Proceedings of Sixth Annual Meeting 



21 



cally all our ditches, new and old, including railroad culverts, were 

 filled to almost a level with the surface of the meadows by such 

 drifting material. On other parts of the ditched area, conditions 

 were similarly affected, requiring immediate attention, and more 

 attention than ever necessary in past years. Dikes on both sides of 

 Frank Creek were washed away and sewage from the eight-foot 

 trunk sewer was flooding over the meadows. Such were the con- 

 ditions that we found confronting us after a long winter, remark- 

 able for severe weather and high tides, and to add to our difficul- 

 ties, we found that when most needed, the labor supply was almost 

 depleted, nothing left, in fact, but the undesirable (except a very few 

 of our old men), and demanding an inordinate scale of wages. All 

 of our trained inspectors, except three, were in the service of the 

 country, necessitating the organization and training of practically 

 an entire new machine. A force, however, was organized in April 

 at a scale of wages running from $3.50 to $5.00 per day, and the 

 work of cleaning and repairing ditches was begun. 



We succeeded in cleaning and repairing 80,000 feet of ditches, 

 large and small, in various parts of the county ; the making and 

 widening of old stump-lot ditches to a uniform width of sixty 

 inches, 51,688 feet; the cutting of new stump-lot ditches sixty inches 

 wide, 1,500 feet. In addition to all other necessary work, the Com- 

 mission, after many efforts, succeeded in having the Kearny Town- 

 ship Council, in co-operation with the Commission, erect a concrete 

 flume on the north end of Frank Creek from the out-fall of the 

 Trunk Sewer and extending 620 feet southward, the bed or floor 

 of which is 3 feet thick ; side walls are 3 feet thick at bottom, taper- 

 ing to 18 inches at top. It is 8 feet wide, inside measurement, at 

 floor, and 10 feet at top, 5 feet high, and will assuredly prevent all 

 washing away of embankments or dikes in the future. The cost of 

 this construction amounted to $14,918.51, $2,500.00 of which was 

 paid by the Hudson County Mosquito Extermination Commission. 



The Kearny Town Council also awarded a contract for the deep- 

 ening and widening of Frank Creek from the south end of the 

 flume to Harrison turnpike to conform to the dimensions of the 

 flume, and the deepening and widening of the Bergen Avenue, Duke 

 and Tappan Street outlet sewers which empty into Frank Creek, 

 at a cost of $5,667.50. This contract has been delayed by the con- 



