Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works
government · founded 1933
The New Deal agency, commonly the P.W.A., through which the United States financed Ocean City's first municipal sanitary sewerage system. On 9 October 1935, over the signature of Assistant Administrator Horatio B. Hackett and under State File No. Md. 1065, it offered the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City a grant of forty-five per cent of the cost of constructing interceptor sewers, pumping units, a discharge line and a disposal plant, capped at $49,909, and offered to buy $61,000 of the town's bonds at par. The council accepted on 16 October, the voters approved the borrowing 104 to 1 on 1 November, the bonds were issued on 2 November and sold at private sale to the United States, and the construction contract was let on 27 December subject to the approval of the P.W.A. engineer. The same year's federal works-relief money paid for the dredging of an Ocean City fishing harbor and a channel through Isle of Wight Bay, and for rebuilding the Coast Guard shore stations at Ocean City, Isle of Wight and North Beach.
In the record (10)
1936 · 1936-06-09
The sewer contractor got thirty extra days and a waiver of damages because January and February 1936 were too cold to dig
A typed resolution pasted into the minute book records that on 9 June 1936, 'by reason of the unusally arduous winter and inclement weather prevailing during the past months of January and February, the contractor, A. Stanley Mundy & Co., Inc., under Contract No. 1, dated January 15, 1936, P. W. A. Docket No. Md. 1065-R for installing Intercepting Sewers and appurtenances at Ocean City, Maryland, was prevented from proceeding with said contract before March first' and would therefore be prevented from finishing within the five calendar months the contract allowed, 'to-wit, June 15th'. The Mayor and City Council unanimously extended the time by thirty days, waived the liquidated damages, and resolved that the P.W. Administrator be advised. It is signed W. Thomas Elliott, Mayor, and certified by J. M. Mumford as Clerk.
A. Stanley Mundy & Co., Inc.W. Thomas ElliottJohn M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1936 · 1936-08-13
Washington raised Ocean City's sewer grant from $49,909 to $56,659, and the town accepted the amendment as Resolution No. 7
On 8 August 1936 the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works wrote to the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City over the signature of E. W. Clark, offering to amend the contract created by the town's acceptance of 17 October 1935 by striking the figures '$49,909' and inserting '$56,659', on condition that the applicant first deposit $8,250 in the construction account, 'or such other amount as may be necessary to complete the Project'. The Messenger had the news first: on Thursday 6 August Congressman T. Alan Goldsborough telegraphed the paper, 'Ocean City sewer project has been approved by President Roosevelt for an increase of the grant to $56,669. This sum will be sufficient to complete the Ocean City project.' The Mayor and City Council convened in special session on 13 August with William H. Scott, President, in the chair and none absent; W. Preston Laws proposed Resolution No. 7 accepting the amendment, Dr. F. J. Townsend seconded it, and Laws, Townsend and William H. Scott voted aye with none voting nay. A further certified extract of a special meeting of 14 August was prepared for Washington.
$56,659 in the federal document; the Messenger printed $56,669
W. Preston LawsWilliam H. ScottT. Alan Goldsborough
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1936 · 1936-10-23
Offered a $75,000 federal boardwalk, Ocean City chose to make its own property owners pay instead
Rebuilding the wrecked boardwalk was argued out in public for six weeks. At a city-wide meeting reported on 1 October, Mayor Elliott said the town needed about $75,000 to rebuild the ocean-front walk from the Ocean City pier northward to its terminus, over a mile and a half, and that the city was without such funds - while the charter put the expense on the individual owners of the adjacent properties, a proposition Ocean City residents 'have attacked as unfair and are united in their stand to refuse'. On 17 October Arthur K. Hungerford, State Director for Maryland of the National Emergency Council, told some eighty Ocean City business people at Col. Joseph M. Mann's cottage that there were no federal flood-control funds available, that hurricane money would have to come from the PWA or the WPA, and that a WPA grant would require Ocean City to furnish 55 to 60 per cent of the total cost. He proposed thirds: boardwalk property owners, the Mayor and Council, and the WPA. Daniel Trimper, Jr. costed the piling alone at about $21,000 - three thousand piles, four or five months to drive with average relief labour. Then on Friday evening 23 October the mayor, his three councilmen and the citizens' boardwalk committee met and abandoned the federal application altogether. Edmond Johnson, the town solicitor, read the council the law on compelling property owners to rebuild and said that in his judgment the city was holding the bag if it sponsored a WPA project. The minute is blunt: 'A long discussion was had and finally decided to go ahead & rebuild the walk without government aid.' — 1937 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: The refusal held through the rebuilding. The Democratic Messenger of 11 March 1937 states that the ocean-front owners built the walk themselves, 'refusing to accept Federal or other financial aid'. The finished job cost $38,945.63, of which the assessed owners paid $17,377.92 and the town paid $21,567.71 — so the town, having refused $75,000 of federal money in October 1936, ended by paying more than half of a much smaller bill out of its own funds.
A town that had spent 1935 begging Washington for a sewer spent 1936 refusing Washington a boardwalk - because the arithmetic said the charter was cheaper: $53,900 by ordinance against $75,000 by grant, and no waiting.
Ocean City BoardwalkW. Thomas ElliottDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.Dr. Charles Washington Purnell
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1936 · 1936-12-29
Ocean City's first municipal sewer was dug in 1936 and was still only seventy per cent complete at the end of it
The contract A. Stanley Mundy & Co. of Woodbridge, N.J. won on the Friday after Christmas 1935 was signed as Contract No. 1 on 15 January 1936 under P.W.A. Docket No. Md. 1065-R. Preliminary work began in the week of 12 March and the contractors started laying pipe along North Philadelphia Avenue between North First and North Third Streets on Saturday 28 March. By late May the council was fielding complaints about sand thrown up across Philadelphia Avenue at the street intersections and proposing to wet it down and roll it. Work stopped in late July while more federal money was sought, resumed in August, and the treatment plant on North First Street west of Philadelphia Avenue was under construction by mid-September, with Major Anderson supervising. On 29 December the council discussed its finances and ordered the attorney 'to prepare paper to get balance due on Grant on Sewer as it was 70% complete.' The Messenger had reported in August that the plant and force mains were expected to be in operation after 1 January. The system as designed was an interceptor of 8,000 lineal feet of cast-iron pipe, a treatment plant of reinforced concrete on piling with a brick superstructure designed for a maximum flow of three million gallons a day, and 3,100 lineal feet of pipe discharging into the Inlet at the south end of Philadelphia Avenue. — 1937 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: It was finished in 1937. The intercepting sewers by A. Stanley Mundy & Co. were accepted by the Mayor and City Council on 30 April 1937 and the sewage treatment plant, force mains and appurtenances by M. J. McDermott of Georgetown, Delaware on 8 June 1937, both under PWA Docket Md. 1065-R. Operation began in the week of 15 April 1937, the works were physically handed over on about 18 May, and Frank Tyre was appointed the first plant superintendent.
The town that voted 104 to 1 for a sewer in November 1935 did not get one in 1936. It got seven-tenths of one - and a treatment plant that would put Ocean City's sewage into the inlet the town had spent sixty years asking for.
Ocean City Inlet & JettyA. Stanley Mundy & Co., Inc.Clark Gardner
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-02-08
Ocean City borrowed its own $8,250 share of the sewer by issuing eight more thousand-dollar bonds at 4 per cent
'Whereas, in addition to funds granted and loaned to Mayor and City Council of Ocean City by the United States for the construction of sewers and disposal plant at Ocean City under P.W.A. Project No. Md. 1065-R, the municipality must furnish the sum of eight thousand two hundred fifty dollars ($8250.00)' - so on 8 February 1937 the council resolved to borrow $8,000 on the full faith and credit of the town and to issue 'eight negotiable interest bearing coupon bonds ... said bonds to be Nos. 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68 and 69 of the issue known as "Sewerage Bonds", to be in the denomination of one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) each, to be dated November 1, 1935, to bear interest at the rate of 4% per annum payable semi-annually on May 1st and November 1st of each year until maturity.' They were to be 'sold privately at par plus accrued interest.' W. Preston Laws moved it; the vote was unanimous and the Mayor approved it.
W. Preston LawsW. Thomas ElliottFrancis J. TownsendWilliam H. ScottJohn M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-04-15
Ocean City's sewage plant went into operation in April 1937 with the first under-water sewage grinders in Maryland, and put the town's effluent into its own inlet
'Operation of the new PWA sewerage system and treatment plant at Ocean City will begin this week,' the consulting engineer Clark Gardner told the Messenger on 15 April 1937. The description is the fullest the campaign has of what was actually built. 'The intercepting sewer, constructed along Philadelphia avenue, consists of 7,750 lineal feet of cast iron pipe, varying in diameter from 12 to 20 ins., laid below mean high water of the Sinepuxent Bay.' The treatment plant stood 'on St. Louis Avenue between North First and North Second Sts.' and was 'capable of handling a maximum of 3,000,000 gallons of sewage a day.' 'Among the outstanding devices employed in the new plant are the units for grinding the raw sewage under water. After grinding the sewage is chlorinated in wet wells, and is discharged through a force main to the inlet. The under-water grinding devices, Gardner said, are the first to be used in Maryland.' The engineering problems he named were 'the extreme variation in sewage flow because of the large differential in summer and winter population, and ... the water pressure at the outlet, 16 feet below the level of the bay.' The works were 'formally turned over to the Mayor and Council on Tuesday of this week', the Messenger reported on 20 May, and 'Mr. Frank Tyre has been appointed Plant Superintendent by the Mayor and Council.' The council's own Resolutions of Acceptance followed on 30 April for the sewers and 8 June for the plant.
The inlet the 1933 hurricane opened had been the fishing fleet's harbour mouth for four years. From April 1937 it was also the town's outfall.
Ocean City Inlet & JettyM. J. McDermottA. Stanley Mundy & Co., Inc.Clark GardnerFrank TyreW. Thomas Elliott
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-04-26
The sewage plant ran eight months late because the contractor could not get cinders and brick, and because the Board of Health made him keep sewage out of the water mains
A typed resolution of 26 April 1937 sets out the whole history of the delay in the contractor's favour. 'M. J. McDermott under contract NO.2 started work on August 26th 1936 Docket Md.1065-2R Sewerage Treatment Plant and on Jan 4th 1937 time extended to April 26th 1937.' Two reasons are given for a further extension: '#1 Inability to obtain certain materials to meet specifications (cinders, brick, etc.)'; and '#2 - It became necessary, because of stipulation by the State Board of Health, to have the Roberts Filter Mfg. Co., Sub Contractor, design and submit for approval certain mechanical equipment to prevent the backing up of sewerage into the city water lines.' The council extended the time to 26 May 1937 and 'waive[d] the liquidated damages specified in said contract relative to failure to complete the work in time', directing that 'the State Director be advised of this action'. It was signed by Mayor W. Thomas Elliott, by William H. Scott as President of the City Council, and certified by J. M. Mumford.
A resort that had just voted 104 to 1 to put sewers in the sand was, eighteen months later, still waiting on a delivery of cinders - and on a Philadelphia filter company to invent a way of stopping the sewage getting into the drinking water.
M. J. McDermottRoberts Filter Manufacturing CompanyMaryland State Board of HealthM. J. McDermottW. Thomas ElliottWilliam H. ScottJohn M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-04-30
Ocean City accepted its intercepting sewers from A. Stanley Mundy & Co. on 30 April 1937
At a meeting in the Municipal Building on 30 April 1937 the Mayor and City Council unanimously adopted a Resolution of Acceptance declaring that they had 'accepted as satisfactory - subject to prior acceptance by the Consulting Engineer - a system of Intercepting Sewers and Appurtenances recently constructed at Ocean City, Maryland, by the A. Stanley Mundy Company, Inc., of Woodbridge, New Jersey, under Contract No. 1, PWA Docket No. Md.1065-R', and directed the Clerk to notify the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. W. H. Scott moved it, Dr. F. J. Townsend seconded, and the motion carried. The council had signed Mundy's contract on 27 December 1935 and had given him a thirty-day extension in 1936 for 'the unusually arduous winter'; sixteen months later the pipe was in the ground and signed off.
A. Stanley Mundy & Co., Inc.W. Thomas ElliottWilliam H. ScottFrancis J. TownsendJohn M. MumfordClark Gardner
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-06-08
On 8 June 1937 Ocean City accepted its sewage treatment plant, and the two-year job the town had voted 104 to 1 for was finished
Dr. F. J. Townsend offered the resolution and W. Preston Laws seconded it, and it passed unanimously: the Mayor and City Council 'have accepted as satisfactory - Subject to prior acceptance by the Consulting Engineer - Sewerage Treatment Plant, Force mains, and Appurtenances recently Constructed at Ocean City, Maryland, by M. J. McDermott, of Georgetown, Delaware, under Contract #2 PWA Docket NO Md. 1065-2R.' The clerk was again to notify the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. McDermott had bid $74,510.48 as the low bidder on 26 June 1936 and started work on 26 August 1936; the plant was in the ground in ten months and had been running long enough by 15 April 1937 for the council to decide it did not need the manufacturer's man to stay on and give instruction. The system had cost the town $61,000 of federal bonds, an $8,250 cash contribution of its own and a federal grant that had been raised to $56,659.
The 1936 pass closed with the sewer '70 per cent complete' and a hole where the answer should be. This is the answer, in the town's own hand: accepted, 8 June 1937, from the low bidder of the previous June.
M. J. McDermottM. J. McDermottFrancis J. TownsendW. Preston LawsW. Thomas ElliottJohn M. MumfordClark Gardner
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-06-24
Ocean City's sewer and disposal plant cost somewhere between $120,000 and $125,909, and the town's own paper printed three different totals in eight months
On 15 April 1937 the consulting engineer gave the figure as $120,000, 'of which Ocean City furnished $60,000 through bonds and the PWA contributed a grant of $56,000'. On 24 June the Messenger's survey of the town's non-taxable improvements called it 'the $125,909 sewer and disposal plant built from WPA and city funds'. On 25 November, reporting the extension, the paper made it $122,000. The town's own record supports the first breakdown better than the labels: the bonds were $61,000 issued to the United States in 1935 plus eight more of $1,000 in February 1937, and the grant had been raised to $56,659 in December 1936. It was a PWA project, docket Md. 1065-R, not a WPA one; the 24 June attribution to 'WPA and city funds' is wrong on its face. Whether the true total was $120,000 or $125,909 the campaign cannot settle, and the difference — about $6,000 — is roughly what the 1937 lateral extension was then estimated to cost.
about $120,000–$126,000 — the paper printed three different totals in 1937 and the PWA case file has not been read
Source · checked 2026-08-11