Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1894-02-08

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small degree of credit The change from
| the old system of allowing road taxes to be
worked to out the requirement of the actual
| payment of the taxes III money. has resulted
in no slight Improvement in the character
| of the service secured The adjustment of
| surveyors of highways in road districts and
! the substitution in the respective towns of
| road commissioners who should devote their
| entire time, if necessary, to supervising the
| expenditure of the money realized from the
State and town road taxes, has also proved to
be wise measure 1t was customary before
| for taxpayers in the various districts to re
pair the roads when they could do no other
work to good advantage, and as II conse-
qucnce highway construction and repairs
were often carried on during the most UNI
! favorable season of the year for work of
| this nature. Now the commissioner has it
in his power to have labor performed during
the most favorable season, and where this
has been done the work has proved far more
satisfactory and scrviceablc than it did be-
| fore the passage of the new law.
In the direction of highway Improvement
as in other reform movements, however.
! seldom. if ever. attained at one bound and
it generally requires years. if not decades,
| to formulate a law or mold system SO that
it will afford general satisfaction in : oper-
alton The new law relating TO highways
| has been in force only short time, but that
it is defective and inadequate is shown by
| the reports made by road commissioners to
! Secretary of State Brownell. a number Of
which it has been our privilege to examine.
1t is evident that the law has failed to ac-
complish much that was expected from it
and that it does not 90 far enough in some
directions while in others it overshoots the
mark. 1t was supposed that under the in
huence of the operation of this law various
towns would unite in securing the services
of good road builder to direct
the work of highway construction
in such way that the Improvements
would be of more permanent character
than had been those accomplished in previ-
Gus years in most towns in the State. This
has not been done to any material extent. if
at all and the result is that compar-
atively little Improvement is noticeable III
the character of the new roadway construct
ed.
In some instances the funds realized from
the town and State road taxes have Eecn
| turned into the town treasury in common
| with other money and have been used for
the purchase of tools for use ON the high
ways, for supplies and other miscellaneous
purposes: whereas, it was plainly intended
that this money should be kept as separate
;,I Ia.
highways. Moreover. it was supposed that
the money derived by the various towns
from the State tax would he devoted eXcu-
sivcly to permanent road construction and
not to temporary repairs on the highways.
Judging from the experience of various
road commissioners during the past year, as
reported, the present road law is defective
in not being sufficiently definite to OBJ
viate a conflict between the commissioners
and selectmen as to the Interpretation of the
provisions of the law regarding the respect
i've powers and duties of each. This is evil
dent from the cases where seectmen have
constructed bridges and left the approaches
for the commissioners to provide. In some
instances high bridges have been put in
place, and neither the commissioners nor
the selectmen would eSpend funds in their
hands for the construction of proper APP
proaches, and the result is that approaches
strongly resembling a toboggan chute in
declivity are being used by the public in
many instances until the point in dispute
shall be decided.
The law says that approaches shall not
be built from the tax fund where a bridge
has span over four feet, but in cases where
the approaches ought to run back many
, rods. selectme1l have argued that the road
commissioner should take the work after
they had made barely passable approaches
, and carry them out to more reasonable
= grade.
In other instances where culverts of more
, than four feet span could and perhap,
should be reduced to the four foot limit il
+ width on account of the drying up of streams
l selectmen and road commissioners have
disagreed as to whose duty il was to builc
new culvert, each claiming that the re
: sponsibility devolved upon the other.
, Again, question has arisen AS to whether
the road commissioner salary should b,
paid out of the road tax or the genera
fund of the town. The question has alsc
| been asked whether the road commissioner
+ should settle his accounts with the select
= men. auditors some one else, WHERE
? repairs of highways We're plainly thei
duty under the law of the road commissions
p controersy has arisen as to whether TIN
selectmen had any right to advise OF direc
a in the matter.
A While these and other similar question
n may be very simple to some and while an
s swer, perhaps, may be legally provided 70
v in the law as its exists, the act should per
. nit of that easy Interpretation which woul'
: enable him who runs to read as well as I'm
{ derstand, The value of the law would b
# largely augmented if its provisions coul,
Il be carried out tremendously by all who ar
IS entrusted with its enforcement. and the Law
d should be changed as 10 remove all I'm
V certainty and promote its efficiency o
operation,
a While some of the commendable feature