☞ SHAMEFUL.—On Sunday afternoon, as we were returning with some friends from a visit to Oakwood Cemetery, we passed a squad of about twenty boys and girls in the meadow of Mr. George Vail, through which, a small stream of water flows. The girls and some of the boys were sitting upon the banks of the stream, in the shade of some large trees, while three or four boys, apparently from 12 to 15 years of age, were in the stream, in a perfectly nude state, bathing! This state of things—so demoralizing and revolting—is too outrageous to be safely tolerated in our midst. And similar scenes, we understand, are to be witnessed in that locality every pleasant Sunday! Our police should at once take the matter in hand and next Sabbat, station a man within view of this spot, that these young vagabonds may be caught and properly dealt with.
Lansingburgh Weekly Chronicle. August 15, 1865: 3 col 1.

The overflow of the stream running through the Oakwood Cemetery pond passes down through the bog meadows of the George Vail farm to unite with the Piscawan, where the bridge of the Troy and Boston railroad crosses it.
“Our Water Supply.” Troy Daily Whig. August 14, 1873: 2 col 1.

The Lansingburgh Plague Spot.

City Engineer Roche and Commissioner of Public Works Crowley presented a report about conditions in the Lansingburgh “plague spot,” the territory between Seventh Avenue and the Boston and Maine Railroad tracks and [One Hundred] Second and Eleventh Streets. It was shown that the drainage from the hills to the east were emptied into either what is known as Gould’s Creek or the river. In order to relieve the alleged unsanitary conditions the City Engineer stated a trunk-line system of sewers would be needed which would cost approximately $67,650. As a preliminary movement, however, the City Engineer advised a sewer through Eleventh Street, which would cost about $9,000. The report was spread on the minutes on motion of Alderman Bosca. Maps of the territory were presented the Aldermen for inspection.
Troy Times. November 20, 1914: 5 col 2.

Ordinance for Trunk Sewer in Lansingburgh.
An interesting matter which will come before the Public Works Committee of the Common Council to-morrow night for a hearing is the ordinance introduced at the last meeting by Alderman Smith of the Sixteenth Ward, calling for the construction of a trunk sewer in One Hundred and Eleventh Street from the Hudson River to the Boston and Maine Railroad tracks, a distance of 3,000 feet. […]
The water pours on to the flat land through the lakes in the cemetery and through the culvert under the railroad tracks and discharges into what has been known as Gould’s Creek, and eventually emptying into the Hudson River through the sewer in One Hundred and Second Street. […]
Troy Times. May 1, 1923: 13 col 5.

By Alderman Smith—
AN ORDINANCE authorizing and directing the construction of a trunk sewer in 111th Street from the Hudson River easterly to the Boston & Maine Railroad tracks
The City of Troy, in Common Council convened, ordains as follows:
Section 1. There shall be constructed in 111th Street from the Hudson River easterly to the Boston & Maine Railroad tracks at or near the head of [One Hundred] Tenth Avenue a trunk sewer of a capacity sufficient to adequately receive and discharge the waters accumulating frm the area east and south of the Boston & Maine, tracks and of a size sufficient to relieve the creek, heretofore known as Gould’s Creek, said capacity to be not less than four feet in diameter and of a capacity to be determined by the City Engineer. […]
Troy Times. July 27, 1923: 14 col 6.