dollars had been available for months, 

 and why should not the work go forward ? On April 11 the 

 landscape architects and engineers were "requested to for- 

 mulate a plan for the improvement of Branch Brook Park 

 and for employing 200 men." By May 25 sufficient pro- 

 gress had been made to invite proposals, to close June 3, 

 for the work, and to pass a resolution "that this work be 

 done through contractors, who will agree to employ upon it 

 citizens of Essex County on a basis of cost, and at such 

 compensation as can be agreed upon by such contractors and 

 the commission/' 



The plan of giving preference to residents or business 

 houses within the county, other conditions being equally 

 favorable, had already become an established rule of the 

 board. The work to be done was in wdiat is now known as 

 the southern division of the park, south of Fifth avenue. A 

 number of proposals — more than twenty — Vv^ere received. 

 They were as varied in specifications and offerings as were 

 the qualifications and facilities for doing the work of the 

 various bidders. The bids ranged from the offerings of a 

 few horses and carts to those proposing to do all the work 

 complete. After a moderately successful effort to properly 

 classify these complex propositions^ the rejection of all bids 

 was deemed the only solution that could be properly made. 



The meeting when the bids were opened vras, as usual, in 

 executive session. There was, in this unofficial and unbusi- 

 ness-like procedure, no discourtesy to any of the bidders; 

 none v/as thought of or intended. Nor, so far as I can now 

 recall, would any of the commissioners at that time have 

 been likely to have objected to the presence of the public. 

 The bids were called for in the regular course of business, 

 and no occasion for secrecy could or did exist. 



The fact was that, owing to the topography and peculiar 

 situation of that property, it was a most difficult matter to 

 draw any specifications for contract work, as a whole, that 

 would give the commission, through the architects and 



