Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-01-30
The Special Commissioner on
His Travels.
WHERE DID THE MONEY GO
The Public Highways of Pasaden
Alhambra and San Ca
briel.

the North Pasadena, Pasadena and Sal
Gabriel. The highways of these district
wind along the foothills and are natura
roadways. 1t is doubtful if any of then
have ever been graded or worked to an.
extent. They appear to have beer
mapped out and graded through as the
convenience or judgment of residents
along the various routes suggested Of
dictated. The main road from Pasadena
to Los Angeles, which it is hoped will
some day be a boulevard connecting
with the Santa Monica road to the sea,
is to some extent an exception to the
rest of the roads, inasmuch as there are
slight evidences of work having been
done on it by the overseer. But, taken
as a whole, the public roads which
traverse the populous sections mentioned
are about as the tires of the wheels
have made and left them, and the
HERALD's commissioner failed to find
where any solid or expensive work had
been done on any of the roads under dis
cussion. Yet Mr.. Charles Tibbets, over
seer of the North Pasadena district,
drew 81 ,235 of the road fund during the
year 1888. The Pasadena district ex
pended $3.50, and Mr.. Hale, of the
Alhambra and San Gabriel district
handled no less than 81, 500 of the county
road funds, making altogether an ex
penditure OF IS, 900 in round mum bers for
the highways of travel from the north
and east. While the HERALD's special
commissioner failed to find any evil
dences that the above large amount OF
money was judiciously expended on the
roads, he was not slow to observe where
many improvements were needed. APP
preaching San Gabriel, the road defiles
from the foothills to the valley, and
brings up in a slough which could be
cheaply and easily made passable by
simple culvert. Many other things
could be criticized along the line, but
the condition of the roads may be
summed up in the single sentence that
while some of the roads are desperately
bad, none of them are fairly good, more
especially when the $4,000 expended is
taken into consideration. The HERALD's
Alhambra correspondent some days
since took occasion to say the following
good thing Of Overseer Hall:
"Our roadmaster, Mr.. Hall, deserves
the thanks of the community for the
splendid condition of the roads of this
district. Mr.. Hall is awake to the
necessities of the roads with will"
At San Gabriel yesterday gentleman
openly stated that Overseer HALLS work
80 far as he had observed it, consisted in
dumping load of gravel occasionally in
some chuck hole. In inquiries made Of
numerous property holders on the roads
inspected, no one was found who did not
believe that the road fund had been most
shamefully misappropriated. If anyone
doubts that dishonest use of the peo-
ple's money is chargeable to the road
overseers, let him drive out of an after
noon over the stretch of road leading
from the County Hospital to the old Five
mile House. If he is a careful driver he
may escape without the loss of life or
limb, but he will have an abounding fear
for the length OF the drive and will never
again, except per force, founder through
the quagmires and over the ruts and hub
bles that meet him at every turn. The
road is not only uncomfortable for ami
NAL and driver but is absolutely unsafe.
With the naturally good bottoms which
all the roads have in this section, mod
crate expenditure Of money intelligently
made, would place them and keep them
in fine condition, and no valid excuse
can be made by the roadmaster or by
the Supervisor who is supposed to see
that the work is done, for their present
desperately bad condition.
The bridge which spans the Arroyo
Seco on the road to Pasadena is another
shining example of the wasteful expend-
iture of money and work-of stupidity
on the part of those in charge. This
bridge, which is less than one hundred
feet long, is approached at either end by
earth embankments, which would disap.
pear like the mist before the sun with
any sudden rising of the waters, or any
downpour of freshet. Any mighty
flood of the waters, which is not unlikely
to occur with the spring rains, would
sweep away the entire structures as if it
were a bridge of reeds. And yet, by the
Board of Supervisors, of the entire amount
of money appropriated for road work,
nearly IS per cent, or $32 900, in round
numbers, was made a special bridge
fund So far in his travels, the HERAr D's
Read Commissioner has counted but ten
bridges over the roads he has followed
OF this number one was about one hun
dred feet in length, as stated, one some
fifty feet long, and the remaing eight
from ten to sixteen feet long. They
were all most ordinary affairs and most
chenply constructed. What has become
of the bridge fund?
The HERALD's commissioner under
stands that Overseer Bell, of the Fruit
land district, is dissatisfied with his re-
port. This is what Mr.. Bell has to say
for himself:
EDITOR HERALD-I see in your paper of
the 9th an article on roads, in which you
couple nv name with the Road Oversesr
of San Antonio road district. The state
ment is false as far as my district is con-
cerned. don't know what was spent
in San Antonio. My district is Fruit
land and is not quite year old yet. only
made last February out of parts OF San
Antonio and Vernon. The Supervisors
took $500 from San Antonio and some
from Vernon for road fund for the new
district of Fruitland. Now, sir, from
this fund we bought our plows and gra-
der, and worked our roads; spent less
than $500 on roads, and our orders are
good yet for the balance of the fund that
is on hand. We have graded our
four miles of road and strawed
fall. Now, if your commissioner
will go with me over Fruitland Road
District will take pleasure in showing
him what We have done, for 1 am not
ashamed to show our work to any party
that the HERALD may select that under.
stands grading roads, Notwithstanding
what Mr.. G. G. Heigh says about work
naor the Occidental College, There was