Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Former Mayor Feiszli Responds to Forum Comment


10/30/2013

To the Editor,

I would like to respond to the quote in the October 29th Cortland Standard attributed to Ron Walsh at a forum for the Cortland City Judge race. When asked at the forum why he had been terminated as city attorney, his response was that he thought it was because of “a disagreement on interpretation of the law”.

Mr. Walsh was not my choice for City Counsel. The Democratic Chairman, despite my concerns, advised me that Mr. Walsh would be a good candidate due to his strong relationship with the party.

Mr. Walsh’s termination was not based on a legal matter but instead on his performance. The termination was supported by a bi-partisan majority of the City Council. In fact, a Democratic alderman said Mr. Walsh had done “too little for too long”.

The City suffered with a backlog of delayed legal maters and unreturned phone calls caused by his poor attendance at City Hall. Department Heads in need of timely legal advice became frustrated. In addition, he was consistently unprepared for Council meetings. In fact, during a preliminary hearing with a Supreme Court Justice on the Rental Permit Lawsuit, Mr. Walsh was scolded that he needed to be better prepared in court.

Either because of his unavailability or inability, the City was over-budget for the Law Department by $80,000 for outside legal fees. After he was terminated, he deleted all legal documentation in the City computer and took multiple legal files from City Hall. It took the involvement of the Chief of Police to have the files returned.

Mr. Walsh’s inaccurate statement about his termination prompted me to write this letter. Because he is running for such an important office, it is important for the citizens to learn the truth.


Susan Feiszli

Former Mayor of Cortland



Nasby's Disappointment


David Ross Locke
 
The Cortland News, Friday, March 27, 1885.

The Disappointment of the Corners over the Foreshadowing of the President’s Folly.

Confederit  X Roads (which is in the State uv Kentucky), March 17, 1885.

   The Corners is enwrapped in gloom. Our regular copy uv the Louisville Kerrier-Jernel cam last night, and in it wuz a announsement uv the President's determinashen not to remove Fedrel offis-holders till their terms hed expired. Antissipatin trubble I kep the paper to myself but unforchinitly Joe Bigler happened to be at the stashen at Seceshnville, and bought a copy, wich he immejitly red, and still more immejitly perceeded to make as public as possible.

   The effeck wuz disastrus. When I entered Bascoms, G. W. flew at me like one insane, and demanded uv me how it wuz.

   On the strength uv yoor gittin that offis immejitly, and with the prospect uv the Deekin's hevn the Custom House, and Issaker Gavitt the Revenoo, I hev extendid yoor credit, libraily, ontill the back door is covered with chalk marks, and ther ain't room for no more figgers. And now, wat do I heer? Why, forsooth, that Lubbock is to continner in the post offis, and Joe Bigler and Pollock in the other plases till ther terms expire, wich is two years yit. Am I to keep yoor skins full for two yeers more? We must call a meetin.

   I didn't call a meetin, but I can’t help utterin my privit damn all the same.

   Civil Servis Reform, forsooth! Wat wuz the prevalin impreshen ez to Civil Servis Reform when we uv the Corners went over into Injeany to vote fur this Buffalo axident? [went over into Indiana to vote for Cleveland—CC editor] Wat wuz Civil Servis Reform when I contribbitid $3.50, the half uv $7 wich I borrerered uv a Louisville drummer, to the expense fund uv the noble band wich stared the penitenshary in the face to help elect this ingrate, by repeetin in Cinsinnati? Reform indeed! Wat clame hez that nigger Lubbock onto the post offis, ceptin that he kin reed and write, and is capable uv handlin the one paper wich comes to the post-offis, and the few letters wich are sent to the lottries from this seckshun?

   Is he a Dimocrat? No! Is he uv any yoose to the Dimocratic party? No! It is a fact wich ken be substansheated, that neether he nor Joe Bigler, nor Pollock, the Illinoy storekeeper, even spent a dollar in Bascom's, but on the contrary they hev organized Sunday skools among the niggers, and hev done everything in ther power to counteract our efforts to keep this secshun strate in the Dimocratic traces.

   We hev only one idee uv Civil Servis Reform. We want the offises. We hev wated for 24 long and dreery years for the places and we want em now. It is our opinyun, that is the opinyun uv me and Issaker and the Deekin, that the perpetooity uv the Dimocratic party depends upon the immejit rescoo uv us three men from the thraldom uv Bascom. We want to be put in position to pay fur our likker ez we order it, and not hev to feel that we are dependant onto the pleasure uv one man for sustenance, who, bezoe he happens to hev cappytle, assooms to own us, and, thro our stumicks, reely does own us.

   We can't wait till the commisshuns uv these men expire. We can't wait two yeers. We didn't expect to wait two yeers. Supposin that the change wood be made March 5th, and dependin on hevin the receets uv the offises thro us, Bascom noo shingled his grosery, and laid in a large stock uv likkers uv a better grade than that wich he hez bin supplyin us with heretofore. To wait two yeers fur the millenium wood be rooin to him and death to us. We can't live two longer on the dry husks uv hope. Wat we we want is the joocy froot uv reality. It may not make any diffrense to the people at large who holds the offises, but it does make a heap uv diffrense to us wich wonts em. Bascom, wich furnishes the likker, the good Deekin Pogram wich boards me, and Issaker Gavitt whose farm is morgaged, we hold our hands appealingly. Help us, or we sink.

PETROLEUM  V. NASBY, (Wailin.)

P. S.—I shel call a public indignashen meetin next week ef our commishens don't come before.

 

1884 Civil Service Reform:

David Ross Locke:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ross_Locke

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Elections and Local Budgets


Elections and Local Budgets.

   Looking at Cortland County’s election prospects this fall, we at the Cortland Contrarian don’t feel too excited. Where is the competition? With the exception of the city judge race, too many election candidates remain unopposed. Must be ‘global warming’ or something in the air that produces this sort of lethargy among our citizens. We hesitate to predict a heavy or average turnout.
 
   A few primary contests opened some doors, we noticed, while shutting others. So much for ambition and excitement.

   The political landscape in the city is heavily Democratic. Republican candidates are as rare as winter sunshine. Paint the streets of Cortland blue. Might as well change Cortland’s name to Ithakos (derived from Ithaca).

   There are a few bright spots when you look closely. Local government officials have proposed budgets for 2014 which show a measure of spending restraint. Surely the governor’s 2% property tax cap is behind this, but we think that there is a growing awareness on the part of local government officials to restrain tax increases while our local economy remains fragile and unemployment remains high.

   An aside: It was shocking to hear an educated person in Cortland say that state grants were free and were not supported by taxes. (Name withheld for privacy and other considerations.)

   Pressure groups, expansion-minded local government department heads and over-reaching state mandates are playing havoc with attempts to balance local budgets. Priorities need to be established and maintained. For 2014, both county and city are bumping up taxes about 2 percent. So much for tax relief and good intentions.                          

   The costs of public employee contracts, including pensions and health insurance, continue to increase at a higher rate than inflation. On the other side of the ledger, sales tax revenues are higher than expected. We know that budgets can be balanced without tax increases, and we continue to recommend that approach. Proposed and current staffing 'requirements' should be challenged every year. To fund reserves is to fund future spending, taking more taxes to pay for reserves.

   Cortlandville has the revenue and wherewithal to reduce taxes next year. But several town elected officials have chosen instead to pad their own compensation and add to reserve funds for future spending. Cortlandville officials have advertised that they are holding the line on tax increases. But why should they take first cut of the available revenues when tax reductions are possible? Cortlandville officials ought to reconsider, and lower taxes in 2014.

   Did you hear about the unexpected revenue windfall in the Cortland School District?

   Let us know when and where you hear about it. Leave a comment. One of our contributors started that rumor a few days ago.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage--A Sermon on National Ruin


Rev. Thomas DeWitt Talmage
 
The Cortland News, Friday, March 13, 1885.

Extracts From a Sermon by Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage.

National Ruin.

“Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city, for in one hour is thy judgment come.” –Rev. xviii., 10, 13.

   On cisatlantic shores a company of American Scientists are now landing, on their way to find the tomb of a dead empire holding in its arms a dead city, mother and child of the same name—Babylon. The ancient mounds will invite the spades and shovels and crowbars while the unwashed native looked on in surprise. Our scientific friends will find yellow bricks still impressed with the name of Nebuchadnnezzer, and they will go down into the sarcophagus of a monarchy buried more than two thousand years ago. May the explorations of Rawlinson and Layard and Chevalier and Opperto and Loftus and Chesney be eclipsed by the present archaeological uncovering.

   But is it possible this is all that remains of Babylon, a city once five times larger than London and twelve times larger than New York? Walls 373 feet high and 93 feet thick. Twenty-five burnished gates on each side, with streets running clear through to corresponding gates on the other side. Six hundred and twenty-squares. More pomp and wealth and splendor and sin than could be found in any five modern cities combined.

   A city of palaces and temples. A city having within it a garden on an artificial hill four hundred feet high, the sides of the mountain terraced. One night, while the honest citizens were asleep, but all the saloons of saturnalia were in full blast, and at the king's castle they had filled the tankards for the tenth time, and reeling and guffawing and hiccoughing around the state table were the rulers of the land. General Cyrus ordered his besieging army to take shovels and spades, and they diverted the river from its usual channel into another direction, so that the forsaken bed of the river became the path on which the besieging army entered.

   When the morning dawned the conquerors were inside the outside trenches. But do nations die? Oh, yes, there is great mortality among monarchies and republics. They are like individuals in the fact that they are born. They have a middle life, they have a decease, they have a cradle and a grave. Some of them are assassinated, some destroyed by their own hand.

   My friend, it is no unusual thing for a government to perish, and in the same necrology of dead nations, and in the same graveyard of expired governments will go the United States of America unless there be some potent voice to call a halt, and unless God in His mercy interfere, and through a purified ballot-box and a widespread public Christian sentiment the catastrophy be averted.

   The first evil that threatens the annihilation of our American institutions is the fact that political bribery, which once was considered a crime, has by many come to be considered a tolerable virtue.

   There is a legitimate use of money in elections, in the printing of political tracts, and in the hiring of public halls, and in the obtaining of campaign oratory; but is there any homunculus who suppose that this vast amount of money is going in a legitimate direction? The vast majority of it will go to buy votes.

   There used to be bribery, but it held its head in shame. It was under the utmost secrecy that many years ago a railroad company bought up the Wisconsin Legislature and many other public officials in the State. The Governor of the State at the time received $50,000 for his signature. His private secretary received $5,000. Thirteen members of the Senate received $175,000 among them in bonds. Sixty members of the other House received from $5,000 to $10,000 each. The Lieutenant-Governor received $10,000. The clerks of the House received from $5,000 to $10,000 each. The Bank Comptroller received $10,000. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars were divided among the lobbyists. Now, political bribery defies you, dares you, is arrogant.

   Unless this diabolism ceases in this country, Bartholdi's statute to be lifted on Bedloe's Island, with uplifted torch to light other nations into the harbor, had better be changed, and the torch dropped as a symbol of universal incendiarism.

   Unless this purchase and sale of suffrage shall cease, the American Government will expire, and you might as well be getting ready the monument for another dead nation, and let my text inscribe upon it these words: “Alas! alas! for Babylon that great city, that mighty city, for in one hour is thy judgment come."

   My friends, if you have not noticed that political bribery is one of the ghastly crimes of this day, you have not kept your eyes open.

   Another evil threatening the destruction of American institution[s] is the solidifying of the sections against each other. A solid North, A solid South. If this goes on we shall, after awhile, have a solid East against a solid West, we shall have solid Middle States against solid Northern States, we shall have a solid New York against a solid Pennsylvania, and a solid Ohio, against a solid Kentucky. It is nineteen years since the war closed, and yet at every Presidential election the old antagonism is aroused.

   When Garfield died, and all the States gathered around his casket in sympathy and in tears, and as hearty telegrams of condolence came from New Orleans and from Charleston as from Boston and Chicago, I said to myself, “I think sectionalism is dead.”

But alas! No. The difficulty will never be ended until each state of the nation is split up into two or three great political parties. This country cannot exist unless it exists as one body, the national capitol the heart, sending out through all the arteries of communication warmth and life to the very extremities.

   What is the interest of Georgia is the interest of Massachusetts, what is the interest of New York is the interest of South Carolina. Does the Ohio river change its politics when it gets below Louisville? It is not possible for these sections and antagonisms to continue for a great many years without permanent compound fracture.

   Another evil threatening the destruction of our American institutions is the low state of public morals. What killed Babylon of my text? What killed Phoenicia? What killed Rome? Their own depravity, and the fraud and the drunkenness and the lechery which have destroyed other nations will destroy ours unless a merciful God prevent. To show you the low state of public morals, I have to call your attention to the fact that many men nominated for offices in the State and nation, at different times, are entirely unfit for the positions for which they have been nominated. I have to tell you what you know already, that American politics have sunken to such a low depth that there is nothing beneath.

   My friends, we have in this country people who say the marriage institution amounts to nothing. They scoff at it. We have people walking in polite parlors in our day who are not good enough to be scavengers in Sodom! I went over to San Francisco four or five years ago—that beautiful city, that Queen of the Pacific. May the blessing of God come down upon her great churches and her noble men and women!

   When I got into the city of San Francisco, the mayor of the city and the president of the Board of Health called on me and insisted that I go and see the Chinese quarters, no doubt so that on my return to the Atlantic coast I might tell what dreadful people the Chinese are. But on the last night of my stay in San Francisco, before thousands of people in their great opera house, I said: "Would you like me to tell you just what I think plainly and honestly?" They said: "Yes, yes, yes!" I said: "Do you think you can stand it all?" They said: "Yes, yes, yes!" "Then," I said, "my opinion is that the curse of San Francisco is not your Chinese quarters, but your millionaire libertiness!"

   And two of them set right before me—Felix and Drusilla. And so it is in all the cities. I never swear, but when I see a man go unwhipped of justice, laughing over his shame and calling his damnable deeds gallantry and peccadillo, I am tempted to hurl red-hot anathema and to conclude that if, according to some people's theology, there is no hell, there ought to be.

   Superstition tells of a marine reptile, the cephaloptera, which infolded and crushed a ship of war, but it is no superstition when I tell you that the history of many of the dead nations proclaim to us the fact that our ship of state is in danger of being crushed by the cephaloptera of national depravity. Where is the Hercules to slay this hydra? Is it not time to speak by pen, by tongue, by ballot-box, by the rolling of the prison doors, by the hangman's halter, by earnest prayer, by Sinaitic-detonation [sic]?

   Ah! It will not be long before it will not make any difference to you or to me what becomes of this continent, so far as earthly comfort is concerned. All we will want of it will be seven feet by three, and that will take in the largest and there will be room to spare. That is all of the country we will need very soon, the youngest of us. But we have an anxiety about the welfare and happiness of the generations that are coming on and it will be a grand thing if, when the archangel's trumpet sounds, we find that our sepulcher, like the one Joseph of Arimathea provided for Christ, is in the midst of a garden. By that time this country will be all Eden or all Dry Tortugas.

   Eternal God, to Thee was committed the destiny of this people!

 

CORTLAND AND VICINITY.

   If you want to read Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes' life of Emerson get it at the village library.

   The Hitchcock Mfg Co., have purchased the Cortland Foundry and Machine shops, the papers being executed on Wednesday. Possession given Mar. 16.

   On Wednesday, E. M. Santee, photographer, made an assignment to Wm. Crombie, for the benefit of creditors. It is thought that the assets will be sufficient to cover all liabilities.

   Officers raided the house just off from Groton Avenue near the stone quarry on Saturday night, and arrested a man by the name of Sterling, his wife and two other females. They were brought up before Esq. Bierce on Monday charged with keeping and being inmates of a disorderly house. Sterling waived an examination and was remanded to the county jail to await the action of the grand jury. The others will probably serve the commonwealth at the Onondaga penitentiary.

 

 
The Wisconsin Railroad Scandal, 1856: http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Wisconsin_railroad_scandal_1856.html?id=zIhGAAAAMAAJ

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Railroad Crossing Case Sets Precedent


The Cortland News, Friday, March 6, 1885

Railroad Crossing Case.

   The Court of Appeals on Tuesday of this week handed down a decision in the proceeding by the Cortland and Homer Horse Railroad Company to acquire a crossing over the Syracuse, Binghamton & New York railroad in this town. The decision is favorable to the Horse railroad company as the court affirmed the decision of the lower courts.

   This is the end of a long and spirited legal contest in which the Syracuse, Binghamton & New York railroad company were represented by able counsel, and spared no expense in fighting every point. The commissioners appointed to locate the crossing were Hon. S. D. Halliday, Hon. S. F. Miller and W. B. Gilbert, Esq., Civil Engineer, and their report was confirmed, first by the special term, second by the general term and now by the Court of Appeals.

   The Special Term also made an order that the S., B. & N. Y. railroad should pay the costs of the litigation and this order was also affirmed by the Court of Appeals. In disposing of this branch of the proceeding the Court of Appeals settled a question which was entirely new in the courts, for it had been doubted; whether the owners of the road proposed to be crossed could in any case be made liable for the costs, in view of the constitutional provision that "private property should not be taken for public use without just compensation.”

   The decision just handed down virtually ends the struggle, and the Horse Railroad Company can now put in their crossing without further molestation. Duell & Benedict were the attorneys for the Horse Railroad Co.; Jenney, Brooks, Marshall & Ruger, of Syracuse, were the attorneys for the steam railroad company. The costs of the proceeding on both sides will probably amount to at least $3,000.

 

CORTLAND AND VICINITY.

   Miss Blanch Hazlett, who is well known in Cortland county, will speak on the subject of temperance, in the M. E. church, Sunday evening, March 8th, 1885.

   Santee and the Evans Branch gallery have reduced the price of pictures throughout. Cabinets can now be had tor $4.00 per dozen, and other kinds accordingly.

   J. A. Viele opened a shop just east of Benton's planing mill, and is now manufacturing all kinds of architectural furniture, foundry patterns.etc. He has recently put in a boiler and engine and reports a good trade.

   Parties in Auburn challenged Lumbard, of Moravia, to skate a three mile race with James Burdick, of this place, for $50.00 a side. Lumbard accepted the challenge and the race will be skated at the Genesee [roller skate] rink, Auburn, this evening.

   The new electric lamps that have been put up give much better satisfaction than the old ones, as the light is steadier. A new one will soon be placed in position at the intersection of Main and Court street.

   Wishing to make a collection of the pictures of all persons who have passed the time of life allotted to mankind, Santee, the photographer will take a cabinet picture free of all those over eighty years of age applying to him [wishing we had those photos—CC editor].

   For some time past the boys have been amusing themselves by coasting on Prospect street. After scaring several teams and meeting with hairbreadth escapes the Trustees have ordered the discontinuance of the sport.

  

South Cortland, March 4, 1885.

   The sick in our vicinity are regaining health slowly.
   There was a surprise party at Mr. Guy Thompson's last Tuesday evening.
    Eighty persons old and young attended the Grange social at Amasa Shearer’s last Wednesday evening. The verdict of each participant was, a good time.
   The injuries of Mrs. La Mont, who was run over by a horse driven by Miss Stella Shaw, last week, at Cortland, are not as severe as was at first supposed.
   The latest sensation which is agitating our quiet community is neither an elopement, suicide, nor yet an earthquake, but it bids fair to result in something quite serious before the winter is over. Never mind "Pete," it’s all in the family.
   Hard times still prevail in this vicinity and money is as scarce as hen's teeth. The prospect tor better times does not look very favorable at present.
   Miss Mary Hunt, of Chicago [west of and adjacent to South Cortland—CC editor], is to be our new "school marm" at the corners, and will train the youthful mind during the summer.
   Married, at the residence of the bride's parents in Marathon, Feb. 25th, by Rev. Mr. Todd, Clinton Francis of South Cortland, to Miss Hattie Johnson of Marathon. Both parties are well and favorably known here, the former as a successful farmer and one of our leading society gentlemen; and the latter is a brilliant and accomplished young lady. That their future may prove as bright and happy as the present promises, is the sincere wish of their many friends, one of which is the writer.
 
East Scott, March 4, 1885.
   S. D. Ames has recently built an ice house.
   H. E. Underwood is quite ill with the asthma, being confined to the house nearly all the time.
   Jay Underwood is doing the courting this week.
 

 

Ensilage, Calomel and Cows


 
The Cortland News, Friday, February 8, 1885.

Cortland County Farmer’s Club.

   The club holds its meetings regularly in Union Hall, Main St., Cortland, N, Y., once in two weeks, on Saturday at 2 p.m. The farmers of this county are cordially invited to attend.

   January 31st, 1885, the Club met pursuant to adjournment and was called to order by the President. The Secretary read the report of last meeting, also letters from W. A. Armstrong, Secretary of Elmira Farmer's club, and Hon. Geo. B. Loring, of Washington, which he was instructed to answer, after which the President announced "Ensilage" as the subject for discussion and asked Rev. B. F. Weatherwax, to favor those present with the result of his experience with a silo, which he has filled three years in succession.

   Mr. Weatherwax — My silo, 18 1/2 by 14 feet, with walls 13 feet high, is built between the two drive-ways of the barn, 6 feet of length being under the barn and 12 feet extending outside, so that it is easy of access to till. Have stored in it coarse clover mixed with weeds, just as the mower leaves it, filling it in two or three days time, placing a cover which fits close within the side walls, over it, weighted heavily with stone. In 1882 pressed the clover under a weight of 10 tons, in 1883 a weight of 5 tons and last season used 3 tons, which has kept the ensilage in good condition. I pack the clover in its natural green state in the silo, or if wet, find that it keeps well. In taking out, remove two planks of the cover and cut down a narrow section with a hay-knife, feeding twenty-five lbs. once a day to each cow, giving dry fodder twice a day. The cattle eat the ensilaged clover with great avidity. I feed less grain than in former years and the cattle look better than ever before. From choice would put coarse clover into a silo instead of curing for hay. Although the silo adds nothing to the clover yet there is nothing wasted in the process of drying, and all seems palatable. I have a feed-cutter with all the machinery necessary to operate it, yet prefer storing the clover without cutting fine.

   W. H. Hyde — Sowed the Southern fodder corn last year, and although the stalks were large the cattle ate the whole, and I consider it superior to any other variety we have ever tried. Mr. Hyde also favored the club with the result of experiments carried out by Mr. Johnson, of Goffstown, N. H., with his silo, 40x12ft. in size, 14 ft. in depth, having a capacity of 130 tons. He raises Virginia corn, sowing one-half bushel to the acre; likes to have the ears large enough to roast before the cutting, to do which he uses Ross' self-feeding ensilage cutter gauged to cut one-half inch pieces, then pressed judiciously in the silo. The cattle struggle to reach it when it is being dealt out to them — an eagerness they never displayed while being ted hay — and the avidity with which they eat it shows the great relish they have for it. A strict account was kept of the cost last year and found to be $1.90 a ton, and he regards two and one-half tons as equal to one ton of the best English hay. As the pioneer advocate of ensilage in the region, Mr. Johnson was strongly criticised for his faith in its value, but in the four years that he has used it, those who scoffed the most have become as firm advocates as himself and built silos for themselves.

   An animated discussion arose upon the value of clover as compared with sowed corn for storing in the silo, participated in by A. P. Rowley, A. D. Blodgett. E. Barnes, J. L. Gillett, C. M. Bean, Lloyd Rice and others.

   A question was asked, "How to get rid of lice from cattle?" Reply: Five grains of calomel to each cow, mix with buckwheat flour and sprinkle upon the animals' back. Some recommended moulders' refuse sand, others to feed a small quantity of sulphur with salt.

   Messrs. Fred Parker and Romanzo Bosworth have been invited to take up supplementary discussion of Ensilage and present samples of the same from their silos, Saturday, Feb. 14th, at 2 p.m., to which time the club adjourned.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Public Schools of Cortland Village, 1885


The Cortland News, Friday, February 27, 1885.

Public Schools of Cortland.

   The Public school buildings of Cortland are four in number being located on Owego, Schermerhorn, Church and Pomeroy streets, respectively; the Owego street school building contains a primary and intermediate department.

PRIMARY DEPARTMENT.

   Miss Lenah Robinson, teacher; seating capacity, 54; regular enrolled Jan. 1885, 63; regular enrolled Jan. 1884, 23. Increased attendance, 36.

INTERMEDIATE DEPARTMENT.

   Miss Julia B. Slatter, teacher; seating capacity, 54; regular enrollment Jan. 1885, 46; regular enrollment Jan. 1884, 50; decreased attendance, 4.

   The Schermerhorn street school building also contains a primary and intermediate department.

PRIMARY DEPARTMENT.

   Miss Helena M. Myers, teacher; seating capacity, 54; regular enrollment Jan. 1885, 63; regular enrollment Jan. 1884, 45; increased attendance 12.

INTERMEDIATE DEPARTMENT.

   Miss Helene M. Myers, teacher; seating capacity, 54; regular enrollment Jan. 1885, 55; regular enrollment Jan. 1884, 49; increased attendance 6.

   The Church street school building also contains a primary and an intermediate department.

PRIMARY DEPARTMENT.

   Miss Eliza F. Austin, teacher; seating capacity, 48; regular enrollment Jan. 1885, 45; regular enrollment Jan. 1884, 40; increased attendance, 5.

INTERMEDIATE DEPARTMENT.

   Miss Mary Knapp, teacher; seating capacity 40; regular enrollment Jan. 1885, 28; regular enrollment Jan. 1884, 42; decreased attendance 14.

   The Pomeroy street school building contains a first and second primary and intermediate department.

FIRST PRIMARY DEPARTMENT.

   Miss Mary E. Fairchild, teacher; seating capacity, 54; regular enrollment Jan. 1885, 52.

SECOND PRIMARY DEPARTMENT.

   Mrs. M. A. Rice, teacher; seating capacity, 54; regular enrollment Jan. 1885, 46.

INTERMEDIATE DEPARTMENT.

   Miss Florence E. Bennett, teacher; seating capacity, 54; regular enrollment Jan. 1885, 40.

GRAMMER [sic] DEPARTMENT.

   Miss Mina W. Bishop, teacher; seating capacity, 54; regular enrollment Jan. 1885, 32.

   Since the Pomeroy street school has been built the Port Watson street school has been discontinued and it has also relieved the Church street school. It now has an attendance of 170 an increase in this ward of 126.

   By consulting the above statement it will be seen that all of the departments are well filled and some of them are uncomfortably crowded, and scholars desiring admission are almost daily refused admittance because the buildings are not sufficiently large to accommodate the scholars living in that ward.

   This is the case in both departments of the Owego and Schermerhorn street schools.

   It is almost a necessity that both of these buildings should be raised and two additional departments to be placed in each building during the coming summer as there is a sufficient number of children in each ward who wish to attend to comfortably fill the additional departments at once but the Board of Education did not deem it advisable to ask for the extra appropriation this spring because of the extra amounts to be raised by the village tor other necessities.

   The following is the list of estimated expenses which the Board of Education deem necessary for the ensuing school year:

Teachers wages $2,300

Building fund deficiency $1,300

Fences $100

Grading $300

Janitors $600

Fuel $650

Census $75

Insurance $25

School furniture and incidental expenses $650

[Total] $6,000.

   Teachers' Wages — Each teacher receives a salary of $8 per week. As the appropriations last spring estimated the number of teachers at seven while ten were necessary a deficiency in teachers’ wages exists and $2,300 is necessary to defray the deficiency and wages for the ensuing year in addition to the sum which will be received from the state.

   Building fund deficiency — As the new school buildings on Owego and Schermerhorn street have been built but a little over a year and are now inadequate the Board profited by this experience and decided to build a two-story school building on Pomeroy street instead of one-story as was planned, and for which the appropriation of $4,000 was asked, therefore a loan of $1,200 was made and with $1,000 the result of the sale of the S. Church street school site, a two-story building was built, the four departments equipped with furniture, heating apparatus, clocks &c. Therefore $1,300 is necessary to repay the loan with interest as these four departments were filled immediately. The wisdom of the change from a one- story building to a two-story is apparent.

   Fencing and Grading — As all the school yards require fencing and three of them need grading the estimated expenses are low.

   Janitors — It requires the services of four men daily to attend to the school buildings’ property, and to supply them with brooms, dusters, tools, etc., for the care and heating of the buildings, $600 was not deemed excessive.

   Fuel — As a fire has to be maintained in seven furnaces during seven or eight months of the year, $650 was deemed necessary for coal, wood and kindlings.

   Census and Insurance — Are estimated at $70 and $25, respectively a lower estimate than last year.

   School furniture, supplies and incidental expenses — No department has any maps, charts, dictionaries or anything of that description and are sadly in need of them. $650 was deemed necessary to purchase them, extra school furniture, and meet all incidental expenses that may occur during the ensuing school year.

   During the past year the Board of Education has adopted a course of study by which scholars may complete all common English studies and readily enter the regular Normal course, also has adopted a series of regulations for the Government and advancement of the schools.

   The schools are managed by a very efficient corps of teachers under whom not a single serious disturbance has occurred and the registered attendance has increased 60 per cent during the past year.

   The patrons of the school and others are earnestly requested to visit the schools as often as convenient so that the efficient work of both teacher and scholars may be recognized and encouraged.

CHAS. S. SANDERSON,

Secretary Board of Education