Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1886-02-04
The Stone Road Question,
Let the Townships Improve Their
Own Roads.

Own Roads.
ED.HoRrHwKsT believing that no ques-
ton more deeply intetests many Of your
readers than stone roads, make no excuse
for this attempt to use your columns to have
my say on the subject.
The Commissioners have decided TO either
stone or gravel the Bryan Pike for miles,
provided private individuals will subscribe
and pay two-thirds of the cost of the same,
and the County Surveyor has made an esti-
mate of the costs, and finds that the highest
figures for stone is $1l, ,698 75. As he is con-
servative and has given the subject careful
thought have no doubt but that it can be
constructed for that sum. On this basis pri-
vate individuals must pay s7,795 50 and the
county $3,s97 SO.
There is now in the county treasury, 80 all
agree, the sum of 81, 900, levied and collect
ed for road purposes exclusively. Allowing
that this road is of local benefit only to the
townships of Napoleon, Freedom and Ridge
vile, these townships have paid of the $12,-
900 road fund on hand $500 more than the
sum required of the county to make this i'm
provement, and therefore other townships
would not be injured thereby, and all will
concede that 1t is some evidence of the ne
cessity of public improvement when pri-
vate individuals are willing to go down in
their pockets and pay two-thirds of the costs
Of making the same, and bear their share of
the public expense besides, But what they
object to, as understand it, is a precedent
for other roads, and as a resident of Napo-
leon township object also to such a precedent
for the following reasons:
First. Napoleon is SO situate that the con-
struction of 16 miles of road properly dis
tributed would answer all the neads of Ma
poleon and Napoleon township, and as our
citizens are able and literally disposed, and
as quite number of them have subscribed
$500 each, and many more 500 each, for this
one road, no doubt they would be willing to
do considerable more to have four or more
roads from Napoleon stoned. The citizens
of Napoleon township are certainly in favor
of stone roads by large majority, and with
such aid from merchants and wealthy citi-
zens we could build all the roads we really
need without Inconvenience. But if on the
other hand we allow other townships, even
apparently, to assist in the construction of
this one road there will be no end to it, every
town and township in the county will wantas
many miles of road as Napoleon, and instead
of subscribing 2-3 of the costs they no doubt
will ask it under the law on subscription of
20 per cent, and Napoleon township, which
is only 1-13 part of the county in size, but
which according to the duplicate is IA of the
total value of the county and pays IA of the
whole taxes of the county, will be the looser,
for for every mile she should only pay lib of
the costs according to size, according to her
valuation she pays IA of the costs.
| If one stone or gravel road is made you
need not doubt but that there will soon be
more; to be desired they need but to be seen.
To live on such road, where you need never
anxiously enquire of each other when the
roads will break up; where you can work your
farm when you can, and 60 to town, to mill
or market your grain or products when you
choose; where you can save on wagon, har
ness or horse flesh every year, with such roads,
more than they could tax you, even under the
Norton law, to build the same, for even un-
der this law no farmer in Henry county with
no more than 40 acres of land could be taxed
to exceed 81 in any one year.
What would propose, therefore, would be
that the Norton law be repealed and law
substituted authorizing each township to
build their own roads when they see fit. Ma
poleon has the disposition and the means to
build her own; she has better facilities by
canal and railroad for getting material than
any other township, or most of them. Two
miles of stone roads in Napoleon township
with both a canal and railroad through the
center, will not cost as much as one mile in
some of the townships, and when they are
built guarantee that other townships will
soon follow her example, and, as in that case
they did not contribute in any degree to the
construction of ours, they would not expect
us to help build theirs; we need no more miles
of road than each of them would want or
need, and would be the gamer thereby, the
difference between lib of the cost and IA of
the cost which is about Is of the total costs,
and what Napoleon would have to pay under
the Norton law besides the difference in the
costs of construction in Napoleon township
with the convenience of canal and railroad,
AMI townships that would be required to haul
the material further.
NAPOLEON.
To Growler's Rescue.