Now, may I say Senator CORDON. May I interrupt you, Senator? Senator CORDON. Do you have the figures as to the total cost of each of the projects; if not, I think we ought to get it from the Corps of Engineers and place it in the record at this point with your state ment. Senator SALTONSTALL. I will ask Congressman Heselton to state that amount now. STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN W. HESELTON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS ESTIMATED COSTS Mr. HESELTON. It is a little better than $14 million for North Adams and in excess of $5 million for Adams. I do not know the exact amounts. STATEMENT OF BRIG. GEN. C. H. CHORPENING, ASSISTANT CHIEF OF ENGINEERS FOR CIVIL WORKS TOTAL EXPENDED General CHORPENING. The estimated costs, as we have it, sir, for the North Adams project is $15,240,000 and Adams $5,406,000. Senator CORDON. Thank you, General. Senator SALTONSTALL. And of that, Mr. Chairman, I am informed, and I would be subject to correction, that $2,027,000 has already been appropriated on these projects. Senator CORDON. Will you divide that please, to show the appropriations for each of these projects? Senator SALTONSTALL. I would ask the general to do that. General CHORPENING. The total appropriation on North Adams is $1,183,000; on Adams $844,000. Senator SALTONSTALL. And, what we are asking for this year, Mr. Chairman, is $560,000, which was recommended by the Bureau of the Budget for the continuation of the project at Adams. We hope that the committee will take that into consideration and will make that anyway, and in addition, we would like to ask for the amount that the Senate appropriated last year for Adams and North Adams, which was a total of $1,200,000, or approximately $640,000 more, if my arithmetic is correct. Senator CORDON. May I interrupt you again, Senator? Senator CORDON. Let me ask, General, what funds, if any, were requested by the Corps of Engineers of the Bureau of the Budget for each of these projects for this year? General CHORPENING. For Adams, $560,000, which was requested by the Corps of Engineers and for North Adams $940,000. In both instances, these were overceiling requests. Senator HAYDEN. If I might add, Mr. Chairman, if there ever was a justifiable appropriation made, the Senate made it last year for this. Senator SALTONSTALL. Thank you. Senator CORDON. In view of that statement, I want to say that the acting chairman was for it at the time it was made. Go ahead, please, Senator Saltonstall. Senator SALTONSTALL. I will just add, Mr. Chairman, because there are others here to speak, that we consider that the very lifeblood of these 2 communities, Adams and North Adams, is dependent upon this; the 13 major industries; 570 commercial establishments in Adams and the various industrial establishments in North Adams. These establishments employ some 34,000 people and there have been several disasters in recent years, particularly to one of the larger businesses in North Adams, the Sprague Electric Co., which had a fine war record and which is one of the big industries of that whole area. Now, Mr. Chairman, I could go on. I would like to put my statement in the record, and ask my colleague and these other gentlemen to speak as far as they want to speak, in order that we might not run over your time. I will just conclude by saying your distinguished subcommittee, and the full committee, and the Senate, have voted for these projects now for several years. We have received some money in conferences. Last year, in the conference report, the overall package that was agreed to for these two projects were left out, after they had been put in by the Senate. So, I hope that we may have a favorable report from your distinguished committee this year. Senator CORDON. Thank you very much. Senator SALTONSTALL. The next speaker will be my distinguished colleague, Senator Kennedy. STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN F. KENNEDY, A UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS PREPARED STATEMENT Senator KENNEDY. Mr. Chairman, if I can file my statement in the record I shall be very brief. Senator CORDON. Without objection, the written statement will be made a part of the record. (The statement referred to follows:) STATEMENT OF SENATOR JOHN F. KENNEDY ON THE NORTH ADAMS I appreciate the opportunity to submit a statement concerning appropriations for the North Adams, Mass., flood-control project to this subcommittee. I believe that the funds necessary to complete the North Adams project, as well as the Adams project, should be included in your recommendations to the Senate. This belief is based upon the following three points which I should like to discuss briefly: the Adams and North Adams projects have been closely tied together since they were first authorized; the funds already invested by the Government in this project should be protected; and this is a local flood control problem in which the Federal Government and the community have participated jointly with good results. The North Adams and Adams projects, which are only a mile apart at their nearest point, have been, at least to the present, treated as companion projects. They were first authorized in 1936 and the progress of their construction has been uniform. The citizens of these 2 communities as well as the Corps of Engineers have always considered the 2 as parts of an integrated plan to protect their 42592-54-28 area against the flood waters of the Hoosic River. That the Budget Bureau, without any explanation, has seen fit to recommend funds for Adams and not for North Adams is a matter of great concern to the residents of that area. Although many of the new projects recommended by the Budget Bureau are probably meritorious, I believe that normal business prudence would require that those partially completed projects should be completed as quickly as possible in order to protect the Government's substantial investment and to realize the full benefits from the funds already spent. Although the President's budget message includes the Adams project as a "new start" (at page 1140) this subcommittee well knows that both Adams and North Adams were interrupted during the Korean war and both are partially completed. Both of these projects should be in the higher priority classification of "resumptions projects" and funds should be appropriated for both. It may be that the Bureau's classification of Adams as a "new project" indicates that the North Adams project was mistakenly considered as a new project and that the President would have recommended appropriations if it had been recognized that the project had been suspended during the Korean war. The people of North Adams have consistently provided their share of the funds necessary for the project which amounts to 11 percent of the total cost or nearly $2 million. It seems to me that this partnership of Federal and local Government which has made good progress toward solving the local flood-control problem should be continued. In fact, I have been informed that there is no other instance in the United States of a local flood-protection project which was suspended in a partial state of completion during the Korean emergency not now being continued where the local interests are fulfilling their required obligations under the authorizing legislation. Both the Adams and North Adams projects have high benefits to costs ratios and both are vitally important to the safety and well-being of the citizens of the 2 communities as evidenced by the fact that the Corps of Engineers has consistently recommended the continuation of work on the 2 projects. I earnestly urge that the necessary appropriations to continue the North Adams project be recommended by this subcommittee. GENERAL STATEMENT Senator KENNEDY. At Adams, Mass., some structural work has been done on that project, but in the new budget, page 1140, Adams was listed as a new start; in all, 8 new starts, including flood projects, naming the 8 projects, of which Adams is one. I am sure that the subcommittee is familiar with the fact that substantial work has been done prior to this date on Adams and, therefore, I believe that the budget is in error in referring to it as a new start. Senator CORDON. May I say this, Senator, that the term "new start" over the last few years, since the Korean police action started in 1950, has had varying definitions, and as I recall the discussions that we have had with respect to those definitions, that they have been narrowed in their application each year until the definition as I gather it as at the present time is about this: That if there be a project, and it may be completed in segments, even though any given segment or any combination of segments have, standing by themselves, no substantial value, nevertheless, they are deemed to be completed projects within the meaning of the term "new start." The result is that we have had some rather peculiar situations before this committee under the term "new start." Senator KENNEDY. Yes, sir. I can understand that. Senator CORDON. Incidentally, the term has been broadened. Senator KENNEDY. Below that it says "resumption of work is proposed." So, I do not know whether there is a distinction between new starts and resumption of work or not. I think that the committee in past years has had a most thorough explanation of the desirability of the Adams project and the recommendation was made in the budgets for the continuation of the Adams project, but no funds were included for North Adams. I think this has been of very great concern for the citizens of that area. The projects are close. The citizens of North Adams have felt that they have been injured in the same degree from floods as have the citizens of Adams. Therefore, I am hopeful, in considering the problem, that it will be recognized that the areas are at least contiguous and to some degree interdependent. LOCAL PARTICIPATION In addition to that, the people of North Adams have consistently provided their share of the funds necessary for the project which amounts to 11 percent of the total cost or nearly $2 million. I believe both Adams and North Adams were delayed. They were delayed during the Korean war. Senator CORDON. It occurs to the chairman that it might be well, as long as the local interests are appearing at this time with respect to this project and I hope that we can follow the same plan with other projects that it would be well if we could have at this time a short statement from the Corps of Engineers indicating what the work at Adams and North Adams will consist of; what the projects will consist of, and how much of that project has been completed; and whether the amount requested here of $560,000 will do the work, or whether that is all that could be efficiently done at this time. If that be true, then we need go no further; but, if additional work could be done, what could be added that would result in some material benefits from floods in the area which we are seeking to protect, and the same information with respect to North Adams. The chairman has always felt that to start a project and then continue it in very little bits, without achieving any beneficial result, is a poor method of procedure. As between these 2, for instance, it may be that we should prefer 1 over the other, until we can get something done; so that we can have some protection rather than to carry each along getting protection from neither, until the complete project is finished, and I should like to hear from the Corps of Engineers, with a statement on that, if that is satisfactory to you. Senator KENNEDY. That is satisfactory. Senator SALTONSTALL. I am sure that my colleague will agree with me that these 2 communities are approximately 8 miles apart and these 2 rivers really form 1 river, and when there is a flood up there, it cannot flood one without flooding the other. Senator CORDON. I will ask the Engineers if they can give us a short statement, such as I have just suggested. General CHORPENING. Yes, Senator. Senator CORDON. If you desire, you can place it in the record immediately following this testimony. General CHORPENING. I can state it now or place it in the record, either way. NATURE OF PROPOSED WORK Senator CORDON. I would like to hear it now. That may call for some other questions. General CHORPENING. With the allocation of $560,000 for the fiscal year 1955 on the Adams project, that will bring this project to about 26 percent completion, and these funds are required for the initiation. and completion of a new contract involving channel work and flood walls on the main stream for a distance of 800 feet from the end of the completed work at Murray Street, downstream to the vicinity of Cook Street. This improvement, coupled with the adjacent work under the first contract, the earlier work which was done will provide a useful unit of the project extending from a drop structure near Hoosac Street, to the vicinity of Cook Street. Senator CORDON. When you use the term "useful," do you mean if, after this money is expended, there comes a flood, the flood will do less damage as a result of the work you have done than it would if you had not done the work? General CHORPENING. That is correct. Of course, this is a part of the overall project and you need the overall project to get the full value, but this would be a useful unit. Senator CORDON. It would aid in lowering the floodwaters? General CHORPENING. Aid in protecting the area from floodwaters. Senator ELLENDER. As you will recall, we have had this before us for the past 5 or 6 years and I think that the Senate has been very generous in providing funds, and I want to say to my good friendSenator CORDON. As has this committee. Senator ELLENDER. Yes, Mr. Chairman, and as far as the Senate is concerned, I think we are all for it. I know I am, and I have been for it before, and I think that you need to work on the House side more than you do here, and I want to suggest that you strongly do that. Now, Colonel, is it not true that as to both of these projects, the work has been so devised that any amount that we appropriate will be used to actually complete a part of this work and that will be of benefit. In other words, without the construction of the whole project, the project as completed will be of benefit? General CHORPENING. Yes. That is particularly true on those classed as "new starts" and "resumptions," which this is. Now, I have similar information on North Adams. General CHORPENING. The allocation of $940,000 for the fiscal year 1955 would be used for the initiation of a continuing contract and will permit construction of a concrete chute on the North Branch for a distance of 1,200 feet to the vicinity of Marshall Street, and a concrete chute on the South Branch, for a distance of 600 feet to the existing structure, the Johnson Dam. The work will provide a completed reach of the project extending from Marshall Street on the North Branch and Johnson Dam on the South Branch, downstream to the existing dam of North Adams Manufacturing Co. The work will afford flood protection to the Sprague Electric Co. plant, which is engaged in the manufacture of radar, electronics, and other electrical equipment. |